I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me (opens in new tab)

I sincerely hope that the vast majority of law enforcement DOES NOT HOLD an authoritarian view like that. That's just "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" from dragnet surveillance, DUI checkpoints, and stop-and-frisk, but phrased slightly differently. In short, it's a distinctly un-American and anti-Constitutional viewpoint. "Cooperate with me, I have a gun" - distinctly not a rule-of-law ethos, but more of a might-makes-right ethos, and ethos that should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

I don't think any of those actions except the last one could be considered a legitimate reason to "shoot, taser or pepper-spray" somebody. Isn't that exactly what this whole controversy is about?

As soon as that part is lost 'to protect and serve' (or whatever the local variation is) becomes a hollow slogan.

When I was a kid I was taught that police were to be respected at all times because they have dangerous jobs and are first responders when you need them. Nowadays I'm not so sure that I should trust police, respect them often enough much less (my few interactions with police have been with a few exceptions quite the little displays of 'we have power over you and you'll know it'). I've seen first hand corruption, bribe solicitation, abuse of power and a refusal to actually do the work they were hired for in the first place. I wished I could re-gain my childhood respect for the police forces of the world but they're going to have to work really hard to get that.

I understand we're "taking care of the bad guys", but we're still murdering them when we drop a 500 lbs pound, laser-guided bomb on them. You can call it defense or protection or whatever you want, we still have to murder them(in the most extreme cases) to achieve the goal.

We have entire apparatus set up to accomplish that end goal. We call them departments or agencies or branches. Department of Defense, National Security Agency, Marines, Army, National Guard, etc.

All to murder people. So the idea that somehow you as a protestor are going to overcome all that apparatus by throwing a molotov cocktail at a police officer(again, the terminus in a very large murder apparatus) is so appallingly stupid that I can't help but side with apparatus itself.

Governments have a monopoly on violence, you will lose. You need to find a different way to communicate your anger.

So if a cop says "I'm a cop. If you don't want to get hurt, don't challenge me." he's right. Not morally, but logically.

Also lest you forget, "Never talk to police": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

If you do what the officer tells you to, 100% of the time without question, you will self-incriminate. You will surrender your rights. You will answer questions without an attorney. You will NOT answer questions, without verbally exercising your right to remain silent - and shockingly, that can be used against you as evidence. You can't answer some questions and not answer others - there is no such thing as selectively exercising your right to remain silent. (Other than your name, and probably address, etc.) If you answer some questions, and don't answer others, that can be used against you.

The jobs that cops do is impossibly hard. I mean that, impossible. It is not possible to always defend the rights of people, and always collect evidence to prosecute. Those are competing goals.

But the advice, "do what the officer tells you," is not good advice.

I am not a lawyer, and your results may vary.

And as we all know, this rule has never been violated before.

Not convincing. Can he argue that no people with sadistic tendencies work in police just because it offers them a "lawful" way express their cruelty?

Bullshit.

Is this satire? How can anybody hold this viewpoint and not think of themselves as human garbage.

Maybe it's the rebellious spirit still lingering, but there is only one hard cold fact in there. We DO pay their salary! The rest of the things I wouldn't say to my worst enemy. However I find it funny that when talking about law enforcement stating that specific fact turns into a threat...

Also, it's not true that if you cooperate cops won't be violent with you, just see some episodes of the tv show "cops", if that's what they do on camera, what do they do off camera?

(from what I remember: hitting and laughing at a drunk while he was already in the cell, bringing down a guy because he had priors, hitting a guy because he looked back when he was told not to etc)

Therefore, the author reasonably concludes that it's wise to cooperate or at least remain calm.

There's are separate moral and policy questions, of course, that can hopefully reduce violence in police encounters. Technology plays a role here, too.

So unfortunately, electing not to speak with the cops (I suggest this in most cases after volunteering basic information) or otherwise challenging them, enrages the human inside them, and not the lawful civic steward they are acting in the capacity of. Further, complaining to them about them, is impossible.

So in essence, submitting to a cop could be reasonable, however, the vast majority of these viral incidents occur when a cop is possibly over-reaching in his authority and is a single officer on the scene. This is not really addressed.

...

"Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you."

Even though I'd recommend not antagonizing cops just from a personal safety standpoint, this really rubs me the wrong way.

Most of the times this topic is broached from the point of view of the cops, it seems like there's shockingly little empathy for those on the receiving end of police violence, and that the justification for such violence is they were asking for it.

You too make mistakes: http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/04/11/tosh-0-producer-acci...

That only works if people actually believe the first sentence represents reality. Given the number of don't-talk-to-cops posts I've come across I doubt that it is.