As policing in the United States continues its downward spiral into thuggery people are finally starting to fight back. More people are recording police encounters to hold officers accountable. Demands are being made in many major cities to curtail police powers. And in a few places people are actively interfering in police attempts at kidnapping. All of this has many of the more psychopathic officers upset:
Whatever the reason, Melbourne police are grateful that for the second time in recent weeks experience and training overcame fear as officers found themselves surrounded and assaulted by hostile anti-police crowds.
This Friday night, Lt. Steve Sadoff saw 22-year-old Phoenix Chansler Low coming out of the Main Street Pub with an open container.
“The officer told him to go back inside or get rid of it,” said Melbourne Police Commander Dan Lynch. “From there it went downhill. The subject was very intoxicated and he began fighting with the officer.”
The scary thing was what happened next. A crowd of people started closing in on Lt. Sadoff and he was attacked from behind, Lynch said. Sadoff used his taser to get Low off him, and it scared the crowd away long enough for him to radio for help and make the arrest.
The person who attacked Sadoff from behind got away.
The “touch on crime” crowd want you to focus on the fact that an officer was attacked and not the fact that the officer initiated the situation by getting in the face of a person who had performed no crime (carrying an open alcohol container outside of a bar does not involve a victim and is therefore not a crime). Had the officer let the patron be nothing would have happened.
“This is the second incident in the past few weeks where officers were making an arrest and the arrestee or people around attempted to interfere with the officer attempting to do his job,” Lynch said. “It is tremendously concerning to us. Every confrontation an officer has is an armed confrontation and the officers are trained to use the minimal amount of force necessary.”
No, this is the second incident in the past few weeks where people prevented officers from kidnapping somebody. People are getting fed up with unaccountable police officers kidnapping and shooting people who haven’t hurt anybody. Decades of little police accountability combine with officers who enjoy power trips has eroded the public’s faith in modern policing. Since they lack faith in the institution they are unwilling to cooperate with it. If officers are really becoming concerned about this trend then they should start taking measures to regain the public’s trust. That starts with refusing to enforce victimless crimes and actually using minimum necessary force to resolve situations (not just talking about it).
About effing time! Cops have been acting like everyone is their little serfs for far too long. I consider them worse than private criminals because they have a sanctimonious attitude behind their rampages.
Is the American populace growing a set of balls again? We can only hope.