Also, feel free to verbally harass cops when you have interactions with them. It’s your right! Be sure to let us know how it goes after you’re released.

I have no intention of “roll[ing] over and display[ing] submissive behavior” (nice strawman and false choice rolled into one, there.) If you can’t see any middle ground between insulting people and bootlicking, well, that’s YOUR problem, not mine, and ISTM you are the one with the problem arguing.

getting back to col. arpaio’s coup – whoops, meant to say “sheriff arpaio” – i think elambend makes an interesting point: what does the governor have to say about this? or the legislature? since el commandante maximo arpaio is making a move on the superior courts’ files, i can’t imagine *they’ll* be too pleased. the only organization more insistent upon instant obedience (or else!) than the cops is the courts.

this could get interesting. who’d win in a fight between the phoenix PD and the national guard?

Rick, great clip. I liked how the guy found religion when told the ticket was $137. I hope Bill Clinton worked out for him.

As for your point 3, are you serious? Obviously “contempt of cop” isn’t an actual enumerated crime. Are you being coy, or are you unaware that “disorderly conduct” is generally a BS charge that cops use because someone pissed ‘em off? I don’t approve of that, either, but, again, I’m not stupid enough (apparently unlike a Hahvahd prof) to hassle a cop to the point of getting myself arrested.

What’s going on here is that everyone involved covered themselves with the opposite of glory. Then again, if Gates hadn’t opened his front door with a chip on his shoulder, and said, “why sure, officer, I understand why you’re out here; here’s my ID. Please call the campus cops for additional verification of my identity” then the situation would’ve been completely different. I have no idea what Crowley’s attitude was before he knocked on the door, but right or wrong, Gates made it worse. Is there a way they can both lose? But your comments imply you want to make it all Crowley’s fault for picking on the poor innocent professor, and that’s almost certainly not the case.

Let me give you an actual example of a vaguely similar situation that ended dramatically differently. I got pulled over by a cop early July for driving with an expired inspection sticker. By the time the cop radioed back to HQ and walked up to me, I had my window down, the engine off, and my license and registration ready. Was I pissed that I got stopped for such a BS thing? Somewhat, altho it was mitigated by the fact that it was, in fact, my fault for failing to get the inspection on time. Did I open up by “why are you stopping me, pig? Have you caught all the murderers and rapists?” Of course not. Why? Because I don’t feel like getting arrested, and in a similar manner to the way I wouldn’t feel comfortable insulting a mugger.

I don’t disagree with you AT ALL about cops being overbearing, and in a desperate attempt to wrench some topicality out of this, I see Sheriff Joe’s actions as something much more worthy of concern.

Frankly I think http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6791959446828923055 is a MUCH more interesting/less abusive way of dealing with an irate citizen than what Crowley did.

Sheriff Joe’s right-hand man, Chief Deputy David Hendershott used impeccable logic in explaining why the MCSO took over the computer. “We felt intrusion (into the system) was imminent,” Hendershott said.

This argument is reminiscent of Obama’s arguments for takeover of 16 percent of the US economy in the form of our Health Care system. The difference, of course, is that the courts can stop Hendershott.

Hendershott may soon find himself on the wrong side of some jail cell bars if the does not tell the hearing judge what the new system password is.

1) “of *course* the other cops stood up for him”. yeah, they did – just like they always do. they’ll always back the cop, each and every time, no matter what the facts of the case are. rather like….oh….rather like mob guys do. or crips. or motorcycle gangs. do we really want our cops aping the code of “honor” of biker gangs? are we really going to accept that cops will perjure themselves rather than tell the truth about other cops? sorta makes that whole “cops whining about the ‘don’t snitch’ culture of the inner city” seem a little *ironic*, don’t it?

2) “gates was arrested outside his home” because supercop lured him out. supercop knew he couldn’t make an arrest as long as gates was in his own home, so he said “c’mon out and let’s talk about it.” gates, being the leftwing moron he is, foolishly accepted. a harvard professor actually made the idiotic mistake of thinking a cop was speaking the truth to him. amazing but true.

3) “he was arrested for contempt of cop”. funny, i’m not familiar with that law. does it have a legitimate penal code? like murder? or breaking and entering? are there legally defined parameters for that offense? no? it’s really a made-up BS charge, randomly and unevenly enforced at each cop’s individual discretion? so unless we speak to the cops with sniveling deference and toadying ass-kissing, we’re in danger of being arrested on a made-up charge? is that why the founders started this country? so we could all suck up to the cops?

THAT’S my point, rick: we have out-of-control cops using lies and police-state methods as their primary tools. and they’ve been doing so (and getting away with it) for so long now, they’re entirely comfortable with using those methods on elderly homeowners who have no criminal record, now. what do you think they’ll be doing in 10 years? 20? i’ve seen cops doing full-blown, guns drawn ‘felony stops’ on cars driven by grampaws and high-school girls in pom-pom outfits. will they start preemptively tasering everybody in the car next? in the name of “officer safety”, of course?