Wow, this story is amazing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/...-nineteen-cops-showed-up/

This is so reflective of the Us vs. "them" problem in policing today. I worry that some police don't see themselves as part of the community or as responsible, accountable or even just needing to be polite to the residents / citizens they supposedly serve.

And if it really was a break in?

she even admits that she didnt immediately proclaim her residence. the police needed to secure the scene before conducting interviews.


you want to blame the cops for bad information? you want to blame them for sending 19 officers to a break in? what is your complaint here?

i suggest you try to put yourself in the shoes of a police officer where you deal with terrible fluff often and arnt respected as much as they should be. it aint an easy job. it is even harder with people blowing non events like this out of proportion. the cops wernt racist here, the caller was.

1. 19 cops to a potential burglary where even the caller (did you listen to the 911?) said it wasn't a big deal was wrong.

2. She tried to present ID and they refused to even look at it. She didn't match the caller's description at all.

3. If they had said why they were there, she could have easily explained she had a locksmith over after being locked out.

4. They have since repeatedly provided incorrect information about their response, their follow-up and their presence (self-contradictory).

5. You say the cops weren't racist, but REALLY? You think if she had been a 5'7" white girl they wouldn't have handled it differently? If so, you are nuts.

"the police needed to secure the scene before conducting interviews."

BTW, that is part of the problem. Officer safety matters, but the attitude of "first, assume everyone is trying to kill you, then later, maybe, if convenient, consider people's rights" is a bad attitude.

The cops have been empowered with high end equipment and clearly, here, too many resources on the scene. This emboldens them to consider the ACTUAL CITIZEN who was there to be worthless and only one more potential criminal.

When police don't view their job as a part of the community but rather as superior to the people of local community, this fluff happens.

This is fluffing SANTA MONICA, not Basra. Why would you even need 19 officers, guns, dogs, cars, etc. to respond to what the caller described (listen to the call)?

this is why we need robocop god damnit

OCP! OCP! OCP!

1. im not sure why the number of cops is a problem. it isnt like they have much more to do in santa monica. maybe you arnt familiar with over manned and funded police forces in low crime areas. responce is usually heavy out of boredom.

2.

3. im pretty sure they explained why they were there, and im also fairly certain that the author of this piece, that is dripping with distain, was not as cooperative as she is claiming. misunderstandings happen. the way they are handled determine a lot. both ways


4. you seem to have some hyper capable view of the police while at the same time claiming they are incompetent. it is entertaining. but i feel the need to point out that police forces are subject to the same failure of communication that every other organisation is. i can grantee you that every one of those officers wernt dispatched. some were just in the area and showed up.

5. you want the cops to approach every situation the same, but this isnt a movie. this is the real world. cops value their safety just like anyone else and it isnt racist to go along with statistics imo. dont like it? change the statistics. certian groups (not just blacks) are at times extremely combative with police officers, and it puts the officers on edge before a situation is even developed. I had a friend who was like this, and he always made traffic stops a nightmare. do i wish that wasnt the case? sure. but when a certain groups of people makes your job extremely difficult, you are going to treat them differently. the problem is with BOTH sides, and i dont really blame the majority of officers who are reasonably proactive in their safety.

the CALLER however was the one who started the profile. most of these situations start with terrible situational description from a terrible caller. Do you blame the swat team that breaks down a gamers door because he got "SWATted"? is this situation any different? you think it is different because the victim was black. that is the funny part. blame someone who is so fast to call the cops out of fear. not the cops for treating every situation involving a break in like it is dangerous.

you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the way police operate and why. you seem to have a clouded vision so im not too sure explaining things you assume away will be worth my time.

have fun making mountains out of mole hills, furthering the distrust between police and the populace through ignorance, and ironically contributing to the thing you are against.

I'll wager that none of you has ever been to Santa Monica before. Let me tell you about Santa Monica. It's a freakzone. There are more freaks per square mile in Santa Monica than any other place on the face of the earth. If you've got a vice, they've got ya covered there.

is this where you went to Rumspringa?
You are not very well traveled. You have never been to sanfrancisico or Berkley or along highway 1 north of san Francisco to the cal boarder.

Heston, you're a moron. I've been all over the world. A function of military service for the most part, but someone like you would have no concept of such a thing, I'm sure.

I used to work for a company headquartered in Santa Monica called System Development Corporation, arguably one of the first software houses in the world.

I can state with absolute certainty that I've been further than you ever have, by any measure.

I would not be so sure. They may or may not have explained. I do know however, that cops are not always upfront and do not always tell you exactly why. Especially when talking to someone that they are unsure who they are, friend or foe per se.

Several years ago, when cops walked into my house while I was asleep in my bed. I witnessed that first hand. They at first refused to even tell me why they were in my house. They only decided to tell me after I told them I seen no need to give them any more than basic info unless I knew why they were there. Seen no reason to be cooperative with them if they werent with me, especially when they were in my house, my private domain. End result was cooperation on both parts and I dont blame cops for what they did once I found out the cause for them being there.

I have also known cops to be purposely deceptive with my mom to scare her into giving info, which worked since my mom was totally clueless what was going on. We found out later how much they had lied. That was bit different scenario, but does show they are not always explaining reasons why.

However, I do still agree with most the rest of what you said nor really blame the cops in this situation too much. In fact I would actually be surprised if they had explained to her why they were there to begin with considering the situation, until they had more determined just who she was and whom they were dealing with.

The only good cop is a dead cop

fluff the police

go fluff yourself asshole.

the world would be better off without people like you.

Well, consider that before they got there they didn't know the person was black, so that had no impact on the size of their force or how they started the thing. The caller actually talked DOWN the situation basically saying it wasn't that big a deal but a couple cops should come check it out. He thought it was 1 hispanic male and 2 hispanic females.

The "discussion" is the funny part. She left her apartment promptly, she didn't resist. Outside she is surrounded by cops who AREN'T in the process of searching her apartment. She offers ID, it is refused. She asks what is going on, nobody will tell her. It isn't like she's behind the closed door demanding info before allowing entry. They just didn't care about her (a local citizen and resident) at all.

If there had been 2-3 cops responding (a more reasonable number) and they had been engaged in the active search, then it would make sense that they couldn't giver her more info until they were done.

You seem to want to argue that they had lots of bored officers with nothing to do but also that they were all too busy to show her any kind of respect.

And yes, I have been to Santa Monica multiple times. I used to live in the LA area as well.

they were rude to her? that is your current gripe? you understand that having time to respond to a call isnt the same as having time to serve your suspect tea while clearing the building right? she literally exited a structure police were responding to a break in while they were approaching. you dont think they should have had their guns out? would you approach that situation with your weapon holstered?

lets make the cops go to more sensitivity training for when you are responding to home invasion calls! feelings are more important than safety. lets also make the cops listen to every 911 call before they respond! cut the 911 operator and the dispatcher out of the picture all together! lets make sure the cops hang back and study the situation fully before they respond so butthurt people on the internet using hindsight can get over themselves. fluff responce time.

lets also put a cap of 2 officers that can respond to any situation. fluff backup. what assholes. 19 officers showing up to have each others back in a world where police are the enemy? what jerks.

like i said, you seem to have fundamental misunderstandings on the way police operate. you are crying about a non issue. she was not abused, it was straightened out, and it sounds like to me she was badgering the fluff out of the cops. it could have gone much worse. the misunderstanding had nothing to do with the cops, and it seems to me like they handled the situation well. you have only heard one side, and that is of a self righteous lady that is hunting for a payoff imo.

Wait they had a call for an active burglary with 3 described suspects and they only sent 19? If I call the cops and tell them there are 3 people burglarizing my home I expect 19 cops + a marine recon platoon, plus close air support.

Remember atryn, the officers never hear the call, they only hear the dispatcher. All the officers hear is burglary in progress, multiple suspects.

Overwhelming force protects both the officers and the suspects. I'm no fan of the American police state, but this incident did not seem excessive.

19 armed cops for a potential 3 person burglary, and they can't detail one person to question her and explain wtf is going on?

I think the issue is that you are taking an incredibly extreme view on one end of the spectrum, and refusing the consider the full circumstances.

With all the publicity over police actions recently, you'd think that they would be aware of these types of issues, and actively work to cut these things off at the pass before they go viral and spiral out of control...

This is stupid. Cops are supposed to stop what they are doing. Which is Responding to a potential hostile situation....to make sure that a woman is promptly talked too, pampered and over all taking the attention of the officers responding. Gtfo. Also they have to worry about videos that usually stary after an incident starts that never show the full story...and we expect them to be sensitive to everyones needs. Let them do there job how they see fit. The bad ones will weed themselves out

I am on one extreme.of the spectrum yet you use phrases like "armed cops" like there is any other possibility in the US.

You want them to leave their guns in the car?

I can just about grantee you only a few cops were involved in the raid and the rest milled about and interviewed meighbors. They probably didn't want to mess with the hysterical black lady screaming about racism following them around.

ROBOCOP / JUDGE DREDD 2016!

FTP ACAB
FUQ

Damn, Ford, you're right The world would be a better place without douchebags in it.

What I'm saying is that they sent 19 cops in(with guns zomg) and didn't stop to consider the impact that their handling of the situation would have. We're not even touching on illegal search and seizure, either, which we absolutely should be.

I am actually very very pro-police, and in general, I am the type to give them the benefit of the doubt, since I can't imagine what it must be like to do their jobs. From listening to one of my best friends talk about walking a beat, it ain't pretty. But at the same time, these cops flubbed in their duties. Sure, they don't know the exact situation, so they have to prepare for the worst. But once it was made clear that the neighbor was a fluffing moron, that there was a single black woman in the unit, WITH proper identification, and that these 3 hispanic people were nowhere to be found, they should have sat down with her and listened to her explanation, apologized for ruining her day, and moving on. Instead, they bungled it by not accepting her cooperation and not quickly dealing with the aftermath.

Did we read the same story? They did sit down with her after.



And before you say it, i doubt that was the first thing they said to her. This is a biased piece clearly.

And not accepting her cooperation? You mean when she was running around to random officers trying to get their badge numbers? Yeah. That is a good idea.

People interpret things different. Weather its the law or religion, there is no justice or peace. Just a bunch of dumb ass mother fluffers each with an opinion. People that say they are in the middle of the road politically are swayed by everyone and stand for nothing.
Carry on

The only racist I see in this story is the lady. Why is she identifying herself as black? Why does skin color matter? Why does she think that there is white on black violence and that it is racist? There is tons more black on black violence, I guess that does not matter.

If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.