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Cops 101: NYC High School Teaches How To Behave During Stop-and-Frisk
HughPickens.com writes Kate Briquelet reports in the NY Post that Principal Mark Federman of East Side Community HS has invited the New York Civil Liberties Union to give a two-day training session to 450 students on interacting with police. "We're not going to candy-coat things — we have a problem in our city that's affecting young men of color and all of our students," says Federman.
"It's not about the police being bad. This isn't anti-police as much as it's pro-young people ... It's about what to do when kids are put in a position where they feel powerless and uncomfortable." The hourlong workshops — held in small classroom sessions during advisory periods — focused on the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program and how to exercise Fourth Amendment rights when being stopped and questioned in a car or at home.
Some law-enforcement experts say the NYCLU is going beyond civics lessons and doling out criminal-defense advice. "It's unlikely that a high school student would come away with any other conclusion than the police are a fearful group to be avoided at all costs," says Eugene O'Donnell, a former police officer and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. NYCLU representatives told kids to be polite and to keep their hands out of their pockets. But they also told students they don't have to show ID or consent to searches, that it's best to remain silent, and how to file a complaint against an officer. Candis Tolliver, NYCLU's associate director for advocacy, says was the first time she trained an entire high school. "This is not about teaching kids how to get away with a crime or being disrespectful. This is about making sure both sides are walking away from the situation safe and in control."
Some law-enforcement experts say the NYCLU is going beyond civics lessons and doling out criminal-defense advice. "It's unlikely that a high school student would come away with any other conclusion than the police are a fearful group to be avoided at all costs," says Eugene O'Donnell, a former police officer and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. NYCLU representatives told kids to be polite and to keep their hands out of their pockets. But they also told students they don't have to show ID or consent to searches, that it's best to remain silent, and how to file a complaint against an officer. Candis Tolliver, NYCLU's associate director for advocacy, says was the first time she trained an entire high school. "This is not about teaching kids how to get away with a crime or being disrespectful. This is about making sure both sides are walking away from the situation safe and in control."
So, the suggestion is that we should allow the police to illegally stop and search us until we can be in a safer environment to tell them they're doing something illegal?
No, sorry.
I propose something else: all police wear cameras and audio recording 100% of the time, and a zero tolerance for police who do not adhere to the law, and dismissal/criminal charges are the outcome. Any police officer who turned off his recording stuff is presumed to be lying.
How about we weed out the assholes and the ones who don't know what the law says instead of making the citizens all act like scared, compliant sheep?
By the time they've dragged your ass into court, they've already fabricated their evidence and come up with the lies they'll all tell.
It really is time to stop giving police the benefit of the doubt, because it's more than a "few" police officers who do this stuff.
The reality is, an increasing number of police either don't know or don't care what the law says. They just do whatever they want because they have the guns and badges.
It's time to fix that.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Their first concern is to not get shot in the head. Teaching kids that they need to obey lawful orders and recognize unlawful ones is the right approach. If your rights are violated you deal with it later, not when a nervous person holding a gun is telling you what to do.
This. Specially for inexperienced teenagers who, for whatever fucksake reasons (biological maturity, society, etc) might (will) lack the social, communication and cognitive skills for de-escalation and negotiation that adults (should/typically) have.
Consent and litigate later, or know how to not consent without getting killed. OTH, if a 200+lbs person in a position of power wants to strangle a 100lbs handcuffed crying teenager on the back of his patrol car, there is nothing that kid can do.
^^^ And I say this because I witnessed it on a park right in front of my house. I was sitting on a bench in front of my house near a tree when a patrol car stopped there (some investigation going on, whatever.) The car parked, the officer, a gorilla of a man, got out of the driver's seat, went to the back and started chocking the shit out of this kid.
He stopped when his partner nodded to him that there were people (me) watching. They took off, God knows where.
I'm not making this shit up, and this was with my house in one of the supposedly nice, upper middle class neighborhoods in South Florida. Just imagine the type of crap that occurs in less affluent neighborhoods.
"It's unlikely that a high school student would come away with any other conclusion than the police are a fearful group to be avoided at all costs,"
That's EXACTLY what the police are these days and if you claim otherwise you are either a pro-police and pro-police state shill or hopelessly naive about the current state law enforcement and Criminal Justice inAmerica that is more focused on creating criminals so they can imprison people and confiscate property than keeping people safe. I myself am a white guy in my early 40s and have had Criminal Justice delivered unto me. My crime? Stepping outside to my home after a few drinks to talk to a police officer regarding a public disturbance. I was immediately cuffed without cause, hauled off to jail and when I asked why I was arrested, I was choked, stomped on, pinned down by 4 officers and suffocated till I nearly passed out from asphyxiation. I am now facing criminal charges for "public intoxication" and "obstruction of justice". And have to spend several thousand in legal costs to defend myself in court. A very high price to pay for trying to be a good samaritan. So yes -- fear the police And for fucks sake, avoid them at all costs.