How much force should police be allowed to use?

About 12 years ago, I personally was the victim of "officer road rage" and don't ever want anyone else to have to experience this. I was traveling 65 MPH in the fast lane when I was pulled over. The officer started the confrontation by yelling at me through my open window, accusing me of being on drugs. After running my plates and checking my license and insurance, he had me get out of the car, and yelled at me, face to face for two or three minutes, telling me he was going to take me down town and have me drug tested. The closest thing I can compare it to is the typical hollywood drill sergeant. I kept insisting I wasn't on drugs and the only thing I was potentially guilty of was not moving over when other speeders wanted to pass.

The confrontation ended by the officer forcing me to get into his cruiser and driving me to my home, inconveniencing me and costing me another hour to retrieve my car.

He never filed any charges and didn't take me "down town" for drug testing. I didn't even get a ticket.

The experience scared me quite badly and left me shaken. I was so intimidated I never asked for a badge number or name. I'm just grateful this officer did not have a "non-lethal" taser to assault me with.

Now, I'm sure this is, in general, an isolated incident.

I can certainly see some of your points of view. Having a husband, wife or other family member that is a cop certainly ups the ante for you when it comes to officer safety.

But, having watched this video three or four times, I can't arrive at any other conclusion than that this is a gross violation of civil rights and a bad bureaucratic system.

Let's clear up one thing that was stated in previous posts. If there's a video out there on youtube.com without sound, you should look for the version with sound, because it's available.

Two links to the story (both have sound):

• The actual footage from the officers dash cam.


• Interview on CNN with the Highway Patrol Rep and the victim.

The officer never explained how fast the gentleman was going. As far as I know, that has to be written on the ticket. Why would the officer not inform the guy of that? Every speeding ticket I've ever received, had the excess of posted speed limit and amount marked.

The officer never explained that signing the ticket "was not and admission of guilt". The officer never even told the gentleman he was under arrest before tasering him. He was just told to "turn around with your hands behind your back".

On the bureaucratic side, why is not signing a ticket an arrestable offense?

I have a question for the ladies who's husbands are police officers. Don't police officers have to inform the arrested of their rights anymore? Or, is reading the accused their rights just movie and television fluff? I'm not asking to be argumentative. I really want to know.

Also I've read that the "non-lethal" taser has killed more that 270 individuals in North America in the last 5 years. Granted, that figure doesn't take into account drug abusers that may have died as a result of their drugged state. An article put out by Wired Magazine suggests that a quarter of those deaths are attributed to the taser itself, but this is not substantiated, as autopsies are performed on less than half of the victims.

So, for me this boils down to, "Does a routine speeding ticket merit use of possibly-lethal force?" I think not.

I'd love to hear your input.

Are Home-Schoolers and Ron Paul Supporters Terrorists?

I'm sitting in my bedroom office, the day after Thanks Giving enjoying the lovely morning, sun streaming through the blinds, joy in my heart. Catching up on my email, when I read the following about US House bill H-1955 which has recently passed. I decided to send this email to you because I think it's important for everyone to know about this bill.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1955/show
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/20/1458214
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3388/examining_the_homegrown_terrorism_prevention_act/

If that doesn't scare you and perhaps normally it wouldn't, I mean, who doesn't want to be protected against "extremist belief system(s) for the purpose of facilitating ideologically-based violence" against the general populace. But what, indeed, is considered an "extremist belief system" or "ideological". The bill sets up to provide a grant system to prevent this type of activity. Below are a couple links that make this bill particularly disturbing and personal to me and my family.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/homeschool-terrorism.htm

In the article, the author of the disaster simulation script said that the general idea for the type of group (a group of homeschooling radicals labeled "Wackos Against Schools and Education"), came from the website of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which suggests group names such as "Wackos Against Recreation" and other such "causes."

I've heard and read many negative things about FEMA but the following video clip from a FEMA training takes the cake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPg9MdN9Gio

One might ask the question, "Is that really a FEMA training video? or just a propaganda video put out by an ant-FEMA group?" Good question, I've asked it myself.

More alarming, recently I've listened to my "trusted radio friend", Glen Beck, refer to Ron Paul contributers as possible terrorists and islamo-fascist type peoples. On another occasion I listened to him compare us to Timothy McVey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rc4OJWH1nE

If you are not alert to what is happening in this country, I sincerely urge you to become so.

You can start by researching recent executive orders at http://www.whitehouse.gov, the NAU (North American Union), the SPP (security and prosperity partnership), Homeland Security, FEMA, etc.

Some questions I have to ask myself recently are:

• "Why doesn't the government want our borders secure? And amnesty for illegals?"
  
  
• "If the guy who just served me lunch at McDonalds was able to sneak into this country illegally in the last year, and there are sophisticated terrorist cells with high technology requiring our involvement in IRAQ, why have we not seen any terrorist attacks here since 2001?"
  
  
• "Why has the value of the US dollar decreased 30%, in the last 5 years, against a majority of other world currencies?"
  
  
• "Why was the European Union created against the will of most Europeans? And could this be happening here with the NAU?"
  
  
• "What can I do about these issues?"
  

I'd love to hear your input and thoughts.