I think there’s something wrong with you.

There is nothing “wrong” with me. But there is something deeply flawed about you if you can’t tolerate the idea that someone views things differently than you do.

I’m not impressed by your critical thinking skills

They’re not there to impress you, but thanks for noting I do have them. Might want to get some of your own. You last posting, with it’s contradictions and assumptions stated as facts, certainly shows you lack them.

I’ll probably just avoid you from now on

I’d appreciate that. You won’t be missed.

I think there’s something wrong with you.

A young woman jaywalks. According to the cops she had to be physically apprehended because she “refused” to obey when an officer shouted at her to stop and identify herself. This is the cops’ story and you can decide whether to believe it or not.

An eyewitness claims he saw the woman wearing earphones crossing the street as the officer shouted at her. The eyewitness offers the conjecture that the jaywalker did not obey the officer’s command because she did not hear him because of the earphones. Of course, as with the cops, you can decide whether to believe him and consider his conjecture or not.

Below, taken from the KUT story, is a picture of the young woman, sitting on the ground, earphones hanging around her neck, with two cops standing over her. Keep in mind that she was jaywalking. She is unarmed and does not have a physical appearance that would typically be described as threatening. Common sense tells pretty much any reasonable person what the likely story was, even though you could try cast doubt on any conclusion drawn, if you were enough of an asshole to want to waste time doing so.

You characterized everyone who bothered to engage your pathetic fucking argument as having the following position:
“Hey, let’s always blame the cops”.

That’s not what we were doing though. None of us. In this specific case, (and muselet has already pointed this out to you, asshole) we think the cops abused authority in order to apprehend a fucking jaywalker.

You went from making a jackass of yourself to being a nitpicking asshole. Here — let me clear something up for you: I’m not impressed by your critical thinking skills or your ability to argue. At this point, I just think you’re an annoying asshole, and I’ll probably just avoid you from now on.

Disqus only threads so far, so it gets difficult after a while to see which comment is a reply to which. So I’m not clear on which of my statements you see ambiguity in. Although I believe I’ve been quite clear all along.

You’ve actually, as I noted before, been fairly reasonable in this exchange, muselet. So it’s unfortunate you resort to the personal attacks when you make a wrong assumption and seem to have difficulty comprehending what I wrote. See, that kind of exchange gets us nowhere.

I assumed you were making a global statement about all law enforcement officers at all times. If you were referring only to the two Austin PD officers on the video, I got caught by the slight ambiguity in your comment. But you knew that, given what—and how—I wrote.

Or maybe not, as reading comprehension doesn’t seem to be your strong suit. I wasn’t accusing you of anything. I clearly said that on request I could produce a rant about law enforcement officers in general but more than likely wouldn’t.

This discussion is going in circles and it wearies me. If you want to have the last word, feel free. I’m done.

–alopecia

I’m not blaming “the cops.” I’m saying—repeatedly and in words of very few syllables—these two specific, individual cops cocked up this specific encounter with a member of the public.

You’re not blaming the cops, just saying it’s the cops who were at fault here. Got it.

I’m not blaming them either, nor am I absolving them. What I’ve said – repeatedly and in words of very few syllables – is that from the video and Quintero’s description (which are ALL that we have to go on) it is impossible to tell why this became more than it should have been. The jogger’s behavior should at least give one pause.

And, yet, folks still gravitate toward laying the entire responsibility on the cops, and clearly get quite defensive and abusive when someone suggests that might not be appropriate.

(And I find it amusing that you’d accuse me of “rant[ing] about ‘the cops'” while I’m also being cast (incorrectly) in the role of absolving them. IF anyone has been ranting about the big, bad cops, it hasn’t been me.)

You’re plainly being a dick.

Because I point out there isn’t enough info available to make a conclusion? Shame on me.

That’s not what muselet or mr brink or anyone else here has tried to do.

muselet starts by calling the police officers “authoritarian arseholes” and “undersmart” who should be fired, but does have the character to admit he overstated a bit and explain why he finds fault with them).

mr brink has added nothing to the discussion but what he “imagines” and personal attacks.

You, at least, acknowledge the students are being dangerous and breaking the law, but then fall back on it being entirely the officers who are soley responsible when one of these danger-creating lawbreakers gets stopped and starts to whine about it. And then flee the discussion when asked just, exactly, what the officers were supposed to do differently when someone runs from them.

As for “anyone else here”, muselet, brink and you were to only ones talking about what the officers did so there, again, you’re just making things up.

Law enforcement officers are supposedly trained not to let situations escalate. These two failed at that task. That’s incompetence.

Indeed they are and they should be trying to avoid escalation. But they can’t do that if the person they stop is insistent on being uncooperative or combative. I’m not saying that *is* what happened here. I’m pointing out repeatedly that we don’t know.

What we do know is the jogger didn’t respond to a verbal command to stop, ran away from the officers (understandable if she didn’t hear them, but she did “flee”), and resisted when physically stopped.

If she stopped once she saw it was a uniformed officer and he continued to hold onto her when it should have been clear she wasn’t going to run, then, yeah, bad judgment on the officer’s part. If she was uncooperative and the officer’s experience told him he needed to keep her held to avoid the risk of her fleeing, then he acted appropriately.

But we don’t know how that part went down and it is unfair and incorrect to say that the officer was “incompetent” when it escalating could have been the jogger’s fault.

Ha! ‘You got the goods…’ That Fuzz The Musical sketch is probably my favorite. We used to have little Mr. Show watching nerd parties and some of the funniest people I’ve ever known along the way would be there and we’d all be laughing and riffing along and reciting bits for laughs later. Some of the hardest laughs in my life happened while watching Mr. Show with good friends.

At this point, you’re arguing for the sake of arguing.

I’m not blaming “the cops.” I’m saying—repeatedly and in words of very few syllables—these two specific, individual cops cocked up this specific encounter with a member of the public. If you want a rant about “the cops,” I could oblige you, but it’s more likely I’d tell you to go piss up a rope.

I’m not anti-police. I’m anti-authoritarian arsehole (which I believe you’ll find is where we came in).

Good night.

–alopecia

God I love Ronnie Dobbs. And I miss Mr. Show so much.