Sadly, I have many friends with similar stories from police departments in different places. I attribute the officer's behavior to constantly being surrounded by violence. If everyday, most people around you are violent unreasonable delinquents that want to hurt you, then you start developing personality characteristics to compensate and survive that environment. Add to this the types of personalities that are attracted to this line of work, and things start getting a bit more clear.

I am not trying to justify or even imply that it is correct behavior from the police or that "all police officers are [x] or [y]", but from direct and indirect experience this story doesn't fully surprise me ( I don't think it is right though).

I don't think the conclusions at the end of the blog post are correct though. Not calling 911 or even using lyft to go to the hospital seems like bad rules that are imposed to avoid interacting with the police. A better rule of thumb is to just minimize your dialogue with the police to the bare minimum and keep any intellectual/ironic/satirical comment to yourself. All my friends that have experienced something like this is because they made a smart ass comment in an situation prior to them knowing how fast these things can go downhill.

Police brutality is terrible and should be eliminated from our society. Hopefully the proliferation of officer mounted, always-on cameras can help minimize it. We should continued to do what we can to minimize it and should pay attention to stories like this one.

This story invokes emotion but even after he released all the documents it still doesn't ring true. Part of it is the language used and the overly cautious structure about his thoughts and actions. The following paragraph just didn't seem like a true representation of his thought process:

"Rich SOMA, poor SOMA. My instinct was to make this distinction go away, to show them I know our neighborhood is more complicated than that. To connect on human terms. I told them that it was an early stage startup; I’m doing this because I feel it’s a way to make the world around me better, to bring people joy through better food. I live here, right on this block, in a loving home with 16 roommates. I love this community. I asked them where they lived. And they responded in unison: “Far away! We can’t afford to live here.”"

This was posted previously and drew a mountain (793) of comments [0], including mine [1].

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7233730

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7235079

> She turned to me and abruptly said that I was not needed as a witness and should leave immediately.

"I then walked home." should have been the next line, and I'm fairly sure the author knows it.

That doesn't excuse what the officers did, but it's not "being a good Samaritan" that backfired. Being nosy is the part that didn't end well.

I'm not even sure the use of force wasn't justified - even in this immensely biased account, he mentions being told to back away by the officers. What are they supposed to do when you ignore them?

So of course he should not have been treated that way, and he has my sympathy.

But nowhere in his account is any recognition that this happens to lots and lots of people all the time, it's not special.

The cops are surprised that he's expecting to be treated with dignity and respect, because they aren't used to treating people with dignity and respect, it's not what they do. It's just that usually this isn't directed at well-off white people.

So there are two ways your reaction can go, when you're a well off white person who gets caught in that crap. 1) _I_ don't deserve to be treated this way, because I'm different, and I demand justice. 2) _Nobody_ deserves to be treated this way, and those people who normally get treated this way are _no different_ than me and don't deserve to be either, and I'm going to use what I've got to try and make it so.

The OP is full of me, me, I, I, and what makes him such a person that didn't deserve to be treated like this. Nope, he didn't, neither does _anyone else ever_, and _most_ people who are treated like that are not like him, and it's not a one-time thing either, and frequently has worse consequences than a night in jail. You think the officer would have agreed that he "never should have been there" if he had looked like most of the other people in those cells?

The HN lens has certainly been showing the US police force in a bad light over the last year or so. What are the origins of this strange behaviour? Why is force regularly used against people that verbally query the police? Even the army is trained to use dialogue where possible. It does sound like cameras will help but surely good and regular training programs should encourage good engagement with citizens.

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7233730

Interestingly, the same kind of stuff lead to a few scandals in China, where injured people where ignored by a host of bystander, apparently by fear of legal pursuits (which is something that had happened earlier to some people helping traffic victims).

This is obnoxious. Dude did not need to be put in solitary, but he also didn't need to stay 15 feet from an accident scene that involved police and EMTs, how is he helping anything? He hurt his elbow recently so he had to stay involved at 1 AM?

And for real, what do you expect riding on handlebars in the city at 12:30? Sounds like a great, sober idea!

repost, but looks like the article was fleshed out some more since I last saw it on HN. Included recording of 911 call, which I'm curious how he obtained.

There is some bad advice at the end of this: recommending Lyft as an alternative to calling 911.

First of all, Lyft doesn't exist in most places; not everybody lives in San Francisco.

Second, moving people who have had an accident without proper medical knowledge and procedures and equipment can often make their condition worse. The author does say there are exceptions to his "don't call 911" rule, but he says "they are fewer than you think". Is he claiming that this particular situation was, or wasn't, one of the exceptions? If it was, then how does this situation support the rule? If it wasn't, he's taking on a lot more responsibility; sure, maybe calling Lyft "worked fine" for him when he broke his elbow, but was that because he showed good judgment or because he got lucky? Would it have "worked fine" for the people who got hurt in this scenario?

I had a law professor who told our class, "If a police officer throws me on the ground and tells me to eat dirt. I get on the ground and eat dirt." Point being that it doesn't matter if the law is on your side at that moment or not, that is not the time to argue. Take it up in court later.

this dude. by his own admission he, 1. had been drinking, was potentially drunk 2. disobeyed police officers at scene of accident 3. provoked the guards of the holding cell

police can be thug-ish but this guy is not exactly a posterchild for innocent bystander. I find his thinly veiled sense of entitlement ('I can't have done anything wrong... I work for a non-profit!') pretty obnoxious. There are many victims of police or prosecutorial misconduct out there far more deserving of attention or sympathy. sadly they don't blog.

https://www.aclu.org/donate/join-renew-give

One thing to remember: do what they say, and complain later.

This helps give police departments something they can use against rogue officers. It keeps you safer - you are not as likely to get shot or crushed to death by police after writing a letter than after complaining about what they're telling you.

Yes, you shouldn't have to do this and no, police shouldn't feel that they can do what they like. But "don't talk to the police" applies strongly in the OP story.

How does "Hello Sir," imply that "Oh yeah, he’s going to be a problem."?

Officer Kaur, should you read this: thank you for doing your job, for regularly exposing yourself to great risk in the line of duty, and for carrying on in spite of interactions you must endure with all manner of bozos (including, as we are now aware, over-privileged, self-righteous, know-it-alls).

Does anyone have a summary?