New Maryland Police "Reform"

[chasfm11]

This one looks like a hot topic on today's news
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/m ... eform.html

I have some personal ties to MD. I had part of the State in my territory when I worked out of Wilmington, DE. I drove through the Eastern Shore and knew it to be red neck heaven (at least then) and completely unlike Baltimore. Western Maryland is more like the Eastern Shore that the more populous sections. I wonder how this kind of thing is going to affect the State overall.

This is what the community wants — they want reform, they want transparency, and they want accountability,” said Caylin A. Young, public policy director of the A.C.L.U. of Maryland, which was part of a coalition of 90 groups that had backed the bills. “There needs to be a reimagining of what policing in Maryland looks like.”

[Deitz83]

Saw a video of police officer pepper spraying a LT of the U.S Army over the weekend. I will wait until facts come out in order to determine if the LT was at fault or was it just that the officer had a bad day and just took out his frustrations on a person that serves our country. It only takes one bad apple to give others a false sense of trust.

[srothstein]

Saw a video of police officer pepper spraying a LT of the U.S Army over the weekend. I will wait until facts come out in order to determine if the LT was at fault or was it just that the officer had a bad day and just took out his frustrations on a person that serves our country. It only takes one bad apple to give others a false sense of trust.

I am not sure, but I do know that a part of it is the common belief (supported by some police videos) that you do not need to pull over immediately when the officer hits the reds, that you can continue to drive until you find a safe well lit place to pull into. I know that in many cases this is good advice and most officers will understand. The repors I have heard claim this is what the LT did. The problem is that it is against the law and can be construed as either failure to yield to an emergency vehicle (a ticket in Texas) or as an attempt to elude police in a motor vehicle (a felony in Texas). In this case those reports say that the officer claimed he attempted to elude and then performed a felony stop on the vehicle. This included the LT not responding immediately to commands and getting pepper sprayed. The LT is claiming racial profiling, the officer is claiming an attempt to elude.

I do not know which is true. I am willing to bet there is a combination of both and the truth is somewhere in the middle. I know there are bad people in the Army, I spent two years guarding some. I also know there are bad cops out there that overreact and/or are prejudiced.

Regardless of which is true in this case, the officer has already been fired over it. I cannot take that to mean anything in relation to the case except that the agency is afraid of the publicity or riots (like in Minneapolis over their latest shooting).