I wonder how the people who are SURE that this is an incident where the professor is lying to falsely accuse others of racism will react to this. Because the evidence seems to be piling on that the cops were indeed ill intentioned here.

It always surprises me that cops get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to assumptions of truth. Lying seems to be standard operating procedure when one is on a police force and needs to cover one's ass (insert here: obligatory acknowledgment that not all cops are bad cops, along with obvious claim that even "good cops" seem willing to lie to protect "bad cops") .

I speak from experience when I say it's really hard to work with people who have your back and may in fact make the difference between you getting hurt or not getting hurt if your not 100% on their side at all times.

I can't speak for any else's experience but myself I had many situations where when writing reports or being questioned after the fact I really didn't have a clear view of the incident or was engaged in conversation with another subject therefore I didn't hear what was said.

I've also had many conversations that went something like "Don't ever fucking put me in that position again, you won't like the report I write. Want to act like a cowboy? Do it before or after I'm on scene. Got it!?!"

I appreciate this comment :). These types of details rarely come through in union rep statements.

It's a complex issue. I think more so then most people realize. The number of times a citizen will file a BS complaint because they didn't like getting a ticket your being arrested is pretty damn high. Dash cams and cruise voice recorders have saved many officer a lot of grief and several their jobs.

I also think it's not fair to say good cop and bad cop. Sure there are bad cops, no doubt. But the vast majority are just trying to do their job. You never deliver good news, ever. 20+ years never once did I get a call that said "would you please go inform ______ they won the lottery?" No you get calls like "Execute arrest warrant on _____ for _____, be advised they're known to carry weapons and have assaulted officers in the past." Or my favorite "Please respond to _____ at ______, their child _______ was the fatality in the incident at _____ this evening." Great 3am and I get to go wake up a family and delivery the worst news they could possible get.

Then you have an officer that's been on the job for 15yrs, never done anything but by the book. Goes to work one day after getting some crappy news at home and has a bad day. Sometimes that one bad day costs him or her their career. Almost always cost someone else their basic rights, too.

And of course there are just some people that just shouldn't be in law enforcement. Power happy control freaks really shouldn't be in the business IMO. But for years police exams weeded out anyone not aggressive and power happy. Think that's getting better, started when 4 yrs degrees became a common requirement.

/end thread jack.