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I mean near term, the most important thing for anyone to remember is that if he can’t see your hands empty in a situation, he assumes that you have a weapon. If you make a move with your hands into a place where he won’t be able to watch what you are doing with your hands he assumes you are reaching for a weapon.
The most important thing to do when dealing with police is keep your hands where he can see them, Do not have anything in your hands, and do not move your hands to any place that your hands would be hidden from view. So if you’re at a traffic stop, you put your hands either straight up or on the steering wheel, and do not move until the cop is there and can see your hands. Do not reach for your license, your insurance information, your proof of ownership or anything else until the cop can see you and has directly told you to do that. If you need to reach into your glove box, a bad or a purse ask him if it’s okay, or hand over the bag.
The main thing here is that cops are trained from day one with one fact in mind: if you miss the guy going for a weapon, you’re probably going to get seriously injured.
I find it this whole conversation interesting. It wasn't long ago that people online were linking Chris Rock's video How not to get your ass kicked by the police and sagely nodding that black men simply reacted foolishly to policemen, who were lawfully going about their jobs. Various examples were used as illustrations, including the notorious pepper spray incident. The lesson was, don't be an idiot and you have nothing to fear from law enforcement.
In this thread you have presumably right-leaning posters now suggesting that the police departments have some systemic bias against whites (due presumably to political pressure, a sea change in departmental ethos, or similar). I'm not commenting on this specific case or any of the ones mentioned, simply pointing out an odd irony.
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