Road raging cop causes skirmish

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

A police office isn't on duty 24/7 my friend, the PotUS is.

No...but he doesn't stop being a cop just because his shift is over...which is why the CHP is investigating this allegation of misconduct

"We are aware of an off-duty incident involving Assistant Chief Todd Garr of our Northern Division that occurred on Friday evening," Coffee wrote. "The CHP takes any allegation of misconduct by its employees very seriously and is conducting an investigation to determine what occurred.'

[Allybeboba]

No...but he doesn't stop being a cop just because his shift is over...which is why the CHP is investigating this allegation of misconduct

They may be doing that to keep the rabble rousers at bay. At least until the story dies down.

[Endus]

Not really, not unless he used his position of authority over the person. If he presented himself that way it would be something different totally different.

That police are abusing their authority and acting belligerent, on and off duty, is the underlying story that this feeds into. That he's an officer is completely relevant, since it shows another officer abusing civilians. That he was off-duty is basically irrelevant, since this is about character as much as anything else.

I want to get this straight right now, I am not stating what the person did is correct. I am just stating that how the story presented is exactly why many people are losing faith in MSM. They sensationalize stories that don't need to be sensationalized. When something really happens people are going to just ignore them.

This isn't "sensationalization". This is pretty by-the-book reporting of the facts. If the facts make you want to turn the news off because you don't like what's happening, that says more about you than it says about the reporting. There are cases where things are overblown, but I just avoid those outlets. And this wasn't overblown at all, which calls into question your perception. I have absolutely no idea what you think was "sensationalized", unless it's just that there are facts you don't like in here, like the example that there are abusive cops out there.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

They may be doing that to keep the rabble rousers at bay. At least until the story dies down.

They are treating his position as a CHP officer as being relevant to the case... while doing everything they can to distance themselves from him

"I want to emphasize to the public that the alleged conduct of this employee does not reflect the values, hard work, dedication and professionalism of the CHP and its more than 11,000 employees, who proudly work each day to provide the best in Safety, Service, and Security to the people of California," Coffee explained.

[khazmodan]

Seems like it. There should be a point where posting the same thing becomes a infraction worthy offense.

This is how it starts, first we will get forum laws, then lawyers, then cops, then we will get hijacked every time we offend somebody.

[Very Tired]

This is how it starts, first we will get forum laws, then lawyers, then cops, then we will get hijacked every time we offend somebody.

Or it just stops at the right spot.

Personally, as a long time reader of these forums, I get pretty tired over all the different posters trying to not-so-subtly nudge others over to their political spectrum and beliefs with their cherry picked articles.

[Seranthor]

I call bullshit on this. If the guy wasn't a cop you'd be calling him criminal scum.

Really? If the guy wasn't a cop we would have never heard about this. Despite you not bothering to read the entire part you quoted, I said bad behaviour is bad behaviour regardless of who is doing it.

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You're kind of contradicting yourself. You say it isn't a defense of the cop but it sure sounds like it.

No, try reading the whole thing... Cop or not bad behaviour is bad behaviour. How exactly is that defending the cop?

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Really? If the guy wasn't a cop we would have never heard about this. Despite you not bothering to read the entire part you quoted, I said bad behaviour is bad behaviour regardless of who is doing it.

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No, try reading the whole thing... Cop or not bad behaviour is bad behaviour. How exactly is that defending the cop?

Maybe it's because every time the OP makes a cop bashing thread (which is what he does, that much is true) you swoop in and start white knighting for them. There's always "more to the story" when it's a cop getting caught doing bad things.

[Seranthor]

Maybe it's because every time the OP makes a cop bashing thread (which is what he does, that much is true) you swoop in and start white knighting for them. There's always "more to the story" when it's a cop getting caught doing bad things.

There is ALWAYS more to any story than what is presented... I know this... YOU know this... I believe that the cops are just as human as anyone else, as susceptible to misconduct just like anyone else. People, even you and me, have biases. OP's bias is against the police, mine is for the truth regardless of how it makes anyone look.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

There is ALWAYS more to any story than what is presented... I know this... YOU know this... I believe that the cops are just as human as anyone else, as susceptible to misconduct just like anyone else. People, even you and me, have biases. OP's bias is against the police, mine is for the truth regardless of how it makes anyone look.

You only seem to care about there being more to the story when it's the cops that look bad. Other people don't seem to receive the same benefit of the doubt.

[PosPosPos]

Don't want "cop hating stories"?

Don't have out-of-control corrupt cops. Blaming the messenger is ridiculous and is hardly going to solve the problem.

[Seranthor]

You only seem to care about there being more to the story when it's the cops that look bad. Other people don't seem to receive the same benefit of the doubt.

Making a judgement on anything without knowing as many facts about it as possible is making an uninformed judgement, regardless of who it is, or what the subject matter is. Stories about cops are no different. But, you are welcome to continue looking at the world thru your own biases instead of trying to find the whole story.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Making a judgement on anything without knowing as many facts about it as possible is making an uninformed judgement, regardless of who it is, or what the subject matter is. Stories about cops are no different. But, you are welcome to continue looking at the world thru your own biases instead of trying to find the whole story.

Very nice statement. A pity it has nothing at all to do with what I said.

What I said was that you only seem to want to look for the full story when the cop is the one that looks bad. You have a bias that favours the police in the same way the OP is biased against them.

[ChampionChains]

It is almost like the cops are humans too, but we cant have that can we? They have to be perfect elsewise someone tries to paint them as the devil incarnate (No, this isn't a defense of the cop, bad behaviour is bad behaviour regards of who is doing it)

The thing is though, as a police officer you should strive to be a paragon of the community. Not someone who cuts off large gasoline tankers in the middle of a potentially busy street causing a potential dangerous condition for other drivers so you can jump out of your car and threaten and attempt to physically intimidate or harm a driver because you feel they may have slighted you by pulling out in front of you. Any sane human would simply have slowed down and allowed the tanker to proceed onto the roadway.


These are the people we're paying to use good judgement and be level headed in potentially tense or life-threatening situations for the safety of our communities. They're not supposed to be goons who lack any form of physical or emotional control and pull off stunts you expect to see on crazy russian dashcam videos.

[Kiri]

It is almost like the cops are humans too, but we cant have that can we? They have to be perfect elsewise someone tries to paint them as the devil incarnate (No, this isn't a defense of the cop, bad behaviour is bad behaviour regards of who is doing it)

While I get what you are saying, there is a pretty reasonable explanation as to why people get more fired up when a cop does it. Their job is to protect the law, the people and to punish criminals. To that end, they are given the right to use force if necessary, along with a good deal of authority. Seeing them do the very things they are tasked to prevent, on-duty or not, rubs people the wrong way.

Cops are held to a higher standard than normal people by design. That is how you ensure that only those are cops that should be. Pointing out misconduct is an important part of that.
However, what is not appropriate is to see the misconduct of some or even many officers and extrapolate from this that all cops are evil and corrupt.

[Krastyn]

This isn't "sensationalization". This is pretty by-the-book reporting of the facts. If the facts make you want to turn the news off because you don't like what's happening, that says more about you than it says about the reporting. There are cases where things are overblown, but I just avoid those outlets. And this wasn't overblown at all, which calls into question your perception. I have absolutely no idea what you think was "sensationalized", unless it's just that there are facts you don't like in here, like the example that there are abusive cops out there.

This is at best, clickbait, and at worst, sensationalism.

To quote parts of the story:

Cross said two people got out of the car, one apparently was an off-duty CHP employee.

Cross mentioned one of the men reached into the cab grabbing his driver.

Doesn't mention if the cop was the driver, or the guy who reached into the cab.

Also shows select dash cam footage, instead of the whole incident.

This whole story is pretty half-assed journalism. Very light on facts, the details are coming from what the driver's boss heard from his driver, not even the driver himself.

Anyone drawing a conclusion from this story, is jumping.

[Machismo]

A police office isn't on duty 24/7 my friend, the PotUS is.

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Not really, not unless he used his position of authority over the person. If he presented himself that way it would be something different totally different.
I want to get this straight right now, I am not stating what the person did is correct. I am just stating that how the story presented is exactly why many people are losing faith in MSM. They sensationalize stories that don't need to be sensationalized. When something really happens people are going to just ignore them.

Reminds me of when hurricanes come to the coast. The media plays that sh!t up to no end. Then when one actually hits no one evacuates or waits until the last minute to evacuate because they think it is just another false alarm.
That happened here in 2005 with a category 5 hurricane. The trigger was pulled at the last minute to evacuate and we had one of the world's largest traffic jams in history. A four hour trip to Dallas took some people over 48 hours.

You should tell that to every officer who is told that his actions while out of uniform reflect on his occupation. Regardless of whether he is on duty, or not, he's still a cop. If a judge went home at night, and beat his wife and kids, it's still in the public interest to know about it, and act on such behavior. When I was in the military, the exact same thing happened. This issue is discussed literally every single week in the military. Your actions in your off time impact your job.

[Allybeboba]

You should tell that to every officer who is told that his actions while out of uniform reflect on his occupation. Regardless of whether he is on duty, or not, he's still a cop. If a judge went home at night, and beat his wife and kids, it's still in the public interest to know about it, and act on such behavior. When I was in the military, the exact same thing happened. This issue is discussed literally every single week in the military. Your actions in your off time impact your job.

Military positions are not civilian positions. One can't truly compare the two.

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That police are abusing their authority and acting belligerent, on and off duty, is the underlying story that this feeds into. That he's an officer is completely relevant, since it shows another officer abusing civilians. That he was off-duty is basically irrelevant, since this is about character as much as anything else.



This isn't "sensationalization". This is pretty by-the-book reporting of the facts. If the facts make you want to turn the news off because you don't like what's happening, that says more about you than it says about the reporting. There are cases where things are overblown, but I just avoid those outlets. And this wasn't overblown at all, which calls into question your perception. I have absolutely no idea what you think was "sensationalized", unless it's just that there are facts you don't like in here, like the example that there are abusive cops out there.

Isn't an officer a 'civilian' when they are off duty? How would one know they are a police officer unless they identify themselves as one.
The person in the story above wasn't even aware of until days later. And that is when it apparently became 'news'. Until then it was just another case of road rage.

[the game]

Seems like it. There should be a point where posting the same thing becomes a infraction worthy offense.

spamming is infraction worthy but this sort of thread just happens to agree with certain moderators agendas. So they're ok with it.

[NineSpine]

entitlement and male privilege? surely you cant be serious. Law enforcement is entitled to the same presumption of innocent that everyone else is. Unless of course you object to them being treated the same as everyone else, if you object, please by all means tell us why.

When normal people do shit like this they get fired immediately. The bar for firing police is absurdly high.