I missed this from the story... @gator_lawyer @ValdostaGatorFan What do you suppose he apologized to his daughter for if he did nothing wrong? Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Depends on what you call "wrong." Maybe he does his best not to say the word "ass" in front of his kid, so he apologized to his daughter for that. If you equate wrong with illegal, he didn't do anything wrong. And who determines what language is wrong? What if he said "butt" instead? Is that wrong? There's probably some uber-conservative households where you say booty instead of butt. What if you said, "Move your butt out of the way, you turd." Does that require an apology or jail time? When I was a kid, I wasn't supposed to say fart. It was poot or toot or something similar. If one of my parents accidentally said fart in front of me, they might apologize to me, but I wouldn't say they did anything wrong.
Certainly cops and judges deserve respect, but that goes both ways which some seem to have forgotten. Far too many in the legal system have forgotten who they work for. Sure the easy and perhaps smart path, which most of us take when disrespected, is to say yes sir and move on. Unfortunately that just reinforces the power trip.. I was once in a court room supporting a family member when a judge asked if I had anything to say. I had plenty to say regarding the judge/system's abuse of power but our attorney had warned me not to say anything because it wouldn't matter, and the judge had a rep for being vindictive, so I simply said "no". To this day the whole thing still pisses me off. Finally , I will say most of us do not know the process to file a complaint, much less have the time to waste and it is unlikely to matter anyway.
It's irrelevant. We're talking about government officials abusing their power, not the sort of decorum a father prefers to keep in front of his child.
Oh yeah, the complaint process is a waste of time. Judges, like cops, protect each other to protect the institution. The Florida Bar does the same. It punishes attorneys for sharply criticizing judges publicly, yet judges are allowed to get away with all sorts of misconduct and abuses. It is a system that protects the powerful.
Like I mentioned above, that's your preferred point of emphasis. Others have different points of emphasis. Neither point negates the other. Both can (and do) exist regardless of whether or not we actually agree on the points. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Do you think it's possible that he thought he was out of line in his interaction with the police officer and apologized to his daughter for that? Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Perhaps for putting her in danger? Or simply furthering what was a hostile situation and scaring her? Confrontation with an armed officer can be a scary situation. Apologizing seems like a positive. I didn't see the daughters age but I would guess that she did not come away with a good feeling towards police officers which is a missed opportunity.
That's not accurate. We know exactly what happened here. This isn't a question of whether the judge and cop did what they're accused of doing.
One is a personal issue. The other is a societal issue. I'm focused on the societal issue because it has real and harmful consequences.
Possible? Sure. But who was out of line here? The dad who alleged that he asked the officer twice, politely, to get out from in front of the car? Or the cop who wouldn't walk a few steps to get out of the way. Which makes me think.. how often does a cop stand directly in front of a car after a stop has been concluded? What was this other than a flex of authority? If you watched the video I posted, a cop demands ID from the guy asking for a complaint form, but does not take it from him. He demands that the guy place it in his hand. If you watched it and know what part in talking about, I don't see this being much, if it all, different. If I had a kid and they were with me, and someone came up to me and started attacking me and I threw a one hitter quiter and KO'ed them right there, I might apologize to my kid that they had to see all of that. Did I do anything wrong in that scenario despite apologizing to my kid?
Just something I remember from my youth. In the 80s you could get a history degree from West Point but your degree would be a bs not a ba. I learned this in a summer program in high school where they flew me up to West Point for a couple of weeks and I determined the military life was not for me.
From the Gospel according to Tim Rice, and apropos: Pontius Pilate: Then you are a king? Jesus: It's you that say I am. I look for truth, and find that I get damned. Pontius Pilate: And what is "truth"? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?
I see this different. There is honor... and there is respect. You can honor a position or group (cops for instance) without respecting the individual cop in the individual instance. I think a cop standing in your way when trying to drive off would be one worthy of no respect, while still honoring his position. So saying something disrespectful to him when he is seeking to dishonor his own fraternity is reasonable to me. I had a trooper totally get the law wrong on a traffic stop. Claiming my digital copy of my insurance wasnt good enough and I needed a paper copy. (Not the law btw). He was standing at the passenger window and tossed the ticket in my wife's lap. Talk about disrespect. You better believe i said things that reflected my disrespect for his performance, yet out of honor for law enforcement for a whole I don't equate him with every other state trooper. BTW, I got the case tossed on account of him having the law wrong, and made sure his disrespect for my wife went on the record....and gave him a very "respectful" nod and wink as i walked out of court that day.
I believe VA nailed the answer to this question in post 79 of the thread. One of the reasons why the action of the judge and the police officer aren't as compelling on a board like this is because we all seem to agree that they were out of line. That leaves the action of the dad where we do not have a consensus on whether or not he could have behaved more reasonably. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
