Thoughts on a better legal system and an outrageous example of inappropriate Police proceedures
(A clip from a post of mine on myspace)
Jon said:
While I agree, we need a government tpo out line conduct, and enforce laws to prevent mob rule. Dosen't it Bother you though, as a person that we Slowly allow our rights and freedom to slip away? Dosen't the "Patriot Act" kinda give the government a bit of intrusion into our lives, and kida recind some of our rights? And don't a number of you applaud, when the second amendment gets stripped down a bit? I see what your saying and agree, but how free are we? Should we do MORE to secure our own freedoms before praising the Government?
---I comment
Some of the laws are absurd and have nothing to do with orchestrating a sane system to do the things outlined above. (Where I had discussed the reasons we have laws in society in the first place.)
Do you want to know how it should work?
1) All police action needs to be 100% documented.
2) Police should be allowed to do anything to do their job efficiently/safely
3) If they do things that unnecessarily harm people, then in a court of evaluation then they should be punished to the full extent of the law. Otherwise they can kick 'huggy bear' in the head if that's what it takes to get the information on where the drug dealer is who is selling dope to the school kids. Otherwise they can tap phone lines and do WHATEVER they need to do to get their job done. AND ANY DECENT CITIZEN would APPLAUD them for it. On the other hand IN THE PROCESS of doing this......
4) police need to get absolute evidence to convict someone. Nobody should go down on circumstantial evidence charges.
Fair enough? AND....
5) if citizens are falsely detained and run through stuff then there is automatic RECOMPENSE. They don't have to lift a finger. There should be a schedule that the courts default to for cases that don't involve physical injury.
That way the courts would be free to deal with real cases. And everyone who made charges that they can't absolutely substantiate would be BROKE like they should be :-).
In Bob's ideal world, the courts are free to handle real crimes. 95 or so percent of what comes through court quickly ends in a conviction. Police are scared to death of doing things like what I've had done to me. Crud...I was stalked by a woman who was ticked off because she couldn't ram on the gas and cut me off! THen she passes myself and the car ahead using the TURN lane. She literally turned into me later on as I was trying to turn left and she was going right! I evaded her going into a gas station and driving through their lot and went my way thinking 'surely she wont stalk me'..but no..she doubles the speed limit or more and comes bearing down on my little put put in this buick roadmaster. I'm like 'well..now we're in a residential and little kids are on bikes. I've got to stop or she'll kill some little kid'
So I got out knowing that if I stayed in the car she might have a gun and just shoot me. I'm pretty fast and figured my odds are way good on foot doing evasive maneuvres. :-) I say 'lady, stop stalking me I'm going to have to call you in for driving in the wrong lane'
This lady says 'You gonna mess with me?' and gets out of her car with a 12" stiletto that I can't see cuffed along her arm. She runs at me and butts me with her shoulder and I barely move and say 'lady..uhh..I'm still going to have to turn you in' and smile. Then she pulls the knife up. "what..you're going to threaten me with a knife now? Lady..I love ya but..I'm still going to have to turn you in!" she punches me again and runs back to her car and goes sledding off. I see a neighbor finally peeked his head out and I report the matter to the police on their phone.
The lame neighbors just said 'we heard yelling'. On the basis of this the cop wrote ME A 180 DOLLAR TICKET as it turned out!! Disorderly conduct!!!
You just...wonder. If a system of accountability were in place obviously I couldn't have been convicted but..the court system is so silly I've got the DA saying "Well I'd just win anyway if you take it to court" so I don't even waste my time and plea bargain out since I don't have time to DEAL WITH STUPID PEOPLE!
But dang....if they actually had to PROVE that I was disorderly? What do you have? 1 generic 'there was noise' from the neighbor? Well...did it exceed noise limits? NO. So shut up. And besides was I not doing my BEST to abade the situation and did I not resolve it peacefully? THEY FOUND THE FREAKING KNIFE! Dan Tiller, a Gallatin Co. Sherrif's Deputy, comes over and issues me a citation. Unbelievable. All I could say was "Shame, shame SHAME" and just walked away from the guy. How can anyone have that low of a level of moral evaluation? Do I REALLY deserve to be bullied by this woman, then driven off the road by her..then stalked by her...then in doing the only thing that seemed sane PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED AND THREATENED WITH A KNIFE......
but because I told her to stop stalking me in perhaps a voice loud enough for the neighbor 50 feet away to hear me... I get fined 180 bucks to boot?
Sorry I want compensation. I want it now. I'm going to install this on my website while I'm going to the effort. If these knuckleheads want their name cleared they will
1) Issue a public apology to me
2) Give me 300 bucks for the hassle/money it cost me
3) Promise to never treat anyone like this again so long as they live
I'm not doing these people any favors by just letting them keep doing stuff like this. So there you have it Dan Tiller of Gallatin county Sherrif's office and the Bozeman Police department. Make it right. And then I'll remove this note.
That's justice until a real justice system is installed in this country. NOBODY should be penalized IN THE LEAST based on circumstantial evidence. But if police have REASONABLE SUSPECTS, they should be able to pull out the stops and do whatever it takes to efficiently confirm whether or not the person is doing what they think they are doing.
If they make unreasonable evaluations in such matters those should be brought to trial. -Bob