Police Encounters with Suspects: Protocol and Response

In light of what has been going on with the relationship across our country between the police and the black community...especially concerning shooting deaths of blacks by cops when there didn't seem to be a compelling threat present...I have recently come across two interesting social media posts about the topic.  One of these, about which I'll discuss today, was a Facebook repost from a while back and which concerned a young black man pulled over in Tucson, Arizona for a busted taillight.  Upon being asked if he had a weapon, the driver informed the (white) policeman that he was legally carrying a concealed gun, described where he was wearing it...and also mentioned that he was in the National Guard.  The police asked him, in the interests of safety, to follow their stated procedure to carefully disarm him in order to safely attend to the main goal...which was to see his driver's license. This he did without complaint, all went smoothly, and the officer handed him back his gun in a plastic bag without ticketing him, complimenting him on his cooperation.  The message behind this post is clear: if you are aware in advance of police protocol, concerns, and procedure during encounters with civilians suspected of anything, then you shouldn't have anything to worry about the police harming you...regardless of your race or that of the law enforcement officer.  On the other hand, if you aren't...and most of us aren't...privy to all of the ins and outs of the police code...then it's your own fault if you happen to make a move in their presence that they feel justified in answering with a bullet to your body.  I'm not black, I'm white...and the policeman who stopped me for a traffic violation a few years ago wasn't white...he was black...but the situation was similar.  At the end of explaining to me what he saw as my violation of a recently passed, obscurely-stated state law, he thrust a board at me through the window that had my ticket set on top of it, all written out for me to sign.  I naturally...and I thought compliantly...reached to take hold of it to sign and he suddenly went into a near rage, yelling at me not to take it!  I honestly thought at that moment that he would pull a gun on me. Without saying anything, I meekly took the pen he had handed me and, careful not to commit the unpardonable sin of touching anything directly, scribbled my name on the ticket, hoping to God that this madman would then just creep back into his car and leave me alone...

Note that I was subject to a "crisis" moment with a cop that wasn't my fault.  That's the fault of the police, in my opinion, for expecting me to know in advance some arcane aspect of their procedures.  On the other hand, I had the presence of mind and enough respect for the police that I was the entire time consciously trying to cooperate with them...and immediately got myself as meek as possible when I saw that cop go into "combat" mode.  I'm looking at a lot of these tragic cases in the news and I'm seeing suspects engaged with police in heated arguments, wrestling matches, and running away.  None of which should justify being shot and killed...that's on the cops...but those who ultimately were victims of police violence should all have been educated as to how to behave when that crisis moment came in their own encounter with the "long arm of the law".  So what I'm saying, I suppose, regarding that Facebook post is that yes, there is a proper, effective way for citizens to respond to the police when stopped and questioned and that we should all be drilled in it.  But the reality of it all is that very few of us are and the police should know better than to expect everyone to respond perfectly as did that Arizona Guardsman...