DescentBB

callmeslick wrote:

Heretic wrote:TC yes it bothers me as it should bother any one. I have been stop a few times walking though my neighborhood. After walking to and from the store five blocks from my house. I guess they don't like people with shoulder length hair and a beard.

seems a bit much to me, too.

Foil wrote:I've had shoulder-length hair and a goatee for years, and have had certainly had to deal with suspicion based on appearance, myself. I'd be peeved if I was asked for ID without cause.

OK, so why are we allowing this nonsense to creep into our supposedly free society? It's no different than using racial profiling to pull someone over in their car, or pull them aside on the sidewalk because they're long-haired, Black or Hispanic. One's appearance shouldn't be probable cause for the authorities to ask for ID in my book. It stinks of a repressive police state. The abuses that arise from using those tactics are well known. Think Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Papers please ("cough" Arizona).

From what I've seen there are police who see the law only as an unfortunate restriction, and so when nobody is holding them to it they step beyond as far as is convenient to get done what they feel needs to get done (tricking people into thinking they don't have the rights they have, ...). It's kind of a war, and if you're good with people maybe you can fight it along with the law-abiding citizens, but if you're not maybe it hinders your ability to make that crucial distinction and relationship. I know I would have a hard time with it, but I have high enough ideals that I would keep trying until I get it right. IMO it takes a high degree of responsibility to do that job within the confines of the law, with respect for the law, and to do it well--to get results. I think the problem is that the majority of human beings just don't cultivate that degree of personal responsibility. So if they're not cultivating that degree of personal responsibility, maybe others need to hold their feet to the fire and give them some incentive to walk the line. Maybe they belong in another line of work at this time.

Well, I think that most of them are good-natured, definitely with some tares scattered in there. They feel hated so they band together no matter what. If the public was to create a peace between them and put them at ease, peer pressure alone from the good ones would keep the bad ones in line.

tunnelcat wrote:

Foil wrote:I've had shoulder-length hair and a goatee for years, and have had certainly had to deal with suspicion based on appearance, myself. I'd be peeved if I was asked for ID without cause.

OK, so why are we allowing this nonsense to creep into our supposedly free society? It's no different than using racial profiling to pull someone over in their car, or pull them aside on the sidewalk because they're long-haired,

I should clarify:

Most of what I was referring to was suspicion from passers-by, not police officers. I'm male, tall, and white... so I'm rarely ever bothered by police.

With that said, if I was living in an area where I was periodically being stopped and asked for ID without cause (as I gather Heretic has been), I'd be pretty peeved.

Here, they like to use an excuse like: "your license plate light is out".


...really?

That's when you need to draw from Monty Python's restaurant manager skit and become extremely remorseful and self-loathing that you could allow such a thing to happen--insisting that they throw the book at you.

Hell, I got pulled over in St. Helen's when I was 22 while driving my grandfather's car, with him riding in the front passenger seat. So being a relatively young driver driving a car that wasn't mine, I was very nervous. Then the cop took one look at my license and laughed, then apologized. He could have sworn that I was too young to drive. I told him I would be more flattered if he'd pulled me over for the same reason when I was 40. Come to think of it, I still got carded in bars until I hit 45. Now, I wish.