I am also troubled by the question that Derek Sutton is asking.
Before, I was clearly in the camp of obeying the police, keeping your mouth shut and dealing with the arrest after the fact. However, I am coming to realize that is my white, middle-aged, lawyer response and not the lived reality of so many people that interact with the police. I have watched a lot of videos in the last few months and have seen a lot of contrasting orders being shouted at people being arrested. Part of this may be a mis-communication between the police in a tense situation but I am starting to think (as it was mentioned elsewhere) that it is a tactic to get the person to act contrary to what you ordered so you can beat him for "resisting arrest". This reality for a black person getting stopped is that it very well could be a life or death situation for them. In that situation, a fight or flight response is normal. The result is often a dead "suspect". I have seen a number of videos where I wonder what the #### the person was thinking when they pulled out a gun and started shooting when they were in very minimal trouble, smoking pot in public for example. Then you consider things like the three strike rules and maybe such a small crime means they go to jail for a very long time.
I think the above is part of the problem but I would like to hear what others think about this as well. Why do 'suspects' fight or flee from the police when there is such a small chance of it going well?
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