Yeah, but he’s appealing that, probably with the full support of his union. I really thought this guy went so far and his chief was so disgusted by his actions, that he’d be fired and the prosecutors would at least consider prosecuting him. I can be so naïve.

Some people feel rich and powerful if they have money and power, some people feel rich and powerful as long as somebody else has less power and less money. That applies to rich and powerful people who still need to grind others down to feel good about themselves (Trump) and to people who have neither objective wealth…

He didn’t care for the same reason that the white neighbor didn’t worry about admitting his assault on the kid. They were white men dealing with black people who weren’t quietly submitting and obeying orders. Merely knowing the law doesn’t overcome a lifetime of growing up in a community where blacks are expected to…

Tapping somebody politely on the shoulder is not offensive or provocative. Poking someone in the chest, grabbing their arm, or grabbing any part of there neck, is. Pretty simple and reasonable law. If you touch someone at all in a way that’s offensive, you’ve committed a crime. Not usually a big one and you might not…

Where I come from we call that battery, but the principal is the same. What the neighbor did was that crime (under either name) in every part of the US.

Yeah. And that threat was inappropriate. Usually we like our police to only arrest people when there is a reason to suspect them of committing a crime. Getting pissed off by a racist cop who refuses to do his job and asks questions that are intended to provoke and completely misstate the law is not a crime.

A parent or guardian doesn’t need consent to grab a kid. Anybody else does. This just isn’t complicated. You know this. Why do you pretend that you don’t?

When you touch another person without their consent, you commit battery under the law of every state I’m familiar with. Does that include politely tapping someone on the shoulder to get their attention? No. The law is not stupid. Does it cover grabbing a kid by the neck because he was so uppity as to refuse to obey an…

Battery does not require an injury, let alone a visible one, to be a crime.

Then the officer threatened to arrest her if she kept on shouting at him, she said OK and when the daughter moved (with her back to the officer) to push her mom away, the officer attacked both of them. For what crime did he imagine he was arresting them? Neither had committed any crime other than being black and not…

The officer’s questions were grossly inappropriate and deliberately provocative. The man admitted battering the boy twice (by grabbing his arm and then his neck. So, the officer asks the woman why she didn’t teach her son not to litter, assuming that he did litter, assuming that she did not teach him not to, and…

The offense of battery occurred by the original criminal’s own admission as recorded by the second, more violent, criminal (the one with .the uniform).

I’m pretty sure is was a racist assshole bully cop. If he was just an asshole bully, he could have beaten up the white criminal instead of attacking the black victim’s family.

Can I star it for the first paragraph? Full disclosure: I’m so white I’m practically see-through, but that recording makes me very angry.

A Comcast worker giving blowies in his van is doing something more useful than 98% of his coworkers. Why hate on him?

Yeah, but you’re not a huge a-hole and these guys work for Comcast, so it’s a totally different situation.

And real grown-up utilities ALWAYS use flag men if they are going to force two way traffic to use a single lane. I have never seen the real phone company, the gas company, the sewer folks, the electric people, the water guys or even a tree service close the only lane going one direction without creating a detour…

The reality is that speeding dump trucks do happen. Not giving as much warning as you can that you’re blocking the lane ahead is stupid on every level.

People have written whole books about all the stuff you don’t know about the law. You seem to be confusing the question of whether the Comcast worker was violating a criminal statute and could be charged with a crime with whether he was legally at fault for any of the consequences of his failure to provide adequate…

Wrong. None of those accidents would have occurred if people were driving at a speed appropriate for the road conditions and my guess is that the conditions on the other side of the hill were similar enough that the drivers should have known better. BUT, almost none of those accidents would have happened if the…