Okay, WTAF?
Not cooperating is well-known to be considered suspicious, and now cooperating is also suspicious? What the hell do they want from people if every encounter with an officer could result in violence no matter what the citizen does?
Yep. It's suspicious to not cooperate and suspicious to cooperate. When you're held for a traffic stop, and asked to produce papers, it's suspicious if you don't get them, and if you try to get them you're shot because the police officer suddenly thinks you're reaching for a gun.
I read first Carnivore's write-up and then viewed the video. It's outrageous. I'd like to add to his account that first the female officer, Jackson, approaches him alone, and reacts to every answer Yourse gives with a very upbeat "Okay". She sounds fully satisfied with his explanation as she goes back to the cruiser, but then the two of them decide to come back. I can't quite make out what they're discussing while standing at the cruiser, but I get the distinct impression from this behavior that Cole thinks he hasn't filled the personal goal he had set for that day in number of (black) citizens he'd harass and humiliate.
As to race: maybe Cole isn't a racist, but it sure looks like it. And that's what matters most in the public eye.
And even with this obvious case, you see the blue wall in action. From the WaPo article:
During a special meeting by the Greensboro City Council on Sept. 26, Mayor Nancy Vaughn called Cole’s actions “ugly,” “brutal” and “completely unnecessary.”
I think we can all agree with that. But then:
During the City Council meeting, Greensboro Police Chief Wayne Scott said the charges were questionable.
Of all the adjectives he could have chosen, he chose "questionable". That implies there's at least
some merit in the charges. No, Mr. Scott, the charges are not questionable. They're false. They're made up. They're pulled out of thin air. They're nonsense. They're ludicrous. They're preposterous. Et cetera. But they're not "questionable".
Also, it's not the police that has attempted to end Cole's career:
City officials also recommended to a state commission to revoke Cole’s law enforcement certification indefinitely. If that happens, he will no longer be able to be a law enforcement officer.
City officials did that, not the police chief. Not that I believe the latter to be true - there are too many small town police forces in the USA that don't have the resources to check certifications, and it's NC only apparently anyway - but it will certainly make it harder on Cole to find another job at the police.
As to ADA Neumann, let's review what he said:
Chief Assistant District Attorney Howard Neumann did not return a call from The Post on Monday, but he told the Greensboro News & Record last week that Cole did not commit a crime. Law enforcement officers are entitled to use whatever amount of force they deemed necessary to arrest someone they believed committed a crime, Neumann told the paper.
Highlighting mine. He erects a huge strawman here. No reasonable person in the place of Cole could have believed that Yourse had committed a crime. I believe that Cole didn't believe that either at the time.
Really, it's ludicrous that Cole isn't prosecuted for assault, battery, unlawful deprivation of liberty and (attempted) theft; and Jackson as accessory to all those crimes.
Phew, I made it to the end of this post without even once calling Cole a "fascist pig".
