Do you have to stop for the (off duty, in uniform) cop out in front of First Baptist Church on Sunday morning? Or at Burger King during lunch hour? I've seen officers doing these things, too.Originally Posted by RoyGBiv
Also, where have you guys been on this issue? It's hardly new.
An officer directing traffic is still a legit LE activity...and he's not stopping people to force them to listen to a sales pitch for a survey. He's guiding the flow of traffic with the idea of keeping it moving as efficiently as possible. He's performing the same basic function as a traffic light, which is well within the purview of normal LE activity.
Same goes for routing traffic or shutting it down for an accident or other unsafe conditions.
3/15/2016
All true.
I just want to make sure I was on the same page here, because what I heard was "Running road blocks off duty.... In uniform..." and I thought "Heck, Chick-fil-A's been doing that my whole life."
No, it's not new. I'll one up you with Smedley Butler's tour as the Philadelphia Public Safety Commissioner. Holy constitutional red flag, batman: random checkpoints around the city, and if you couldn't produce ID you were thrown in jail.
Just because this current incident isn't a new form of overstepping bounds doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned about it.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
In many places there's legally no such thing as "off duty" for sworn personnel. Their authority stays with them 24/7 whether they're punched in or not. "Off duty" cops doing normal cop stuff (dealing with shoplifters, trespassers, etc) while drawing a paycheck from a private organization or another public organization (college football games, etc) is fine because they're doing normal cop stuff.
There's a couple of universities fairly near to me and when they have a public event or a dignitary visiting it's not uncommon to see uniforms and cruisers from agencies as far as 100 miles away doing normal cop stuff like patrols, controlling traffic, making a hole in traffic for priority medical/fire response, dignitary protection, dealing with trespassers, etc. That's all fine and dandy. They aren't on their agency's payroll, but they're in uniform and are performing normal LE functions and they're still bound by the same policies and standards that are present when they're on the clock with their own agency.
Using LE powers for decidedly non-LE activity (STOP! POLICE! Would you like to take this survey?) is a whole different kettle of fish.
3/15/2016
Dude, if I'm giving the impression that I don't... what was the phrase I used at the linked post? ..."view this kind of high-handed crap with distaste", then I am failing as a writer.
Still in complete agreement. Would you like me to agree some more?
It's sort of like the NSA thing...I don't think anyone is really all that thrilled about it even if they do think it's all on the up and up. Well, anyone except for that Bloomberg idiot, and the only reason he'd be mad is because he didn't have personal access to the database so he could crush people he found distasteful.
3/15/2016
Nah, more in your post here. I got the, "this is nothing new, why even care? move along, nothing to see here" vibe.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Yes. I will permit no attempts to examine anything resembling nuance on this issue.
Any attempt to do so will result in my putting people's heads in a lathe and seeing if it's possible to turn it into a perfect cube. CUBE THEIR HEADS! **
**Note: This is humor. Humor stolen from Jeremy Clarkson..which begs the question of whether or not it's humor in the first place, I know, but just go with me on this.
Further note - these discussions always go smoother over some chips and salsa at Chili's.
3/15/2016
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