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Every police chase is a danger to innocent people’s lives. Some chases are necessary, but a broken taillight is not worth that risk.

  • xam54321@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    Blaming the police for this seems like a real stretch…
    It is 100% the drivers fault for running away, as implied by the article, to try to his illegal firearm.

    • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      So the police have no agency? They are required to make no decisions on whether what they are doing is worth it?

      What about if they just started shooting at the car and hitting bystanders? Would that be 100% the driver’s fault, too?

      Much like firing a weapon in a crowded area, a car chase is inherently dangerous and I would say any sane person in the vicinity of a cop trying to pull someone over for a broken tail light would prefer that person go free than to have their lives put in danger for a ticket for a broken tail light.

      • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        People often don’t act in their best interest or the best interest of society.

        I currently live in a US city where the police haven’t enforced traffic laws since the mid 2010s. It has by far some of the highest accident rates in the country. Not just accidents, the “mad max” level shit that goes on like roving bands of dirt bikes is insane (like 20-30 together). It has become such a huge issue, it is destroying businesses, tourism, home ownership, etc, in the city.

        To further expand, although you didn’t mention it. People in this thread say just get them later… How exactly? Probably a 5th of the license plates in this same city are fake. People are literally just printing fake temporary tags.

        And no I’m not exaggerating about my examples, if anything I’m understating the problem for this particular city.

        • Agrivar@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          An awful lot of vague bullshit in your claims. I’m not calling you a liar, but I require receipts. You sound exactly like every right-wing nutjob who insists BLM burned Portland to the ground, having never set foot on the west coast in their life.

        • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOP
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          10 months ago

          You live in a US city where the police haven’t enforced traffic laws since the mid 2010s. And no, you’re not exaggerating. Is the city Fast and Furious?

          • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I live around Atlanta and it’s extremely uncommon to see someone pulled over from a traffic violation. Almost literally everyone that drives on 75 or 85 in the city is doing 75+ in a 55 and I’ve seen cops drive by them. Yep, cops going by them even faster. Hell, you’d probably be at a bigger risk traveling the speed limit there.

            • electricwater@infosec.pub
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              10 months ago

              Over here, on the civilized side of the Atlantic Ocean, you’ll get a nice photo of yourself. Taken by a traffic camera and sent conveniently by mail. Along with a friendly note stating the amount that you owe the municipality. Having to stop a driver unless they pose an immediate risk seems ridiculous. This just doesn’t happen here.

              • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Most of us over here oppose those types of cameras. We’re not so keen on government surveillance. I know it’s ironic that we’ll willingly let companies surveil us.

                However, even with those, things don’t always happen around cameras. Especially when people know where they are. Don’t know how common this is over there but we see the same effect when we know there is a cop sitting at a speed trap.

    • shartedchocolate@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      People foam out of the mouth here any time someone says “someone that’s not a cop made a bad decision”.

      The cops abuse their power plenty, but if you’re running from the cops in your pickup with your kid in the car, you chose violence here. Blaming solely the cops here is idiotic and implies that the driver of the pickup has no agency.

      • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Look, nobody is saying the person who ran isn’t wrong. It’s a given, though. Nobody is saying the driver bears no responsibility for the outcome.

        People foam at the mouth when others give police a complete pass for endangering the public. Criminals don’t work for us. Criminals aren’t supposed to be protecting us. Police are. So when they behave in a way that increases danger to us, of course we take issue with someone saying they’re blameless because a criminal did a crime.