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Way to go, Maryland State Police Department

13K views 102 replies 39 participants last post by  internationalballer 
#1 ·
#54 ·
The car did not pull in front of him. It cut him off with the side of the vehicle. I would not have noticed the police car behind me if I were him. I would imagine anyone in that position would have their eyes fixated on the guy in regular clothes yelling at you to get off your bike and holding a gun.

The chances that he saw the cop behind him in his mirrors is also rather slim. I know when I sit up like that on my bike I can barely see behind me because I have the mirrors set up to where I can see behind me when I'm actually in riding position.

So short of lights and sirens I'm not sure you can make the argument he could have / should have / did know that he was being pursued.
 
#55 ·
In the photo on the website for the newscast you can see the state trooper's car after he was out of the car and he is pulled up enough to see the tag. Now, in that grainy picture I can't make out the tag, but I'm sure the rider could have seen it. I do agree with people that the officer should have identified himself faster (though not enough to see it as a major error that puts him in the wrong). Right now I can't pull up the newscast since my students are taking a test (the audio would be a distraction) and I can't see the other video at all (blogs and YouTube are blocked at work), but if I got a clearer picture of the tags and they weren't government tags but tags that suggested it was the trooper's personal car, my position would change somewhat (it would have been far less obvious who he was and thus far more critical that he ID himself sooner).
 
#58 ·
Jeff- Why should he HAVE KNOWN it was a cop? I don't know about you, but I don't stare at the plates on every car I see, especially when they cut me off and get out and pull a gun on me. Maybe I am the odd one here though. If someone did that, Hey that might be a cop is not the first thing that would cross my mind.
 
#59 · (Edited)
+1.

Yeah, a guy blocks my path with his car, jumps out of the car, pulls out a gun, starts yelling at me... and my natural reaction while all of this happening in a matter of seconds, is to turn away from the perceived immediate threat and try to have a look at the car's license plates...

Sure.
 
#62 ·
You all know I tend not to like cops but I'll look past that this time since the cop seemed to calm the hell down right away.

But 3 things.

1 - he shouldnt have drawn his gun like that, the guy wasnt an emediate threat sitting on a bike and the cop wasnt in unifrm.And he was stopped by the time he caught up to him. (it wasnt a police chase)

2. The cop should have announced him self as a police officer the SECOND he got out of the car and once the rider complied he should have showed him his badge (wtf is an off duty cop doing screwing with people anyway).

3. I would have took off like a mother and I mean full throttle probably hitting the guy the second I saw the gun and I wouldnt have stopped until there where cherries behind me.
 
#64 ·
That asshat new he was being chased for wreckless driving or some other felony. I believe he was felony evading as well. That is why on the long video there is no sound so you don't hear the siren. The editor just wants you to hear the plain clothes cop and how bad it looks in the end.

As far as the warrant, the district attorney probably pushed for it to gather more video evidence of this jackass and maybe some of his friends. I hate those guys that decide to ride like morons on the highway. They are dangerous and can kill people. I like the tricks, but there is a place for it. You do not know how hard it was not to change lanes on some ******* that popped his front wheel up next to my truck going accross Gandy bridge in St. Pete, Fl.
 
#67 ·
I think this is being taken to lightly, he will get a slap on the hand, and next time one of his coworkers will go a little farther and shove the guy. He to will only get a slap on the hand, and it will keep going like that, until some one really gets hurt.

Modern day tax collector with a napoleon complex that's all I saw in the video. So much for protect and serve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k5y3fBH9Og

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwyKBvZ2vgQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiEDD58zpJw
 
#70 ·
I think we can all agree that the rider is an idiot. What he did makes all motorcycle riders look bad. It was stupid and unsafe, there is no argument on that. What the cop did was out of line. He got caught looking like an a$$ so he decided to use his power on the guy. I read that the search warrant wasn't signed by a judge or they wouldn't say who the judge was, something like that.
I think you guys see the bigger picture and the bigger danger being set as a precedent here.
 
#69 ·
I think we can all agree that the rider is an idiot. What he did makes all motorcycle riders look bad. It was stupid and unsafe, there is no argument on that. What the cop did was out of line. He got caught looking like an a$$ so he decided to use his power on the guy. I read that the search warrant wasn't signed by a judge or they wouldn't say who the judge was, something like that.
 
#72 ·
I think we can all agree that the rider is an idiot. What he did makes all motorcycle riders look bad. It was stupid and unsafe, there is no argument on that. What the cop did was out of line. He got caught looking like an a$$ so he decided to use his power on the guy. I read that the search warrant wasn't signed by a judge or they wouldn't say who the judge was, something like that.
I think the official story is they wouldn't release the judge's name, at least that's what I got from it.

As far as I know there's court for which they won't release judges' names, even the FISA court has a list of presiding judges who's names can be found online. And the FISA court is not open to the public and to find ANY information on a warrant obtained by through this court you have to use the FOIA to get highly redacted papers.

There are only two reasons why a name would not be released: either there was no signature obtained, or the judge knew he shouldn't be signing that warrant.
 
#71 ·
My opinion as well Dodsfall.

The cyclist started backing up. Having worked law enforcement before, that would have made me think the cyclist was about to make a jump for it. In a bike like that, he easily could have.

It's hard to tell if the officer was pulling out the gun as he got out or not. He definitely had his hand on it. That's standard procedure, especially in MD that close to DC (DC's murder rate ya know).

Outside of that, everything else is a moron stunt cyclist showing off on a populated highway and a cop who got his ego hurt.

Thumbs down for both sides.
 
#73 ·
The warrant needs to be signed by the judge and be available for the person being served to read and inspect. At least that's how it's supposed to work in the US according to the 4th amendment of the Constitution. Seeing as how the authorities there have no regard for the 1st amendment, I guess it's not unreasonable to stomp all over the rest of the rights.
 
#75 ·
Mapp was an important decision since it placed a huge price on the prosecution for violation of a suspect's forth amendment rights. For the most part, it still stands from what I have seen.

Other important decisions such as Terry v Ohio (1968) are routinely broken by police now. The "pat down for weapons" has become a fishing expedition in many cases.
 
#78 ·
Is it possible that everybody here is at fault? We've got an idiot rider and an idiot cop. This whole thing is truly an explosion of utter stupidity.

The cop was in the wrong, the kid was in the wrong.

And for those of you saying there were no lights or anything...did you happen to notice that the guy did not look back the entire video EXCEPT as he was coming to a stop? Why did he look back? Who knows...maybe the lights were flashing and we didn't see them (somebody maybe watch this again in HD to confirm?) maybe there were sirens...either way this dude knew something was up with that car.

The bottom line is that this makes everybody look bad. The officer is giving a bad rep to MD police and the kid is giving us bikers a bad (worse?) name.

On another note, not all cops are bad. I went to dinner in Cambridge last week and parked my bike in a (not legal) spot. A cop on the sidewalk ran right up to me and...wanted to know how awesome riding was because his wife wouldn't let him ride. (haha!) Then he asked how fast I've gotten it up to (I told him 300mph down Newbury Street). He laughed and said "Well, you're not really supposed to park here, but if anybody gives you **** or a ticket you can drop my name and say I gave you the green light to park here and you'll be off the hook."
 
#80 ·
umm... because we have this right, and so that we don't lose it:

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
 
#83 ·
I've mostly followed local news broadcasts where they have been more portraying it as possibly the police getting back at him for embarrassing them. One of the reasons I'm on the police side for a change (MD prosecutes people for audio taping without permission more than you'd think). If the warrant was served without a judge's signature or under post-9/11 laws with a secret and unpublicized signature, that is a a huge problem. I do have a lot of problems with a lot of the erosion of our rights going on in the criminal justice system these days.


No knock warrants have a time and place, and that was neither
Here, I have to disagree. I really don't think there is a place for no knocks. Theoretically, they are so the bad guys can't destroy (flush) evidence. They came out of the war on (some) drugs. However, in reality they put the lives of many cops and innocent people at risk (how many times do they hit the wrong home, or an innocent persons home on bad info, I doubt there is an answer, but it happens, probably a lot). Police charge into a gun owner's home and in the confusion the guy may grab a gun before he realizes they are cops and gets shot (actually, this has happened quite a bit), and eventually a cop will get shot. I don't think the risk to everyone is worth the preservation of some evidence that may otherwise be destroyed. This isn't to say in a true dangerous situation that I don't see the need for SWAT, just that SWAT type tactics are horribly overused.
 
#89 ·
My shop is on a new 5 lane road. Recently they have been pulling people over like crazy. I would say 60% they DUI check and 50% they DUI check & search. It's kind of annoying because they don't seem to mind blocking my drive for 20-30 minutes while they do this. I really don't understand all the sobriety checks in the middle of the day. And out of all these searchs & sobriety tests I've only seen them haul one person in.
 
#98 ·
Police have procedures and either the cop followed the procedures or he didn't, it's that simple. The fact that the cop hid the gun when the other officer arrived says a lot. Then after he looks like an ass on youtube the cops raid his parents house. The judge and all the cops involved should loose their job for that. Clearly, they were getting him back and punishing his family for his actions.

I had a cop supervisor threaten me once when I called them out for the actions they took with my ex wife and he threatened to make the situation a lot worse. HE basically told me, drop this, or I will make your life hell.

It's like all other aspects of life... some good folks and some loosers.
 
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