How come it is demeaning when the cops do it, but not when the crooks sit? Same activity, same context, a confrontation. Aren’t crooks demeaned by being arrested? I could go on but here’s a picture that says it all.

San Francisco Officers Told Not to Make Suspects Sit

December 12, 2018  |  

Police officers in San Francisco may no longer demand that suspects – whether handcuffed or not – sit on the ground or sidewalk at a crime scene, the city’s police chief writes in a department memo.

The practice is viewed as “demeaning” to suspects, city police Chief William Scott has determined, according to the Bay Area’s FOX 2.

The chief recommends instead that officers place suspects “secured in a police vehicle” when “sufficient help is on the scene,” Fox News reports.

In times of “exceptional circumstances,” such as when a suspect is resisting arrest, officers may have no choice but to take a suspect to the ground, the chief acknowledges.

The chief has ordered that any incident of taking a suspect to the ground be documented.

Making suspects sit on the ground has nothing to do with shaming them and everything to do with officer safety. Seating suspects on the ground decreases their mobility. Allowing a suspect to stand increases the suspects’s ability to fight or flee.

There are unspoken rules to police/turd interactions. When the police line up a group of turds, as in the first picture, it is a signal. Handcuffed or not, the turd knows jail is not a foregone conclusion. Compliance just might be a way out of their current situation. Stuff the same turds in a patrol car.  They figure they are going to take the ride. Why be nice? The chances of physical confrontation goes up.

In the 70’s we used to teach a handcuffing technique where the suspect was instructed to kneel. The handcuffing and subsequent search were done while the suspect was kneeling on the ground.

The “boat people” put an end to that. It seems in Southeast Asia the favored position for roadside executions was kneeling. The military and police didn’t need a reason to execute a suspect. Placing a suspect in a kneeling position was taken as an impending execution. 

When boat people were confronted by police, in America, there was a language barrier. However, the boat people were sure they knew what came next, when commanded to kneel. An attempt to lower the risk of violence, by restricting movement,  only served to guarantee it. That was the end of the “kneeling frisk.” 

Police Chiefs no longer have to be police officers or possess anything resembling common sense. God, I’m glad I’m retired.