steelhead said:
Why should this be tolerated in modern society? No one has any right to treat you like they REGARDLESS of whether or not they're wearing a blue uniform.
steelhead said:
2. Yes they were justified in treating you like that.
No one denied that the cop had the right to pull him over, even with his gun in his hand. But what the cop shouldn't have done is: put him in the cruiser without telling him why, or haul him over to the police station with no reason besides him being who he wants to be.
steelhead said:
Your car/image met a certain profile.
No one's denying that, either. However, even if you fit the profile 100% you should not be treated like a criminal. The cop had a reason to believe Tony COULD be a gangster, but it wasn't proof or conclusive evidence that he was a gangster.
steelhead said:
The handcuffs? It is called protective custody (for both you and the officer).
If Tony showed any sign that he was going to strike the officer, then I would agree cuffing would be totally reasonable. But, there was no reason for the cop to believe that Tony needed to be cuffed AFTER patting him down.
steelhead said:
3. Manners? You probably misunderstood being assertive for abusive.
Profanity and name-calling is generally considered the latter, as was said above.
steelhead said:
4. Don't take it so personally.
Well, Tony was the victim so why should he not take it personally. It's easy to say, "Don't take it so personally" if YOU'RE not the victim, but if you were treated like this I don't know if you'd be saying the same thing.
steelhead said:
Had they found drugs or illegal arms, you would have been just another scumbag that they usually catch on one of these "gang affiliate" stops.
Yeah, but they didn't. The cop had the right and the duty to pull him over and check him out a bit, but he crossed the line in several ways.
steelhead said:
Instead they found an innocent person and let you go after determining such - with an apology for the inconvenience.
In America you're innocent until proven guilty.
The cop should have DETERMINED that Tony was a gangster (having a Punisher sticker doesn't determine jack) before treating him like one.
steelhead said:
Of course, there is always the possiblity that you antagonized the officer with snotty responses but we don't know that anymore than what we know the "officer" really did either.
Your childish attempt at bringing up the fact that Tony may not be entirely truthful right now isn't helping anything. If Tony's statements were untrue in any way then everything we're saying is voided as it was made based on untrue statements.
steelhead said:
5. What are they getting away with other than doing their jobs?
I will not allow my tax dollars to pay for an arrogant cop to think he has the right to treat anyone, even a possible gangster, like that.
steelhead said:
6. What do you want? The officer fired or humilated? A guest spot on Oprah or Dr. Phil?
None of us can judge what Tony wants, and that's really not the issue. The point is that Tony was mistreated and he wants to take action about it. If it were me that was mistreated in this manner, I'd want to make sure that no other innocent would have to go through that.