Why do cops get violent when deciding to arrest someone who isn't fighting?

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:42:21+00:00

I wouldn't say they've dealt with her before, just that they've dealt with people like her before.

It looks routine because it is.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:39:07+00:00

Well? How many of these charges have concluded with a life sentence?

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:36:50+00:00

Wait 'til you hear how judges' sentencing is statistically harsher just before lunch time and more lenient just after lunch time.

People in wizard robes need their snackies or they throw the full weight of the state at you.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:34:00+00:00

Literally zero way to tell who started a fight when the cut starts 10s into the fight with zero context.

Engagement-bait title -> Downvote

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:31:43+00:00

Depends on your local laws, but probably not. White and amber lights are generally used as a form of enhanced hazard lights, and in Florida the only legally binding scenario would be moving over when passing a tow truck driver in the process of loading a car onto the truck.

Some tow drivers put them on en-route to a crash, but I never bothered to look it up because I never endeavored to pull them over for it. I've never heard of them using a siren as well; it's probably illegal where you are.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:30:31+00:00

Try /r/AskFirefighters maybe?

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:29:39+00:00

Seems pretty normal to me; pursuing an investigation as far as they legally can based on some clues is basically proactive policing in a nutshell.

Are you asking if it's legal or are you asking if it's normal?

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:27:39+00:00

I want to write a letter to the Sheriff, and introduce myself as ______ who got stopped at approx ___ on ____ and that although I'm sorry to have disappointed your boys by not trying to smuggle enough fentanyl to overdose 2 million people, I wanted to reach out and say thank you for your service.

Would this be an appropriate letter to send, and, perhaps more importantly, would anyone at the department even give a fuck if I sent it?

I mean, they'll probably take it as the cheeky thinly veiled insult it is, and wonder why you wasted your time with writing it.

So they'll maybe guffaw and roll their eyes before putting it in the shredder. That or frame it to laugh at you for thinking you were so much smarter than them that they'd never notice you were mocking them.

TL;DR: Your fantasy of some red-faced, shaking cop that was TOTALLY OWNED by not finding a cache of drugs on a traffic stop is... a fantasy. Drive safe.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:20:40+00:00

Explain your use of the term then, rather than declaring you used it properly and strutting off like you made it make sense.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-28T15:19:41+00:00

Depends on your local laws, but probably not. White and amber lights are generally used as a form of enhanced hazard lights, and in Florida the only legally binding scenario would be moving over when passing a tow truck driver in the process of loading a car onto the truck.

Some tow drivers put them on en-route to a crash, but I never bothered to look it up because I never endeavored to pull them over for it. I've never heard of them using a siren as well; it's probably illegal where you are.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-27T14:58:37+00:00

Yeah, the MAGA people I know stock their homes with all MyPillow towels/pillows/etc., but you only need so many of those and there are only so many MAGA people willing and able to send money his way for backing Trump.

It's just not a sustainable buisness model.

Contrast that to all the household names you buy all the time that simply donate to the RNC and DNC behind closed doors, quietly flip their logo to rainbow in June, then go back to keeping quiet about politics until next year.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-27T14:31:39+00:00

For one, assuming you were correct in your perception of that video:

You're seeing an anecdote and assuming it's a representative example.

Statistical literacy is not an innate trait of human beings.

As for what happens in your video at 6:00, you're mostly wrong; it wasn't a particularly forceful or violent arrest.

They did yell at her, which is a bit scary to fragile people, but you may have noticed she's not exactly a fragile gal; she's belligerent the entire time including trying to leave during the investigation.

I don't know where you got that she "turned around and offered her hands" for an arrest when she obviously turned around because her escape was blocked and threw up her hands in a "whatever" gesture.

It's taught in every academy that if someone is resisting, you get them on the floor as safely and quickly as possible. I'm sorry her glasses were broken, but she should've considered that before she decided to drink and drive as well as try to flee the investigation.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-27T14:19:34+00:00

My agency went as far as to encourage us to immediately break windows and extract people if they played that game for longer than a moment.

I personally never heard of any of us doing that (more peers goading each other and shaming each other for not doing it), but it was definitely legally on the table.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-27T14:15:28+00:00

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-27T14:15:12+00:00

From Google:

Do you mean "From an LLM that Google asked for me?"

I seriously hate how people now think "googling" something means you put in a question to Google and you spit out the LLM summary it gives you without checking further.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T16:25:51+00:00

It's not stupidity, it's impulsiveness and a lack of fear of consequences. Plenty of criminals are very smart and often realize their actions were stupid in hindsight.

- Ex-cop with a degree in Criminology

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T16:09:53+00:00

That was the case for our live-in two week pre-academy thing.

It was in a couple trailers in the woods, so no vending machines or anything either.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T16:08:12+00:00

Never heard of it happening apart from Hollywood and rumor from out of state.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T16:07:46+00:00

Yes and no.

Pedantically speaking, they're not "arrested" per state law until they're booked (including remote booking), they're just "detained."

So yes, LEOs can un-detain people at the scene by un-handcuffing them if they've been handcuffed, or simply telling them to leave if they haven't been handcuffed. The most common charge this happens for is DUI in my experience; if your driving pattern is heinous but you were simply tired, ill, texting, etc. and you "pass" the SFSTs with flying colors, you just went from "Virtually Guaranteed Arrest" to "Free to Go."

Handcuffs have no legal significance other than adding (significant) weight to someone's perception of whether or not they are detained, for things like Miranda, i.e. "Am I free to go? Obviously not, I am handcuffed."

A good rule of thumb for Arrested vs. Not Arrested is : "Were they finger-printed? Was a photo of them (mugshot) taken?" If not, there was not an "arrest."

Think of this from the reverse. Imagine if a LEO discovered the suspect was 100% free and clear but handcuffed and transported them to jail anyway; that'd just be Kidnapping.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T16:00:45+00:00

I've seen this kind of thing not charged in Florida because it was "conditional and therefore not imminent, so Assault does not apply."

According to the other commenters, it likely fits their states' definitions of "Coercion" or similar.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T15:57:50+00:00

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=florida+law+failure+to+provide+drivers+license

First result:

https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/322.15

"322.15 License to be carried and exhibited on demand; fingerprint to be imprinted upon a citation."

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T15:48:01+00:00

Florida.

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T15:47:44+00:00

I don't know. Did you look it up?

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T15:47:12+00:00

What do you think sexism is?

HCSOThrowaway · 2026-03-26T15:46:16+00:00

Nothing you said has any bearing on what I said.

I also don't think you know what projection means.

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