An example of why cops get skittish
 

https://youtube.com/shorts/p5sPIqHiZ0M?si=zebgQP-hHcTWvKD4

Maybe there is a Darwin award/dumb criminal prize available for this guy.

Too little executive function, too many opportunities to exercise that lack thereoff.

Not sure what you’re saying. I thought the cop was pretty mellow in the whole thing. I read where the brother of the deceased was talking about how his brother, younger, really screwed up. He said the cop just wanted to search the vehicle and his brother pulls out a gun. He didn’t even pull it out in very smart fashion, lucky for the officer. He was acting as though he intended to shoot him. If he had calmly gotten the gun ready without the officer noticing, he could’ve gotten out of the vehicle and shot him in a split second.

Just saying the guy who drew the gun acted on impulse. You either control the impulse or not.

There are too many of us running around with diminished impulse control, like yours truly, and this is why I will never own a gun.

Well put. I sometimes fly off in anger at trivial bullshirt. I’m trying to correct that.

The Buddha said: “Restraint. In all things restraint.”

People like to laude spontaneity. Sometimes good, oft times not IMHO.

I've always believed traffic stops of any kind were a bad idea. One day, a cop who happened to be a friend (about the only cop I've ever had as a friend in my life....) were discussing traffic stops. I mentioned the inherent danger of a traffic stop, ESPECIALLY at NIGHT. I slowly watched a look of fear come over his face.

Why? Because a cop might believe he is pulling over one lone solo driver when in fact three guys with AK-47s are hiding the back seat and three more guys with AK-47s are hiding in the trunk of the car, that's why.

There isn't enough money on this planet to make me:

1. want to be a cop

and

2. pull over potentially violent people 50 times a day for a dead tail light.

there are much much safer ways to make a buck......

No surprise. Criminals very rarely want to see law enforced.

That cop did a great job getting away from the guy and drawing his gun at the same time, then nailing him in an apparently fatal place. I noted the mope's buddy jumped out and ran away.

Trump's recent trial must have been a source of great comfort to you...

On any given day, anything can happen to anyone. I look at this life as risk management; so for me, I don't travel on interstate highways for any reason.

Way too many highway men looking to extort monies from travelers.....

I think you're seeing bogeymen under the woodpile there.

I somehow landed in a situation where I feel semi-stuck in the Bay Area. I want to stay for a number of reasons, but all my family is in Washington state. So for the last maybe 18 to 20 years, I drive up mostly on I-5 to visit a couple times a year, getting riders on craigslist rideshare as frequently as possible. That got beat up a little bit during Covid but it's coming back. With three people in the car, it's less carbon per passenger mile than flying. It takes longer, but I have my vehicle up there, save about $500 bucks or more on car rental. With two riders I frequently pay next to nothing for gas.

I've not had a single issue issue remotely like you describe. I've met some interesting people on the rideshares however.

I recently read an article concerning trust. The article said the moment someone does something to you to REALLY betray your trust, you will never trust that man or woman again. EVER.

Question; how can you tell when a politician or government agent is lying?

Answer: when their lips are moving.

I don't know man, sometimes I agree with your point of view quite a bit. But I can't go with the full-time cynicism thing. It can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, certainly in personal encounters. The world is never going to be perfect. We will never have the guarantee of not encountering various flavors of slimeballs on the public thoroughfare, sidewalk, you name it.

I think the best defense is to adopt fearlessness. Studies have shown that muggers and rapists choose people with nervous body language. They know it will be easier to get over on them. It's different with politicians, of course, but I don't think all of them are complete scum.

I've learned through much study and people relating their first hand experiences with cops to me. Do you know how the idea of police first began in America? SLAVE CATCHERS, that's right, they went out and hunted down escaped slaves and returned them to their masters for a ransom/bounty. The slave might get a good beating or lynching and sometimes they got hung up in a tree to teach the other escaped slaves a lesson.

not much has changed since those days, either. A friend of mine, an accountant, interestingly enough calls cops "revenue collection agents".

And then there is the masonic "problem". Every last cop is affilliated with the masons in one form or another.

check it out, there is NO denying this....

Masons in Law Enforcement

The unfortunate reality is there will probably be seriously depraved criminals in our midst to some degree from now on. Sometimes you need some bad ass mofo to bring back the worst of the worst.

Before I pulled the plug, I watched way too much TV. On weekends. MSNBC would have true crime dramas, repeats of Dateline and similar. Do you remember that notorious crime where some guy showed up at a bank with a bomb around his neck, locked in place like handcuffs? Two twisted mo-fos were behind that, they made several attempts at pulling that one off, I forget the details. The first guy was seriously injured from it, killed him thoroughly.

Did you ever hear of the notorious LA rapist duo, one of them was nicknamed "pliers?" These guys were responsible for a number of kidnapping-rape-torture-murders of young women, some of them picked up while hitchhiking. One guy would use vice grips to torture and force them into compliance, squeezing fingers so hard they were about to break for example. I think it's a good thing creeps like that find a long-term home in the big gray house. The 'pliers' guy was pretty proud of himself. He was famous in the epic scumbag criminal world. It was cops who brought them in finally.