Comments on: Let’s Be Careful Out There …

By: karmanot

karmanot — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:51:07 +0000

Thanks Bryan! We posted this in full over at our post in the hope that it may protect people in the honest pursue of protesting . Much appreciated. Mand T

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:57:04 +0000

This is based on the instructions in the police academy when they told us why you don’t do these things. There is no exemption in New York Penal Law for using force, even for law enforcement, only defenses. To qualify for the defenses you have to follow the rules.

The procedure is to use the minimum level of force necessary to control the situation. The doctrine starts with the voice as a use of force, so this is a detailed procedure. This isn’t taught as some ‘feel good’ procedure, it is about officer safety. You are not supposed to do anything as an officer that escalates the violence in a situation; you are supposed to minimize it to protect yourself and your fellow officers. If you tried the stuff that the ‘white shirts’ are pulling in NYC on the Saturday night bar-closing crowd, you would have a riot, no matter what your jurisdiction.

I never thought it would be necessary in the United States to tell people how to protect themselves from the police, but it obviously is.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:15:22 +0000

Your list is exactly what we need in these troubled times, Bryan. I linked this post from the YDS. I can no longer demonstrate… when you can only walk a dozen steps, you can’t really march with protesters… but I’ll tell my friends who still can do so to read your post.

By: ellroon

ellroon — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:09:32 +0000

I’m sharing this on facebook. Excellent advise, Bryan!