Tulsan takes stand, gets beat down

[cannon_fodder]

Tulsafan, violence is always a big deal to me.  BUT, since the officer decided not to do anything I'll have to assume that it was not significant.  It boils down to me trusting the officer over Tim (who has come on this board and made an donkey of himself and, I believe, has been banned before).

I don't mean to make light of a situation involving violence, but if the cop in this situation thought it was a situation not worthy of his attention - I'll have to side with him.

And Tim, I understand that is what you are getting at.  But you must agree that over the course of your tenure here you have given most reason to regard your point of view with suspicion.  AGAIN, sorry this went south and I know it is a big deal to you - but the officer apperently disagreed.

[TulsaFan-inTexas]

CF, I think highly of your opinion and am grateful that you took the time to respond. Perhaps I am sensitive to this issue because I have been in a similar situation before. I do realize that I don't know every detail.

Tim, I hope you get some kind of resolution to the issue that satisfies you. Any person that is the victim of a violent act deserves protection from the law.

I hate violence, as I'm sure most of you do. And I'm a US Army veteran that was involved in several "situations," so violence isn't something foreign to me.

I put a lot of faith in the Police, whom I think are fine people (and underpaid, btw).

Tim, I sympathize with you and hope things work out for the best. And for everyone else, thanks for the response.

It's good to debate things in a civil tone.

[tim huntzinger]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

Tulsafan, violence is always a big deal to me.  BUT, since the officer decided not to do anything I'll have to assume that it was not significant.  It boils down to me trusting the officer over Tim (who has come on this board and made an donkey of himself and, I believe, has been banned before).

THREE YEARS AGO was I banned from the forum.  THREE YEARS. Get over it haters! []

What it boils down to is that it occurs to me that there is no way no cop is going to court in a he said/she said situation, and that I said that several posts ago.

Thanks Tulsafan for your empathy.  This has really changed the way I look at everything.

Where I have published inaccuracies in the past I have retracted and corrected them; when I have been unfairly critical I have apologized; if I have purposely offended I have more than tried to make good.

The take-away from this for you cops and friends of cops is better watch out who you are snotty to because not everyone you encounter - no matter how much like 'Earl' they look like at the time - is an idiot.  I understand why they could not really take this to court and I realize that no matter how much the assailant offended my wife's honor I should not have opened the door without a shotgun in my hand.   But I will never, ever, ever forget that one cop's attitude.  One bad apple? You frigging betcha!

Wait wait, ain't done yet! Is this not the same TPD that is asking for anonymous neighborhood snitches? So they get a snitch and he gets his face broken! And the broke-face snitch is lauded with a news story and the TPD congratulates him for his courage! This is the same DA who let a homeless psychotic free cuz 'a mans got the right to defend himself' even if it means the loon beat a helpless man to death while the man was on the ground.

Now if any of my detractors want to show where I have knowingly issued false, defammatory, or libelous statements, come forth. In fact, show where I have been censured or lost an argument on this forum.

I poop on you, haters.

[Goodpasture]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder



I don't mean to make light of a situation involving violence, but if the cop in this situation thought it was a situation not worthy of his attention - I'll have to side with him.

Since when is it the cops job to decide what is and isn't worthy of his attention? If a citizen FEELS himself threatened the a cop should investigate. If an assault of ANY kind has taken place, with or without a cop being a witness, then the cop owes it to the people that are paying his wages to investigate it. If the contractor has witnesses, then bring them out and check their story......see if it was concocted.....I guarantee you one or more of the non-witnesses will think twice about a lie when faced with perjury. If it turns out the contractor was trespassing when putting up a sign then that alone should be sufficient evidence of intent.

If more of these guys were busted and had to face the consequences of their actions, and those consequences carried real meaning, the Tulsa community would be far more pleasant.

[tim huntzinger]

Unfortunately, unless their is conclusive physical evidence there is nothing that can be done.  Otherwise, it is honestly impossible to prosecute the case.  And in the case of the man whose face got broken that is not enough - they know the people involved but cannot prove who exactly put him down.  Sometimes, in Gumm's case, the cops exercise discretion at the scene only to be shown to have erred (according to the DA).

And sometimes, even when a Federal case is made against an alleged gang informant a successful prosecution is not enough. (KJRH)

[cannon_fodder]

Good pasture, that's a great idea.  But in reality that's not how it works.

We only have so many officers, investigators, prosecutors and courtrooms.  Only so much time and so many resources are available.  It IS an officers job to determine which incidents are deserving of public resources and he is given a broad discretion in that matter.  I'd rather the officer tell Tim sorry and find the more troublesome members of society (and stop wasting time on pot smokers too).

Frankly, if every incident that was reported was dragged through the system it would just stop it's slow crawl all together.  This is a he-said he-said.  The battery left no injury.  There is no evidence of the assault.  The underlying cause is a civil matter.  

The threat of perjury is a total joke (go find out how many people are in David L Moss for perjury right now). To get to that stage we would have to take this guy for trial for pushing Tim.  Tie up an officer for half a day, a prosecutor and defense council for half a day, a judge and courtroom for a couple hours and on and on.  We're talking THOUSANDS of public dollars to get him on the stand... then even if we could prove he lied he wouldn't go to jail for perjury (I know they always do in Law and Order, but seriously it rarely happens in the real world).

Tim is exactly correct.  If his story is correct and this lowlife did manhandle him a bit he has no real recourse unless HE wants to pursue it.  He can make it a civil action or pester the DA's office to try and get something done.  But all those options are really dead ends.

Serious assaults are not often solved.  Car thefts not even really investigated.  I got SHOT AT on my way home from work and they took a statement and blatantly told me that's all the further it would go.  This isn't a Tulsa thing - it's generally how police are forced to operate.

[tim huntzinger]

Sorry for venting.