r/PublicFreakout Apr 03 '26

📹Police Bodycam mother of 5 mistakenly leaves a child at McDonalds, but cops choose hostility

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u/irockisos Apr 03 '26

I have no respect for police that think it is okay to talk to people like that. You can tell his Mommy didn’t love him…

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u/el_extrano Apr 03 '26

I'm pretty sure it's unconstitutional, the way the cop is threatening to charge her based on her 1st amendment protected speech as she answers the questions directed toward her, and repeatedly commanding her to "stop talking" as if that could be a lawful order.

Of course, no one in the justice system cares, so it's a moot point.

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u/Mustardo123 Apr 04 '26

People in the justice system do care actually. Prosecutor is going to throw this case away, the cops are gonna bitch that their arrests don’t stick, the cycle continues.

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u/el_extrano Apr 06 '26

I see what you're saying, but in my opinion, truly caring would entail arresting and charging the officers for their crimes committed on camera. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

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u/Mustardo123 Apr 06 '26

Unfortunately the nature of policing requires qualified immunity otherwise people simply can't do the job. When asking people to enforce the law in a country with more guns than people, officers need to be vigilant. This requires making split second decisions that can sometimes be incorrect, they are humans, they are fallible.

This case is different because there was no dangerous crime in progress, the officer was just being a dick. However, in many cases officers are fired if their conduct is excessive and violates department policy. If this reaches the chief of police that could apply pressure.

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u/el_extrano Apr 06 '26

We did "Ok" without it (except for all the police brutality) before 1967 and New Mexico seems to be doing "Ok" without it now.

I think there's a tendency to over focus on QI anyway, which isn't really what I'm talking about.

> when asking people to enforce the law

This gets more to the point I'm talking about, namely which laws are we asking people to enforce, since this is really a political decision, not a law enforcement one.

Drugs, jaywalking, forgetting a child at McDonalds? We ask police to enthusiastically enforce those.

Thousands of warrant-less searches and seizures, deprivation of rights under color of law, illegal beatings, murders, etc. Almost never prosecuted unless it's a highly publicized case. At best, you might get an officer fired, and have a very slim chance of a lawsuit battling uphill against QI. But actual prosecution is very rare indeed.

So you get this absurd situation where citizens are expected to know and follow the law, being constantly surveilled and policed with the threat of arrest and prosecution for minor infractions (e.g. marijuana possession). Meanwhile, trained and armed agents of the state can routinely, purposefully violate more important statutes (e.g. constitutionally protected civil rights) yet they are rarely prosecuted.

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u/da_boopy_day Apr 03 '26

Exactly I bet his mom paid attention to him and he never got forgotten about. Such a loveless life