That's no answer! EXPANDED

The ever-effusive and usually wrong Joe Scarborough pontificated about what officers are supposed to do when their directions are ignored:

"Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who was a guest on Tuesday's show, said he wondered what an officer is technically supposed to do in a situation where someone is not obeying orders to sit or lie down.

'If they're teenagers and they're wearing bathing suits, I can tell you what you don't do,' Scarborough responded. 'You don't pull out a gun!'"

That's not an answer - "What do you do?"  You never answered the question dumbass.  As usual, be it Joe or Jon Stewart and any number of other commentators, they have no answer for what an officer should do.  They sit in their offices with their public megaphones expounding on how it should be handled.  Pick up a weapon, stand a post, go out there and walk into the middle of a crowd of rowdy teens and see how you do - or STFU.

1.  We task LE with enforcing laws and rules.  We expect them to respond when we call them and to take appropriate action to remedy such situations. This was private property, the person responsible for it called LE because when residents tried to handle it they were threatened.  We do not expect LE to arrive, see a large group of teens acting out and say "Sorry we can't do anything about this, they are black and only teenagers".  Perhaps people like Joe and Jon could, in some detail, explain how they expect the LE on such a scene to respond when tasked to take control of people who refuse to follow lawful directions. I doubt they will - it is not their shtick. Perhaps we could bus a group of teens into their private neighborhoods to piss in their pool and see if they sing kumbaya.

2. In case Joe, Jon or anyone else has not paid attention, teens have been involved in many killings and group assaults in recent years.  Teens are not little cherubs.  Although it would be racist of me to suggest that there may be some groups that are more likely than others to engage in such group assaults, it is clear based on the behavior seen in the videos, that one such group may have been involved here. You are one LE, you were called to quell a disturbance, you are trying to control one person who refuses to follow legal direction, there are 10 or so dancing in around you in threatening postures.  I guess if you are Joe or Jon, you run away and let them do what they want.  Dark Paradise.

3.  "But they're only teens" - see #2.  A gang of teens, all of whom are the same size as the officer and who refuse to take legal direction, who have a gang mentality and a sense of entitlement and anonymity. Fortunately, but to little effect, later on The Rundown, Jose Belart had a criminologist on who introduced him to the concept of "Disparity of Force" - although she did not call it that.  Just because they are teens does not make them harmless - a gang of teens may easily overpower an officer, take his weapon and use it on him.  The popular myth of "unarmed teens" is a fiction created by people who live in artificial bubbles and have an agenda. Disparity of force is one legal justification for using deadly force in self-defense. 2, 3, or 10 unarmed people can be as lethal as any weapon.

4.  So, I say let's have Joe Scarborough and Jon Stewart out on the street (kind of like an Adam 12 for dumbasses), roll up on a gang of unruly and rebellious teens who are trespassing (you know, the kind that have been told by Joe and Jon that LE really should not and cannot force them to obey the law), and see how they react.  I am sure they will just have a good rational discussion and that will solve the issue (NOT)I suspect they will wet their pants and end up bitches, hoping that some armed civilian sees them getting stomped and comes to their rescue.

We will soon find, given the unrealistic expectations and continued harassment that LE are being subjected to, that they will no longer be there when called.  Why would anyone want to roll on such a call when they know that they cannot do what it takes to handle the situation, that nothing they do will be right unless they just let people do as they please.  We expect civilians to simply avoid and not intervene when they see such behavior - we expect LE to intervene on the behalf of the citizenry, to enforce the law and to protect private property.   Yet when they do and react to potential threats, we engage in post-hoc analysis of their actions given the limitations we set upon them.  Soon, they will stop responding, soon they will be looking for other jobs.

We wonder why there is lawlessness among teens these days; why a Trayvon might attack a Zimmerman, why a Michael Brown might try to attack a Darren Wilson, why teen criminals are so brazen.  Joe and Jon and others tell them that it is their right to act as they please and that no one can expect or demand that they follow lawful orders.

Yes, Dark Paradise.