General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Should citizens always be submissive to law enforcement officers? [View all]BeyondGeography
(41,071 posts)She gave an honest, and vulgarity-free, response to his comment that she seemed irritated (inappropriate question, which she nevertheless answered honestly and persuasively). All this child-cop could respond was, "are you finished?" (juvenile) then he asks her to put her cigarette out (he had no legal right to demand that) and things escalated, just as the cop wanted them to.
So the question in this case is about more than surviving by being "submissive." By the time the cigarette question was asked, Ms. Bland had been repeatedly baited by this cop.
From your OP, we obviously don't disagree. I just hope a world of hurt comes down on Brian Encinia for what he did here. It was against protocol, it was unsupported by the law and it led to the death of a human being.