You can now get a citation for making direct eye contact with a cop

[Umbran]

Y
Unless you stare at somebody's gender related body regions, every person must have the right to look wherever they may in a social situation free from judgement.

I don't think dealing with a cop working in his or her professional role really counts as a "social" situation.

As described, the whole thing sounds like, "He looked at me funny, so I followed his car, waited until he made a minor infraction, and then pulled him over for it to see if I could catch him at something worse. I couldn't, so issued a minor traffic citation, and made some ill-considered comments about how and why this stop happened."

Now, I can guess a cop can develop an intuition based on human behavior. Then, following to see if there really is something up makes at least some plausible sense. But, this guy was driving - so how much eye contact could he really have made? Did the suspect pull up to a stop-light next to the cop and stare like he was expecting to drag race, or something?

 

[gamerprinter]

Whenever I make eye contact with a police officer, I generally offer a very slight and pleasant smile and nod my head, as if to say "hello". Usually cops nod back and suspicions are out the door. Though because of my short (near military haircut) and normal clothing, I usually don't appear suspicious, so that might be a part as well.

 

[Kramodlog]

I just thought of a secondary problem with this. To a racist, a black man looking you in the eyes would be an affront as he dared raise his gaze from the ground.

Maybe it was just perception, but the times I went in the US, I found that black employees refered to me more often as "sir" than white ones. Althought the use of "sir", or its frech equivalents, is way more common in the US than in Québec. So maybe it just appeared more prevalent.

In videos of cops pulling black people over, I noticed they use the word sir a lot. I haven't compared with videos of white people being pulled over.

 

[gamerprinter]

I generally say "sir" to any person of authority, and often to older males as well, though I did serve in the military. Though I'm not completely white (half Japanese), I pretty much look white.

 

[Kramodlog]

On a totally unrelated note, a man with his hands up is shot by Texas cops. http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/us/san-antonio-bexar-county-texas-police-shooting/

 

[Umbran]

In videos of cops pulling black people over, I noticed they use the word sir a lot. I haven't compared with videos of white people being pulled over.

In the US, referring to a cop as "sir" or "officer" is pretty typical, no matter your skin color.

 

[Morrus]

In the US, referring to a cop as "sir" or "officer" is pretty typical, no matter your skin color.

Sir is a pretty common word over there, I've noticed. It stands out to me, as it's fairly uncommon to hear the word here, but plenty of you folks use it with each other. We certainly don't use it when speaking to the police.

 

[Umbran]

Sir is a pretty common word over there, I've noticed. It stands out to me, as it's fairly uncommon to hear the word here....

Well, for you folks, it is still an official form of address, as you still have knights. I would not be surprised if that would lead you folks to using the term differently.

 

[Kramodlog]

I think it is more about the US's relationship with authority and republicanism. We do not use "monsieur" very much here, and it isn't associated with knights or anything. In France though, a republic that value authority and hierarchy, "monsieur" and "vous" are very common.

 

[Morrus]

I think it is more about the US's relationship with authority and republicanism. We

I dunno about that. I've been called it by random people in the U.S. A woman on the bus in San Fransisco, for example, or someone asking for change. Nothing to do with authority. .