\u201cI just finished reading the article on Excessive Force on page 2B,\u201d wrote in Ron the Former Police Officer, on March the 5th. \u201cAnother person was apparently injured in a police confrontation, followed by the usual lawsuit. As a former police detective, I have a solution on how to avoid 99 percent of all injuries, lawsuits, and deaths sustained as a result of a police confrontation,\u201d offers Officer Ron:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen stopped by an officer, do as he asks. Never run from the police, never fight with the police, never get into a shouting match, don\u2019t try to escape from custody. Simply submit, but try to obtain all the info you can, i.e. why am I being stopped, etc. If you feel the officer is in error, there will be ample opportunity to contest the allegations later.\u201d<\/p>\n
That comprises the entirety of Officer Ron\u2019s letter, and advice: \u201cJust submit.\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 27, 2006 People magazine published an article (easily found at http:\/\/www.people.com\/people\/archive\/article\/0,,20061695,00.html<\/a>) that reported what happened to a number of Americans who \u201cjust submitted\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cHeather Southerland had just gotten in her car after an evening visit with a girlfriend in Leesville, La,,\u201d wrote reporter Bill Hewitt in the article, headlined \u201cPhony Cops, Real Victims\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs she drove away, a green Ford Bronco pulled close behind her, flashing its lights. Southerland, 24, turned onto a deserted side street. \u2018The man got out of his Bronco and said, \u201cLeesville Police Department, undercover narcotics, step out of the car,\u201d \u2019 she recalls. He ordered her to walk backwards toward him and put her hands on the trunk of her vehicle. She asked to see his badge\u00d1and he refused. \u2018He said I didn\u2019t need to see his badge,\u2019 she says. \u2018I knew right then something extremely bad was about to happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It did. Seconds later, as she tried to flee, the man grabbed her and raped her at knifepoint. Because she \u201cjust submitted.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSuch incidents happen more often than many people imagine,\u201d the magazine reports. And in this \u201cage of the Internet, where badges and uniforms are readily available, it has never been easier to pull off. While no national statistics are kept, earlier this year the Chicago Sun-Times ran a series on fake cops that documented how in the past three years there had been more than 1,000 cases in the Chicago area alone of people posing as police to commit a variety of crimes. …<\/p>\n \u201cOn Long Island, Reginald Gousse is now on trial for the 2005 murder of assistant bank branch manager James Gottlieb, 49, who was shot after Gousse, who has pleaded not guilty, allegedly pretended to be a police officer and pulled him over. The mortally wounded Gottlieb told a witness, \u2018I stopped because I thought it was a cop.\u2019<\/p>\n So he \u201cjust submitted.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn Blacksburg, S.C., Charles Connor is accused of going into a convenience store last September in a police-style khaki shirt with a two-way radio and a gun on his hip and telling owner Nick Patel that he was a North Carolina cop. … For 90 minutes he hung out in the store, chatting with Patel until they were alone. Then he demanded all his money. Patel, married with two children, turned over $5,168. Then, police say, Connor, a former corrections officer who has pleaded not guilty, shot Patel in the head. \u2018Connor knew enough to convincingly pretend to be a police officer,\u2019 says Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton. …<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes a moment\u2019s compliance is all the fake cop is looking for,\u201d the People article continues. \u201cAccording to authorities, last September Luz Heredia, 53, of Melrose Park, Ill., was in a car on her way to her factory job with two coworkers when a man approached and flashed a badge. Moments later he allegedly grabbed Heredia, who had six grandkids, and pulled her from the vehicle, saying, \u2018You\u2019re coming with me.\u2019 He forced her into his SUV. Less than two hours later she was found sexually assaulted and beaten; she died five days later. (Jorge Dominguez, 28, has been charged in the crime and has pleaded not guilty.) \u2018My mother had her gut instinct,\u2019 says Heredia\u2019s daughter Lina Hernandez. \u2018But she didn\u2019t want to go against the law.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n So she \u201cjust submitted.\u201d<\/p>\n