Even if you know your rights, police don’t care

Readers respond to a column by Tim Lynch about knowing your rights when stopped by police.

Cops who violate citizen rights need to be heavily punished. They need to be made examples of. Police are in a position of authority, and they have more training in the law, so when they violate laws, they should face harsher penalties than the average citizen, not more lenient ones.

Brian Alan

Citizens need to understand their rights more fully. They also need to understand the limits of their rights. There are times when an officer, acting merely on reasonable suspicion, can lawfully order you to exit your vehicle and can perform a patdown search for weapons.

Citizens also need to understand that whereas an officer has a duty to inform you of the reason for his contact with you, he has no obligation to stop what he’s doing and discuss his reasonable suspicion with you. The side of the road is not the place to argue such things.

Todd Lewis

The abuse of power by police happens because they know they can get away with it. And this will go on until those police officers are punished. Every law enforcement officer and vehicle should have a video camera on them. Police departments need to weed out the bad officers. Merely knowing our rights will just make them mad. Police really are turning into an occupation army.

Roberta Rendozky

There may be exceptions, and of course police officers can be in the wrong, but they normally are acting in good faith, and their actions are reasonable and prudent.

David James

The truth is that after the cop strikes you in the head and yells out loudly to quit resisting, you quickly learn you have no rights.

Eddie Perez