WTF Stories of the Week

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

All traits of irrationality.

When faced with that kind of emergency/shock/grief, would you stay calm and do as you're told?

What I would do is irrelevant. IF I were to act like that in that situation, I would expect the officer to react exactly the same. An officer CANNOT take the word of someone acting irrationally at face value, that could put their life in danger. The fact that the man's decision to not cooperate stemmed from heightened emotion doesn't change the fact that an officer's correct course of action in that case is to treat someone not following his instructions as possibly dangerous. And at no time during the process did Moats give the officer any indication he was anything but still irrational.

Your "once the situation was clear, the officer should have calmed down" argument goes both ways. Once the initial moment of irrationality was over, Moats should have taken a breath and cooperated. Instead he chose to remain argumentative for 13 minutes. Plus, there is a big difference between someone who is distraught and not thinking clearly, vs. someone who is distraught and acting aggressively. An officer is going to proceed with far more caution with the latter.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Plus, there is a big difference between someone who is distraught and not thinking clearly, vs. someone who is distraught and acting aggressively. An officer is going to proceed with far more caution with the latter.

You're completely right there and had I viewed the video, it would have been apparent. Blame on both sides.