That clearly wasn't true of Lone Star. It's kind of hard to put them through the state required 30 weeks of training by certified trainers before getting police powers in the way they were used as strikebreakers.

"Mr Vladski, you have a headlight out." This is called reasonable suspicion. They could have jsut as easily claimed you crossed the center line, were driving suspiciously slow, too fast, or looked at them the wrong way. It gives them the right to pull you over.
"I'm sorry officer, I didn't realize that. I'll be sure to take care of it first thing in the morning."
"Mr. Vladski, your eyes appear a bit red. Are you under the influence of anything?" This is more reasonable suspicion that facilitates wanting to search your vehicle. Doesn't matter if it's 2am and they are red because you wear contacts and have been up for 20 hours.
"No, officer."
"Would you please step out of the vehicle."
"Yes, sir." Complies
Officer pokes head into vehicle and shines light around while his partner stands to the rear and covers your every move. "Do you have any illegal drugs or weapons in the vehicle?"
"No, officer."
"Would you care if I search the vehicle?" He is already rummaging around, opening hatches and cubbies and feeling under the seats.
"No, I would prefer you didn't."
"You don't want me to search? Are you afraid I will find something?" Pulls sealed opaque leather bag from under passenger seat.
"No sir. I do not want you searching my vehicle."
"How about this bag, Mr. Vladski?" As he unzips it.
"No, there will be no search."
"Hmmm, what is in this clear plastic baggie, Mr. Vladski? It appears to be marijuana"
"I have no idea, officer."
"Mr. Vladski, you are under arrest for possession of marijuana. Officer Roberts, please do a field test on this green leafy matter while I read him his rights."

Yes, I am caucasion. Irish, Scot, French primarily. Why?

Vlad

So am I, and my experiences have been similar. The non-caucasian version, according to a few of my friends, goes something like this:

"Hey, pal. Where you headed?"
"Home from work, officer."
"Oh yeah? How much she chargin'?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Who's car is this?"
"Mine."
"Yours?"
"Mine."
"Man. She must be chargin' a lot, then. Out of the car."
"May I ask why I've been stopped, sir?"
"You can ask whatever you want after you step out of the car."
"Yes sir."
(civvy steps out of the car)
"Did you just try to pull a knife on me?" (Cop slams civvy against hood of car) "Hey Johnny, did this nigger just try to pull a knife on me?" (bloody beatdown commences)

(a few minutes later)
"So, we've got assaulting an officer, probably a stolen vehicle, probably fake ID, and hey look at this... is that a joint? I think it is!"

Oh, I don't doubt it. I've known how several of my non-caucasion friends have been treated. While that's a bit over the top for their tales, it's not that far off. I grew up and live in the Midwest, central Indiana, in a town of around 50K and an hour from Indianapolis. It's a blue collar/agricultural area. Racism is quite prevalent, but somewhat undertoned. It mostly looks down on Blacks and Hispanics... basically in that order, but since the first Gulf war anyone that is from the Middle East or looks like they are from the Middle East has problems. Our police department has undergone scrutiny several times over the last decade by Federal authorities for a myriad of corruption. There were several deaths in our local county jail that were caused by the jailers. But to the best of my knowledge no one was ever oifficially charged with a wrong doing, tho' a few people were dismissed.

I was married for 5 years to an Indian gal (Hindi, not American) and we have a child together. We lived in central Florida during the Gulf War in the early 90's and were treated to a LOT of racism there, with folks frequently mistaking her for a Middle Easterner. Being married to her really opened my eyes to how prevelant racism is all over htis country and it makes me alternatley sick and outraged. I've been involved in a few altercations over the years because I sided with a friend of another color over my white aquaintances. I will never understand true racism by fairly intelligent, educated people. Yet, in my experience, they are almost hte worst offenders.

Vlad

Man, you guys are telling some funny jokes about how often some (small section of) cops do some (small section of) crazy shit, huh?

Or do you really think they just cruise around all day, every day, pulling every black person they see over, beating him bloody for no reason, and then arresting them for a half dozen made-up crimes? Do you really think that most cops pull over everyone else they see for no reason, illegally search their car, always have their dash-cams turned off, and plant evidence every chance they get? Do you really think the situation (such as it is) could be anywhere near as bad as you're painting it right now, and go on for very long at all?

Yes, there are some bad cops out there. Yes, they're the ones you hear about far more often than the good ones. No, though, that doesn't mean the vast and overwhelming majority of them out there aren't good people who do their shit by the book, and get nothing for it but a salary that their communities should be ashamed of, steaming shovels full of bullshit from people that don't know what they're talking about, and a giant target on their back every time they put on their uniform.

Quite[/i] different. Dirty cops are the norm, not the exception, in just about every scrap of published material we've ever seen. Every cop in Shadowrun is a white human that hates everyone that isn't a white human, every cop in Shadowrun beats up on people for fun and that's why they got the job in the first place, every cop in Shadowrun rolls around naked on piles of stolen evidence every night and is so dirty he masturbates with a credstick from the local Mafia don up his butt, every cop is in someone's pocket, kissing someone's ass, and spends his weekends hanging out with his Humanis buddies -- but that doesn't mean it's not the exact opposite in real life.

There are dirty cops out there, fellas, but they're the headline-grabbing minority, and no one hates them more than the good cops whose reputations they sully.

Even with my colorful past, I'd rather live in a world with cops than one without.

The cure can be worse than the disease.

Which is why we have... HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN!

Oh, I don't doubt it. I've known how several of my non-caucasion friends have been treated. While that's a bit over the top for their tales, it's not that far off.

NEW YORK - Civil rights leaders demanded a federal investigation and vowed to march through the streets in protest after three police officers were cleared of all charges Friday in the killing of an unarmed man cut down in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day.

The verdict by Justice Arthur Cooperman elicited gasps as well as tears of joy and sorrow. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, wept at the defense table, while the mother of victim Sean Bell cried in the packed courtroom. Shouts of "Murderers! Murderers!" and "KKK!" rang out on the courthouse steps.

Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed outside a seedy strip club in Queens in 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The officers — undercover detectives who were investigating reports of prostitution at the club — said they thought one of the men had a gun.

The slaying heightened tensions in the city and stoked long-standing allegations of racism and excessive use of force on the part of New York City's police, even though two of the officers charged are black.

In announcing his verdict in the non-jury trial, the judge said that the inconsistent testimony, courtroom demeanor and rap sheets of the prosecution witnesses — mainly Bell's friends — "had the effect of eviscerating" their credibility.

"At times, the testimony just didn't make sense," the judge said.

Police had assigned extra officers to the courthouse and had helicopters in the air to help deal with any unrest. But within an hour, the angry, weeping crowd of about 200 people outside the courthouse had scattered, and despite a few scuffles, no arrests were made.

Oliver and Gescard Isnora were acquitted of charges that included manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment. The third officer, Marc Cooper, faced lesser charges.

The verdict does not entirely resolve issues surrounding the case.

After the verdict, the U.S. attorney's office said it will look into the case and "take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable violation of federal criminal civil rights statutes."

In addition, relatives of the victims have sued the city, and those cases could either go to trial or be settled out of court with the potential for multimillion-dollar payouts.

Also, the officers, who had been on paid leave, still face possible departmental charges that could result in their firing. While the judge found that the officers' behavior was not criminal, he added, "Questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to other forums."

The officers appeared somber later at a news conference. Each called the verdict fair. One apologized.

"I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," Cooper said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represents Bell's family, demanded a federal investigation.

"This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," the civil rights leader said on his radio show. He said he is organizing "economic withdrawal" and "civil disobedience" that could involve going to jail and marching on Wall Street, at the judge's house and at police headquarters.

"We are going to close the city down in a nonviolent, effective way," Sharpton said. "We're going to hit the pocketbooks. We're going to let you know that we are not going to be in any way diverted from exercising our civil rights."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "We don't expect any violence, nor is there any place for it."

The officers had complained that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers. They opted to have the judge instead of a jury decide the case, a strategy that appeared to pay off.

District Attorney Richard Brown said that despite losing the case, prosecutors had "revealed significant deficiencies" in police tactics that need "prompt and serious attention."

The case brought back painful memories of other New York police shootings, such as the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was gunned down in a barrage of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case led to days of protests, with hundreds arrested.

"An ugly pattern is emerging in New York," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in Chicago after Friday's verdict. "This was a massacre. This was not a shootout. And the U.S. attorney general must give America the assurance that we all have equal protection under the law,"

The nearly two-month trial was marked by deeply divergent accounts of the night.

The defense painted the victims as drunken thugs who the officers believed were armed and dangerous. Prosecutors sought to convince the judge that the victims had been minding their own business, and that the officers were inept, trigger-happy cowboys.

Bell's companions — Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman — were both wounded; Guzman still has four bullets lodged in his body. Both testified. Guzman, a burly ex-convict, grew combative during cross-examination, and said of Isnora: "This dude is shooting like he's crazy, like he's out of his mind."

None of the officers took the stand. Instead, the judge heard transcripts of the officers telling a grand jury that they believed they had good reason to use deadly force.

The officers said that as the club closed around 4 a.m., they heard Guzman say, "Yo, go get my gun" — something Bell's friends denied.

Isnora claimed that after he warned the men to halt, Bell pulled away in his car, bumped him and rammed an unmarked police van that converged on the scene. The detective also said Guzman made a sudden move as if he were reaching for a gun.

Benefield and Guzman testified that there were no orders from the police.

With tires screeching, glass breaking and bullets flying, the officers said they believed they were the ones under fire. Oliver responded by emptying his semiautomatic pistol, reloading, and emptying it again. Isnora fired 11 rounds, and Cooper four. Two other officers who fired weren't charged.

When the smoke had cleared, there was no weapon inside Bell's blood-splattered car.

1/3 of African American males over age 30 have been incarcerated. Unless you are prepared to argue that they are more criminal as a race...

...White-Boy from the 'Burbs Fiddy-Impersonator drives up in his Riced-out Civic, and comes in all acting like he's hard 'cause of his clothing and stuff...

4. Discussion of politics, religion, and sex are prohibited, except as they directly pertain to Shadowrun or another game. Discussions on these subjects will be watched closely, and any innapropriate posts may result in warnings or suspensions.

One problem I've noticed with particular styles of SR play:

With certain groups, you wind up with an escalating body count. Eventually, a GM gets fed up with how brutal, sadistic, and callous the group has become, and uses the Law to put an end to it.

Unfortunately, pretty soon the GM turns any run where he doesn't like the players' attitudes into a scene from Grand Theft Auto - and often times, the players are perfectly willing to play along.

In one recent game, the team tore through several miles of downtown Santa Barbara, firing rocket launchers, Panther cannon and miniguns at the pursuing cop cars. They managed to kill about 60 cops, 400+ civilians and several local spirits before reaching international waters. (The GM made the mistake of giving them this gear to take down a paramilitary threat; they responded by killing the Johnson outright and robbing some banks with the gear instead. My character had bugged out early, because I don't really appreciate that style of play.)

My solution, as GM of the next session, was simple: I made sure to set the next run at the same time, and had the entire party obliterated while sitting in a Stuffer Shack waiting for a call from Johnson, by a rampaging group of outlaws who were running from the cops. It took the players a minute or two before they realized that I was describing their "main" characters, and they suddenly realized that they had been casually killed by their own alts. Harsh, but I was a bit fed up.

One problem I've noticed with particular styles of SR play:

With certain groups, you wind up with an escalating body count. Eventually, a GM gets fed up with how brutal, sadistic, and callous the group has become, and uses the Law to put an end to it.

Unfortunately, pretty soon the GM turns any run where he doesn't like the players' attitudes into a scene from Grand Theft Auto - and often times, the players are perfectly willing to play along.

In one recent game, the team tore through several miles of downtown Santa Barbara, firing rocket launchers, Panther cannon and miniguns at the pursuing cop cars. They managed to kill about 60 cops, 400+ civilians and several local spirits before reaching international waters. (The GM made the mistake of giving them this gear to take down a paramilitary threat; they responded by killing the Johnson outright and robbing some banks with the gear instead. My character had bugged out early, because I don't really appreciate that style of play.)

Aside from anything else, international waters doesn't mean you're safe. International waters just mean you're fair game for any country that decides to take you out. A very reasonable way of dealing with something like that, would be for the UCAS military or Lone Star to send out some bombers to take their ship out.

Not to call you out personally but this is what I mean.

My criteria for letting the PC's get out of trouble is this.

1) What's going to happen if it goes bad? TPK? PC death? End of the campaign? Do I want any of those? Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. It depends on the individual campaign.
2) Was it amusing? Not necessarily lol amusing but did I have fun running them through it?
3) Did the rest of the group enjoy it? Even if one PC (say the face) was responsible for talking their way out of the situation did everyone enjoy the interplay? Did they inject comments, advice and criticism? Were they laughing?
4) Was it creative? Did the player come up with something new (even if it was a bit off the wall) or did he just fall back on the same tired response?
5) Does it seem reasonable at first blush?

Needless to say "is it realistic" doesn't even make the list, even 'plausible' is last on the list. My reasoning behind this is that the sessions where PC's come up with crazy schemes are the sessions that people remember.

Just as an example. Probably 4 or 5 years ago my group was running through the old 2nd ed adventure about the cybereye. The name escapes me. We were at the rave thing at the mall and it just so happened that one of the PC's had a day job as a security guard at said mall. Now the logical thing to do (and the thing we probably should have done if we were being real 'pros') would have been to summon Lone Star using his authority, use them to bust up the party and use the sec guard's character as a distraction while we preformed the run.

What actually happened was the Sec Guard PC started flashing his badge and shouting "DISPERSE!" while chucking stun grenades. The rave turned into a riot as Lone Star showed up anyhow and we got into a big firefight with the cops before escaping into the barrens. We got away scott free. Why? because everyone had a blast playing the running gun battle. Everyone participated. My street sam cut a hole in the roof of the teams van and improvised a pintle mount for his LMG, the mage kicked open the back door and started chucking spells, the sec guard drove the van while leaning out the window and plugging away with his pistol while the physad with the motorcycle acted as an outrider and scout. We even had the noncombat decker leaning out the window firing a combat shotgun he didn't know how to use. It was a great time, a little goofy at points but it was still probably one of our most memorable sessions.

We still talk about that session and 'DISPERSE!' has become practically the groups battlecry when dealing with a huge mob.

Yeah... And those automated systems work *SO* well...

Yeah... And those automated systems work *SO* well...

Guy I know in Northern Ontario was ticketed in Quebec City for "Running a red light in a red Ford pick-up truck." when his license plate is registered to a blue Chevy sedan.

Oh, here's more of a kicker, he could prove he was in Ontario at the time, but, legally, you have to fight the ticket in the issuing city. Uni-lingual Anglophone fighting a ticket in Quebec City? Could have all the evidence and the best lawyer in the world, and still lose.

He paid the damn thing, and made sure the Newspapers knew about it.

Is it fun/amusing/memorable? yes/no
And that totally sounds like an awesome run.
That's a solid game plan if I've ever heard one. It varies from group to group but CSI:Cops-rape-you-with-jupiter-stun-baton-run is not everyones cup of tea.