Brickbat: Following Too Closely

Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Thomas Smith was sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law. In June 2020, Smith was patrolling the homes of members of Congress in the Georgetown area, when according to court documents, he started pursuing two motorcycles at a high rate of speed without running his lights. Prosecutors said Smith swerved his patrol car into one of the motorcycles, knocking the driver into the air and onto the asphalt. According to the indictment, Smith then left the injured driver unconscious on the ground, did not file a report on the incident, and falsified police records to cover up his actions.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

His greatest crime was leaving our betters unguarded while he went after commoners.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Wait till the retard writing this brick bat realizeses that this is pretty tame compared to the Capitol police stazi that lied under oath to get political prisoners to be held I jaild for years without trial.

[Chumby]

Only 21 months in prison? Did the motorcyclists have pro Trump stickers on their vehicles?

[SQRLSY]

No, their Greatest Sin was that they did NOT agree with "Hang Mike Pence!"

(AuthorShitarian copsuckers generally belong to "Team R", ya know.)

[Vernon Depner]

If the motorcyclist had loud after-market pipes, then I approve leaving him for dead.

[Idaho-Bob]

In DC?

Likely a couple young black kids on Honda Groms.

[emkcams]

Just curious: how does "high rate of speed" differ from "high speed"? It would be interesting if the author would explain how the former is more informative than the latter. I don't mean to pick on the author, as all journalists seem to do this. Another instance is the frequent use of "convicted felon" as opposed to "felon": there is no such thing as a felon that is not convicted.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Oh, my neighbor would beg to differ! Her son plead to a plea deal, so my calling him a convict was a grave misjustice worth some 30+ texts.

[Dillinger]

a former writing instructor rewarded us ala golf. fewest words wins.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

No golf caps?

[Dillinger]

no, golf claps

[mad.casual]

Just curious: how does “high rate of speed” differ from “high speed”? It would be interesting if the author would explain how the former is more informative than the latter.

Technically it refers to two different things that the author is incorrectly using interchangeably. Rate of speed would be acceleration and speed would be velocity. If you drop from 99.9% of light speed to 99% of light speed you actually had an exceedingly low rate of speed even though you were traveling at a fairly high speed the before and after.

[LIBtranslator]

The rate at which speed changes is acceleration: a=dv/dt. Few journalists know that, but that, too, may be changing over time.

[Dillinger]

to some life is a perpetual game of Spy Hunter.

[LIBtranslator]

OOOOOO! Now that Reason has tumbled to how asset-forfeiture looting under color of Republican prohibitionism CRASHES the entire economy... AND Reason has called attention to Rebel Ridge and how cop car gumball machines now activate audiovisual recording of cops committing robbery, murder and shooting pet dogs... Like Grace Slick said: "It's a New Dawn!"