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They should be able to provide protection for suspects. And why is he even handcuffed? Is that a US thing? I've seen even non-violent criminals handcuffed like stock fraud and such, is that just to humiliate them?
As someone with an extensive personal history with the US "Justice" System, I can tell you that there are varying degrees of this depending on your personal history and what part of the country you're in. For most of my court appearances, I wasn't actually allowed in the courthouse, but instead given a very invasive search before being allowed to enter an adjacent building, handcuffed to a bench, asked the same standard questions every time ("What is your gang affiliation?" none. "What drugs do you use?" Does caffeine count? "How many times have you had sex in the past month?" Same as last time you asked.) then I'm given a second, even more invasive search wherein not one orifice of my body is left without fingers in it (and the jokes the staff try to crack about it only serve to upset me more, though I don't show it), then I'm hosed down with cold water for no reason at all and eventually allowed into the "conference room" where there is a webcam and monitor and I appear in court via skype.
While I don't have a history of violence or resisting the police in any way, I'm almost certain that I'm on some kind of secret list of terror suspects or something.
Anyway, the other times I've appeared in court I did so in what I like to think of as the "normal" fashion, I just walked right into the court house wearing a suit and found the courtroom that my trial was to take place in. I'm seen a lot of people (mostly those who look to be between the ages of 12 and 20) wearing shackles around their legs connected to their handcuffs by a short chain, but the closest I've cone to that is being handcuffed to furniture like someone in some kind of f****d up fetish porno, fingered and laughed at. As for safety, it's very rarely a priority in my own experience.
I know I've stated here before that my special interest is security systems and looking back I think that this was (at least in part) born of necessity. Growing up, grampa always told me "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away". That's why he carries a gun and is always prepared to take his safety and that of the people close to him into his own hands. I know from experience that police response times vary quite a bit, but are usually quite hasty for anything I'm involved in. However, I also have seen time and time again that they don't care for my safety. They care to keep me alive (within reason), but hardly seem to hesitate to do something that the know will injure me, perhaps quite seriously.
Of course, I'm
extremely biased on this subject as a result of everything that's happened to me over the past five years or so.
14 Nov 2014, 4:44 am
