There are a lot of videos and web pages out there giving advise on how to behave if you are driving a car in the United States and get stopped by the police. This advise includes keeping your hands always visible on the steering wheel (even and especially while the police officer is walking towards your car), telling the police officer what you are going to do before doing it (such as "it's in my glove compartment, I'm going to reach it", or "it's in my jacket's inside pocket, I'm going to take it out"), not making any sudden moves that may look suspicious (ie. that could be seen by the police officer as you reaching for a hidden gun), and so on and so forth. In fact, police officers themselves often give this advise, and are appreciative if people follow this, for everybody's safety.
The reason for this is, of course, the abundance of gun ownership. Police officers in the United States, especially at some places, are very wary of being attacked by a gun. Every traffic stop is somewhat of a gamble because they never know if it might be eg. some drug junkie or other criminal who might suddenly attack them with a gun. Thus they appreciate when the driver acts calmly, always keeps his hands visible, and always announces what he is going to do instead of doing sudden unexpected moves.
All this sounds completely silly here in Finland. You don't need to do any of this here, nor is the police expecting such things here. And they really don't need to. For the entire history of the Finnish traffic police, I am not aware of even one single incident of a driver attacking a traffic cop with a gun. (Don't get me wrong, such cases might exist. However, even if they do, they are exceedingly rare.)
The Finnish police doesn't need to be so wary and so on their toes all the time. It's just safer for them, and for the citizens in general.
But American conservatives cannot and will not believe nor accept this.
The reason for this is, of course, the abundance of gun ownership. Police officers in the United States, especially at some places, are very wary of being attacked by a gun. Every traffic stop is somewhat of a gamble because they never know if it might be eg. some drug junkie or other criminal who might suddenly attack them with a gun. Thus they appreciate when the driver acts calmly, always keeps his hands visible, and always announces what he is going to do instead of doing sudden unexpected moves.
All this sounds completely silly here in Finland. You don't need to do any of this here, nor is the police expecting such things here. And they really don't need to. For the entire history of the Finnish traffic police, I am not aware of even one single incident of a driver attacking a traffic cop with a gun. (Don't get me wrong, such cases might exist. However, even if they do, they are exceedingly rare.)
The Finnish police doesn't need to be so wary and so on their toes all the time. It's just safer for them, and for the citizens in general.
But American conservatives cannot and will not believe nor accept this.
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