" So from the other article it looks like an employee complained to the officer about it? "
"I'm inferring from this that the employee was the one who wanted them gone, because normally a cop isn't going to threaten you with trespassing unless the establishment has asked you to leave. "
Question mark. Inferring. Very clearly showing I don't know these things to be true, but it seems like there's something in the article to support it, because it seems exceedingly rare and/or unlikely that a cop would just approach two customers and tell them they're trespassing. But again, I didn't rule it out. I've totally allowed for the possibility the cop was a total dickwad.
You're spreading misinformation, and the reason is because you made an incredibly loose inference of one single detail in the story.
It's not all that loose. Why was he confronting them with an employee?
If they assaulted the officer, it was because they were defending themselves. People aren't upset for you "not upping your outrage to 11", people are annoyed that you are being pedantic and saying "the sole reason why the officer even acknowledged their existence, and the reason he was going after them, isn't why they got arrested." As you talked about "waiting for all the facts", you declared - as a matter of fact - that the reason they were arrested was because they assaulted the officer. In doing so, you:
1. Assumed that this was a legitimate charge, and not another example of a trumped-up charge by an overzealous officer looking to justify their use of force.
2. Assumed that the alleged assault was unjustified (if it is justified self-defense, the charge is not warranted). If we assume that it was justified, then the cop was assaulting them. So unless we're not supposed to protect ourselves from violent individuals, the charge has no basis.
1. Stating that it's
possible such a thing is the case isn't the same thing as assuming it, for fuck's sake understand the nuance of what I've put forth.
2. We have one side of what happened during the altercation, coming from a lawsuit. Surely you understand there are multiple sides to every story? Have you ever managed employees before and settled disputes between multiple parties? Everyone has their own side to the story. This isn't rocket science. You hear both sides of the argument, and thus far we've only heard one.
Using the information we have, we cannot determine that an employee asked of the officer anything. We can however determine that the altercation between the officer and the women couldn't exist without the officer becoming outraged by a kiss.
No, we can't determine that the employee asked for anything, I offered it up as a possibility based on some evidence in the story. I disclaimed it both times with a question mark and the fact I was inferring something from a sole piece of evidence. Your second point is complete is nonsense, though, because we only have one version of events. "We were just having a kiss" could have been something completely different if you get more witnesses. That's why I want to wait for more details. Obviously this couple is going to put their best foot forward, downplaying what they were doing and uplaying the response. This is exactly what you'd expect in a typical dispute, and especially in a lawsuit.
So, since you have been declaring that the purpose of the arrest was assault, and that the claim by the women that he physically assaulted her when she tried to call 911, prove it. Otherwise, how are you doing anything other than assuming good faith in the officer based on nothing, and bad faith in the women based on nothing? Why can you complain about people making assumptions when your posts amount to literally nothing but assumptions?
The reason for the arrest was assault. I'm not declaring that,
the arresting officer declared that. What led up to that is relevant but not the reason for the arrest, and I would agree
even if the employee asked to have them removed, that's ridiculous of the employee to do so (that is, assuming they were just kissing). I am 100% open to the possibility that the cop was a complete douchebag. It's happened before and it'll happen again. I'm not convinced of it based on what we know from one side of the dispute, however. How is that an untenable position? Meaning, my position as I state it, not as your strawman me in restating it in absolute and concrete terms (something I haven't done).