There's a lot to be said about the traffic stop of Lieutenant Caron Nazario, but one of them is that it makes this 2015 blog post unfortunately relevant again:
"Sandra Bland and the 'Lawful Order’ Problem."
(Given the paywall, I'll include screenshots.)
https://t.co/6AU9OdU50g

https://t.co/VLL70fFvtH
https://t.co/U3nUHvcUCR
https://t.co/7p1FpS4fmH
In this case, one of the (many) problems was that the officers were coming in with one view of their lawful order authority and Lt. Nazario very understandably had no idea of what that was. Here's why.
The officers are trained about the Supreme Court's decision in Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106 (1977). Mimms lets officers order the driver of the car out of the car during a traffic stop. They don't need specific cause to do that, Mimms says. They don't need to say why.
An officer trained on Mimms will know that he can order anyone stopped out of the car, with no reason and no stated reason. And he's also know that refusal to obey that order is a crime -- it's refusal to obey a lawful order.
But of course most people WON'T KNOW THAT. It's understandable that a driver ordered out of the car will want to know why. What is happening? Why order him out of the car? What is the officer doing? And here, all that, with *multiple guns drawn already,* yikes.
The driver and the officers are in two totally different mental worlds. The driver is understandably wanting to know what the heck is going on. The officers are meanwhile thinking, "why is this person committing the crime of refusing my lawful order?"
I've wondered if one way of defusing these situations would be for officers to be required to explain the law to the drivers. Perhaps: "sir, I am giving you what the law calls a lawful order. Under the law, I am allowed to order you out of the car. It is a crime to refuse."
That's not perfect wording, I realize. But the thought is that *something* to bridge the gap between those two mental worlds would be really important.
Here's a recent student note offering a statutory proposal somewhat along those lines.
https://t.co/JtPjPTQZiW
And I also think there's a plausible due process argument (albeit not one courts have so far adopted alas) that a person can't be arrested for failure to obey a lawful order unless they have been informed that failure to obey that specific order is a crime.
Maybe I'll write more on this formally at some point. It's unfortunate to see it relevant again. /end

More from All

1. Mini Thread on Conflicts of Interest involving the authors of the Nature Toilet Paper:
https://t.co/VUYbsKGncx
Kristian G. Andersen
Andrew Rambaut
Ian Lipkin
Edward C. Holmes
Robert F. Garry

2. Thanks to @newboxer007 for forwarding the link to the research by an Australian in Taiwan (not on

3. K.Andersen didn't mention "competing interests"
Only Garry listed Zalgen Labs, which we will look at later.
In acknowledgements, Michael Farzan, Wellcome Trust, NIH, ERC & ARC are mentioned.
Author affiliations listed as usual.
Note the 328 Citations!
https://t.co/nmOeohM89Q


4. Kristian Andersen (1)
Andersen worked with USAMRIID & Fort Detrick scientists on research, with Robert Garry, Jens Kuhn & Sina Bavari among


5. Kristian Andersen (2)
Works at Scripps Research Institute, which WAS in serious financial trouble, haemorrhaging 20 million $ a year.
But just when the first virus cases were emerging, they received great news.
They issued a press release dated November 27, 2019:

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The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed