薔薇語 Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I think it's about the intersection of racial bias and state authority. Even at a very early age, a certain segment of the population finds black people threatening. Some of them are even enrolled in law enforcement agencies. If a 3 year old can get someone worked up enough to call the cops, imagine the plight of the average young adult black male. Yeah but we don't know if it was because the child was black, a boy, or it that was wholely unrelated. And it isn't that we don't know but don't even have reasonable suspicion. And the police who were called didn't respond because it was a black boy but because they were called. The mother of the girl was likely an immigrant given her inability to speak English and thus her personal racial basis, at first glance, wouldn't serve as good indicators for US cultural norms. It is just as likely if not more so, that the root cause was because of the gender difference and the kinds of stereotyping that happens against boys. But even then we are at a stark loss for evidence. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind pointing out racist cops, but I reserve my outrage for casea where I can actually make a case. This doesn't offer us that chance without a strong accusative leap. Foreign Orchid. massey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I don't see the cops getting called on a 3 year old white boy in that scenario. The anecdote is of a piece with countless others which relate the atmosphere of bias that pervades our culture. If the woman who called was an immigrant with limited mastery of English, that speaks even more strongly to the strength of those biases. The story isn't offered as "proof" of this or that, but as an exemplar of the challenges of navigating through our society while being black. Not an indictment of the police in the incident, who clearly behaved reasonably. Ragitsu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
薔薇語 Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I guess we will have to agree to disagree here. Too bad. I am still of the mind that we can not pull any 'evidence' of racial bias by the likely immigrant woman from this wholely one sided account. It is far too much a stretch. But obviously you and I disagree on that and I doubt we will achieve any happy middle ground. Foreign Orchid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I don't see the cops getting called on a 3 year old white boy in that scenario. . . The story isn't offered as "proof" of this or that, but as an exemplar of the challenges of navigating through our society while being black. Poor "exemplar" then, because both you and the author are leaping to a massive conclusion with no evidence to back it up other than a hunch. I remember one time when I was going up the escalator from a BART station on the way to work. I had a messenger-type bag with one of those old mutant phone/radio things stuffed into the water bottle carrier. It tended to slip out, and when I reached back to stuff it back in, an indignant black girl behind me tore into me because she thought I was securing it in case she was going to steal it. She was jumping to the exact same conclusion the mother who wrote that anecdote did, and that you are. And it's easy to do. It's very easy to be oversensitive to racial bias when it's thrown in your face every day. But . . . jumping to conclusions is still jumping to conclusions. Attributing thoughts and feelings to a person without any evidence whatsoever is wrong. The only conclusion that we can draw from the story posted is that a woman seriously overreacted to her daughter being accidentally harmed. That's it. There's not enough information available to make any other inferences. Grailknight and massey 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted August 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 I don't see the cops getting called on a 3 year old white boy in that scenario. The anecdote is of a piece with countless others which relate the atmosphere of bias that pervades our culture. If the woman who called was an immigrant with limited mastery of English, that speaks even more strongly to the strength of those biases. The story isn't offered as "proof" of this or that, but as an exemplar of the challenges of navigating through our society while being black. Not an indictment of the police in the incident, who clearly behaved reasonably. Given the disparity in how minorities are treated compared to Caucasians, you aren't exactly wrong for strongly thinking this possibility to be the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 Speaking of which, after yet another night of violence in Ferguson, self-appointed "Oathkeepers" are now patrolling the streets with assault rifles, without any interference from the police whatsoever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted August 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 Speaking of which, after yet another night of violence in Ferguson, self-appointed "Oathkeepers" are now patrolling the streets with assault rifles, without any interference from the police whatsoever. Sounds like Police Apathy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted August 14, 2015 Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 Speaking of which, after yet another night of violence in Ferguson, self-appointed "Oathkeepers" are now patrolling the streets with assault rifles, without any interference from the police whatsoever. Sounds like Police Apathy. Have they committed any crimes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 14, 2015 Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 No, but unarmed Ferguson residents are systematically harassed by the police for less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted August 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 Plus, I bet a bunch of black dudes patrolling with tricked out carbines and tacticool vests would be equally unmolested...right? Shadow Hawk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Posted August 14, 2015 Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 Is openly carrying assault rifles even legal in the state Ferguson is in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 14, 2015 Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 That's... actually not clear. It's banned in some localities, but state law overrides those bans, but even state law only permits open carry to CCW holders and then only "briefly" and in a "non threatening manner", so, who knows? Cynically, I'll bet that the definitions of "briefly" and "threatening" depend on skin color. Pattern Ghost 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted August 14, 2015 Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/08/14/woman-who-recorded-officer-punching-a-suspect-becomes-target-of-miami-police-union/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted August 15, 2015 Report Share Posted August 15, 2015 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/08/14/woman-who-recorded-officer-punching-a-suspect-becomes-target-of-miami-police-union/ “Our community has accepted behavior that motivates violence in our younger generation. It’s time for the community to take a stand against this reckless behavior and stop the violence,” he continued. “As the saying goes: It takes a village to raise a child. Guns don’t belong in the hands of children.” Our community has accepted behavior that motivates brutality in our current generation of police officers. It's time for the community to take a stand against this corrupt behavior and stop the police brutality. As the saying goes: Evil flourishes when good men do nothing. Badges don't belong on cops who choose to be thugs. There, fixed that for them. Marcus Impudite, Pattern Ghost, BoneDaddy and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted August 16, 2015 Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 Witness saw cops stand over Zachary Hammond’s dead body and ‘high five’ his limp hand: attorney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted August 16, 2015 Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 Witness saw cops stand over Zachary Hammond’s dead body and ‘high five’ his limp hand: attorney Sadly I am at most 50/50 on whether the "witness" is a lying *beep*. The world we live in... Afew years ago, I would have figured it was at least a 75% chance the witness was lying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 16, 2015 Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 I think that's the one where they planted like two grams of pot on the kid and refuse to release the body cam video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 16, 2015 Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 Two different law enforcement agencies. Town cops shot the kid. State cops have the evidence. It's up to the state cops whether or not they have enough to go to trial. Here in Winston, if a cop or deputy shoot someone, the SBI handles the investigation, not the shooter's agency. It's not a foolproof system. One of the SBI's analysts misread blood evidence in a murder trial so badly that all of his cases were reviewed for retrial. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted August 16, 2015 Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 Sadly I am at most 50/50 on whether the "witness" is a lying *beep*. The world we live in... Afew years ago, I would have figured it was at least a 75% chance the witness was lying. Isn't the witness in this case a cop from another jurisdiction? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted August 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/us/zachary-hammond-police-shooting-south-carolina.html?_r=1 "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/08/cop_shot_himself_and_blamed_a_black_driver_police_officer_kelly_stewart.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted August 22, 2015 Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 Isn't the witness in this case a cop from another jurisdiction? I think I had not finished reading... BoneDaddy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 And now for some Australian injustice! http://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/honest-cop-charged-with-misconduct/ assault 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted August 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2015 http://gawker.com/ohio-cop-pulls-black-man-over-for-making-direct-eye-co-1727244337 Police harassment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 Video Shows Texas Police Shoot Man With His Hands Up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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