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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGiving-a-homeless-person-some-change-while-being-black.
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Summary:
He gave a homeless person 50 cents at a 7-11 and then drove away.
The cops saw that and stopped him, because there have been complaints that this homeless person has drugs.
The cops demand to see his car-insurance, but he hasn't got the paperwork yet.
Then the cops claim that his car smells like weed.
Next thing is he's standing in front of his car, his hands up, his back to the cops, the cops pointing guns at his back.
They yell at him to get his phone out.
He says that he doesn't feel comfortable pulling his phone out of his pocket because they might mistake it for a gun and shoot him.
He starts crying.
The cops yell at him that crying means that he's guilty of something.
More cops arrive and the sherriff takes him to the side while the cops search his car with a K9.
A cop lies about pointing a gun at him. It was a taser. Sure.
The cops take his car apart and litter his belongings everywhere. Not one trace of anything illegal.
The cops drive away without so much as an apology.
TheSmarterDog
(794 posts)They probably didn't even file a report. They didn't have to, because an arrest wasn't the objective.
rurallib
(62,342 posts)mountain grammy
(26,568 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(56,883 posts)Let's Have a Kiki, by the Scissor Sisters:
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(56,883 posts)Iggo
(47,486 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(13,988 posts)captured on phone video in the past. The very same thing happened to me and several of my friends in high school. We were walking along chatting and stopped to give a panhandler some change. (I always have done that, always will). Moments later a cop car screeches over and out jump two beefy white cops who proceed to pat us down and pepper us with questions: Where are the drugs you just bought from that guy? Where do you live? Let's see some ID! Why aren't you in school? (It was late afternoon) Shit like that.
They left us, but I remember being a bit shaken up. My friend Blue said "Chill bro, you kinda gotta expect it, so, you know, you can keep your cool, not get f*d up by them."
This was 1968.
kag
(4,076 posts)But I must admit it makes me even more angry. You're right that people like me aren't aware of this happening--and I went to a VERY integrated high school in Texas, so I really have no excuse. It was probably happening all around me, and I was just oblivious (in the eighties).
Well, I'm no longer oblivious. I've seen too much of it since the advent of the cell-phone camera, and from reading about people like you. I'm just seething right now at the injustice of this. If my two kids, both young adults, had darker skin, they would have to live with this fear every day. I can't imagine what that does to young men and women. Well, I guess I can, and it's not pretty.
This has to stop. Not sure how, but it really has to stop. For a first step, I think we all need to keep our cameras ready all the time, and call this out whenever and wherever it happens.
Sorry for the emotion of this post, but...
yellowwoodII
(616 posts)I want to apologize on behalf of humanity for this event. I'm sure that it isn't a unique story.
Many years ago, my husband and I were driving about thirty miles from where we lived. We had a passenger, a dark-skinned Indian man.
We were pulled over by a sheriff, and my husband obediently showed him our documentation. I happened to look out the back car window and saw that the sheriff's partner was standing behind the car with his gun pointed at us.
I wasn't "woke," then, but now I realize why we were stopped.
Things have gotten somewhat better since then, but still never enough.
So sorry.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,057 posts)Disgusting. It must be terrifying to live in this police state as a POC.
irisblue
(32,828 posts)So flipping wrong.
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)Is this what makes america great...exceptional?
heaven05
(18,124 posts)didn't you know... Sad, isn't it?
denvine
(796 posts)Literally makes me ill! And Colin Kaepernick is the problem! It's unbelievable how many people are blind to this reality!
DFW
(54,047 posts)The cops didn't shoot the guy.
PatrickforO
(14,514 posts)That is terrifying.
It also makes me furious. This shit's been out of hand for a long time.
c-rational
(2,581 posts)local newspaper and town hall. Ask the local politicians if they approve.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)in this land of dertrumpenfuhrer.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31/the-fbi-has-quietly-investigated-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-law-enforcement/
FBI's warning of white supremacists infiltrating law enforcement nearly forgotten
by Samuel V. Jones | May 12, 2015
http://thegrio.com/2015/05/12/fbi-white-supremacists-law-enforcement/
Anonymous Begins Publishing Identities of KKK Politicians and Cops
http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/11/anonymous-exposes-politicians-and-cops/
Photos surface of Philly police officer with Nazi tattoo
http://www.phillyvoice.com/photos-surface-philly-police-officer-nazi-tattoo/
KKK Has Infiltrated US Police Departments for Decades
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/kkk-has-infiltrated-us-police-departments-decades
It's time to admit police have a history of connections with the KKK
http://fusion.net/story/245527/police-history-kkk-connections/
"White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement"
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/402521/doc-26-white-supremacist-infiltration.pdf
FBI warned of white supremacists in law enforcement 10 years ago. Has anything changed?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement
treestar
(82,383 posts)And of course a dealer would be homeless.
pansypoo53219
(20,906 posts)tulipsandroses
(5,090 posts)I'm all in my feelings these days. Sometimes its sadness. Other times its absolute anger.
Contrast that to this story.
Look at the extreme patience these officers display.
I mean she even curses at them. Maybe they are just all around good guys, but I wonder if they would have the same patience with a black woman
[link:https://newsone.com/3795191/commissioner-new-jersey-caren-turner-police/|