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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA cop's plea: Stop calling in "suspicious activity" every time you see a black person
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/6/8561439/police-officer-redditPolice shootings of black men over the past year have put a national spotlight on racial disparities in how cops use force and in the criminal justice system but at least one officer is doing his part to get people to stop being racist.
Reddit user sf7, who's listed as a verified law enforcement officer on Reddit, asked people to stop calling in "suspicious behavior" when they see black people doing completely normal things:
These types of calls are a genuine problem, especially when the full details aren't relayed to dispatched officers. Last November, a 911 caller reported Tamir Rice when the black 12-year-old boy was throwing snowballs and playing with a toy gun at a Cleveland park behavior the caller apparently found suspicious, although the caller noted that the gun was "probably fake." Within two seconds of arriving at the scene and getting out of his squad car, Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed Rice. Police claim Loehmann wasn't told by the dispatcher that the gun was "probably fake."
So not only can these phone calls be a waste of time for cops, but they can lead to seriously dangerous confrontations.
Reddit user sf7, who's listed as a verified law enforcement officer on Reddit, asked people to stop calling in "suspicious behavior" when they see black people doing completely normal things:
These types of calls are a genuine problem, especially when the full details aren't relayed to dispatched officers. Last November, a 911 caller reported Tamir Rice when the black 12-year-old boy was throwing snowballs and playing with a toy gun at a Cleveland park behavior the caller apparently found suspicious, although the caller noted that the gun was "probably fake." Within two seconds of arriving at the scene and getting out of his squad car, Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed Rice. Police claim Loehmann wasn't told by the dispatcher that the gun was "probably fake."
So not only can these phone calls be a waste of time for cops, but they can lead to seriously dangerous confrontations.
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A cop's plea: Stop calling in "suspicious activity" every time you see a black person (Original Post)
KamaAina
May 2015
OP
911 dispatchers need to hang up on every racist who calls in a suspicious "black guy"
951-Riverside
May 2015
#1
951-Riverside
(7,234 posts)1. 911 dispatchers need to hang up on every racist who calls in a suspicious "black guy"
and the people who make these calls need to be held financially responsible.
Enough is enough.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,483 posts)2. That goes triple for this piece of dog shit:
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)3. BS. The police are called to investigate. That is their job.
If they can not take the time to do that, they should not be police.
frylock
(34,825 posts)4. Investigate what? The irrational fears of white racists?
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)5. Police are called on white neighbors.
They do not show up with their guns drawn.
frylock
(34,825 posts)7. ummmmmmm...
hunh?
lame54
(35,141 posts)6. Attention George Zimmerman
Number23
(24,544 posts)8. Errrr...
It's very likely that outright racism isn't behind many of these bad calls. Instead, social psychologists point to what's called "implicit bias," which is subconscious bias that can lead people to think, for example, that black people are associated with crime.
If that isn't a clear a case of outright, straight up racism then I truly don't know what is. Calling it cutesy names like "implicit bias" does not change that at all.