This story is a sad statement on what Americans have become...

[liberal N proud]

Avon hotel clerk's 911 call about ISIS causes intense police response, patron's collapse

AVON, Ohio - A 911 call alleging that a hotel patron pledged his allegiance to ISIS caused panic at an Avon hotel earlier this week.

On Wednesday just before 6 p.m., the Avon Police Department received a 911 call from the sister of a woman working as a clerk at the Fairfield Inn and Suites on Colorado Avenue.

The caller said her sister told her there was a man in the hotel lobby "in full head dress with multiple disposable phones pledging his allegiance to ISIS."

According to police, she repeated that there was a "suspicious mal at the front desk with disposable phones, two of them, in a full head dress."

While on the phone with the sister, police received a second call from the clerk's father also requesting that officers be sent to the hotel.

Officers arrived minutes later to find an Arabic-speaking man standing outside the front doors of the hotel. He was dressed in a 'thobe' and had a cell phone in his hand.

Officers, with guns drawn, ordered the man to get on the ground and drop the phone. At first he didn't respond but police say he eventually complied and laid down.

Officers placed the man in handcuffs and conducted a search. No weapons were found on his body.

Police spoke to the clerk and found out that the man did not, in fact, make any statements related to ISIS. Officers said at that time it was clear there was a miscommunication.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news/oh-lorain/avon-hotel-clerks-911-call-about-isis-causes-intense-police-response-patrons-collapse

[guillaumeb]

1. Terrified, hysterical, and foolish?

Sounds like the typical (not always GOP) voter.

[Iggo]

2. That wasn't a miscommunication.

That's exactly the message she wanted to send, and exactly the response she wanted: Guns drawn on a scary brown man.

America! Fuck yeah!

[RKP5637]

4. Exactly! And they're all of the US! Fucked asshole Bigots!!! Ain't the US great.

Imagine this place under a Trump regime. This place is getting akin (under Trump) to Germany, pre-WWII. FFS, and Trump would start WWIII.

[tblue37]

3. He is now in the hospital:

.Officers took the handcuffs off the man and tried to explain the situation. At that time, he collapsed on the ground for unknown reasons.

An ambulance that was already at the scene transported the man to St. John Medical Center where he is know in stable condition.

Maybe he collapsed from stress. I have high BP and some heart issues. Being surrounded by cops with guns drawn, forced to the ground, and cuffed when I had done nothing and nothing was going on to explain their behavior would probably lead me to collapse, too.

I am surprised they didn't just reflexively shoot him when in his confusion he didn't immediately drop his phone.

Those bigots who called the cops should be shamed.

[Person 2713]

6. Shamed? Shouldn't they be arrested for a false report ? Hope he sues the hotel- their worker

instigated this while working and he was a guest who suffered as a result

[Igel]

7. Most of the time "false" means "knowingly false."

In other words, they lie.

Acting in good faith usually mitigates criminal culpability. You might still have to pay expenses for some things, but acting in good faith in making reports is likely acting in good faith during giving testimony in a trial. It's not perjury.

A lot of people, more in the last 15-20 years it seems to me (but my sample isn't random or comprehensive) confuse "not telling the truth" with "lying." I might say with confidence that my wife is resting in the bedroom and be completely in error--she might be upstairs working on some project, meaning that I'm not telling the truth. What do I believe? That my wife is resting. She likes to have Sabbath dinner start at sundown, and near the solstice that pushes the meal and following activities late.

Now, if she knew that what she said was false and wanted others to believe it was true, that's lying. Throw the book at her.


BTW, the word "thobe" does not require quotes when used in its usual meaning. It's like insisting on saying that somebody wore a 'kilt' or "President Obama gave his speech wearing a 'suit'." Makes you wonder.

[tblue37]

12. The clerk claims that she did not make any statements about ISIS, so it sounds as though her father

and sister did lie knowingly, probably thinking that would get the cops to show up faster. My guess is that in their xenophobic paranoia, they believed the nervous clerk was in real danger from the scary "Ayrab, so they called the cops and said whatever they thought they needed to say to make them hurry to the hotel to "save" the sister/daughter clerk."

I vaguely remember another case in which the caller who claimed his backpack had been stolen by a black teenager (who as it turned out was innocent, of course) deliberately lied about a gun. I don't remember for sure, but I think the kid he accused was either hurt or killed. When asked why he had falsely claimed the kid had a gun, the caller said he just thought it would be a way to make sure the cops came quickly.

Considering how often the often completely innocent (and almost always unarmed) "suspect" ends up badly hurt or dead, you'd think people would hesitate to call the cops when there is no good reason to, and especially refrain from claiming their "suspect" has a gun when they know perfectly well that he does not. Apparently, though, a lot of people feel no compunction about putting another human being at risk of serious injury or death if that other person happens to be "other" in their minds.

[okieinpain]

15. kalief browder, spent 3 years in jail for nothing, he committed suicide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/23/kalief-browder-video_n_7130626.html

[tblue37]

16. Yes, that is the case. I read so many of these horrible cases about the way police abuse people,

even kids, even those who are innocent, that I have trouble keeping track of them sometimes.

[okieinpain]

18. i always post them on facebook because i can go back and search for them

but it makes family and friends not like my page. lol.

[tblue37]

19. I keep a document with cases and links on my computer, but sometimes I don't get a chance to record

one because there are so darned many of them that it is hard to keep up when you have other responsibilities in your life.

[onethatcares]

8. definitely agree because

in this great country of ours, he's on the hook for the ambulance ride and any time spent in the hospital.

[Person 2713]

9. I read somewhere else he had a stroke now. I will try to find a link. Yes there will be expenses

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/muslim-man-hospitalized-after-frenzied-police-follow-up-false-claim-that-he-pledged-allegiance-to-a7114806.html

He had been in the US for medical reasons.

[onethatcares]

14. he is now

officially screwn. Poor guy all he wanted to do was get medical care.

[ms liberty]

5. Someone like that should not be working in the hotel industry

I did it for 10 years. I loved it and met people from all over the world. The worst guests were upper middle class white people on vacation; they inevitably treated the staff like dirt while expecting to be treated like they were the only guests in the building.

[DemonGoddess]

10. jeezus

I hope the callers who instigated all this have to foot the bill for the guy's medical expenses. THIS is what fear mongering creates. This is only the start of it.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Some bizarre paranoia going on here.

The Fairfield is off the highway and pretty innocuous. If a "TERRIST" wanted to make a statement, why would he pick some hotel in a very-western suburb of Cleveland? COME on.

Trivia: Sherrod Brown lives in Avon.

[Odin2005]

13. This is what "if you see something suspicious say something" BS results in.

[liberal N proud]

21. That's what I think also

[lpbk2713]

17. I'm afraid I wouldn't respond right away either.

I'd be dazed while thinking "are you people fuggen crazy?" .

[AntiBank]

20. see something say something

[spanone]

22. ugh....the terrorists are winning.