There Isn't Enough Time To Tell Every Story Of Police Brutality Against African Americans

[thomhartmann]

After reading what being titled "The Moment" on twitter, a tale of an African American man harassed by police for the egregious crime of giving money to a homeless person, Thom Hartmann listens to stories from his African American callers who faced similar abuses by police, all for no other reason than because they are black. How common are these stories? Do you have a story of racial police harassment?

[DFW]

1. No, I don't

But I'm white and I now live in Europe. There are corrupt cops here, too, don't get me wrong, but they want your money, not your corpse.

[94Mountaineer]

2. This is a false story

Basic Geography.New Port News, Norfolk and Va Beach form a triangle....you don’t drive through VA Beach to go to Norfolk from NN, as they are in opposite directions.
Her story has her BF being held at gunpoint when the other officers show up, including the sherrif. Later she says they loosened the cuffs when the sheriff got there....but he was being held at gunpoint when the sheriff arrived.
They’re throwing his phone on the floor of the squad car, after taking it from him, when she calls, then go to the squad car leaving him on the side of the road, next to his car...why are they walking to a car they supposedly next to and how is he using the phone near the squad car only to be on the side of the road some distance away?
Sheriffs in the tidewater area do civil duties, man the jails and are court security, they aren’t out patrolling the streets.
She’s supposedly driving to Chesapeake, searching for him, which is an entirely different area than VA Beach
She names the deputy, Smith...the sheriffs office has 2 Smiths, neither were out on the road at 10:30
The VA Beach Policie and surrounding jurisdictions have no records, either by officers or dispatch, fitting this description. VA Beach had no canine searches on I64. The VA State Police have no record of a canine request or search on I64 in the timeframe she claims this happened.

There is enough real maltreatment of POC by the police that BS stories like this don’t help anyone.

[uppityperson]

3. I found a article backing up it may be false

http://wtkr.com/2018/04/26/local-state-police-respond-to-allegations-made-in-viral-twitter-post/

[94Mountaineer]

4. Thanks. The news sources were confirmation of my suspicions

When I read the tweets they just didn’t make sense, just from a geographical sense and the way the different departments function. The pulling him out of the car at gunpoint, one would expect, would trigger a radio call for additional officers which generates a dispatch record. That highway is crawling with State Police, they’re literally like ants.
I saw the police trying to contact her in her twitter thread, with no response.

I will give benefit of the doubt to most of these incidents, especially when I’m familiar with the area, but this one just doesn’t make sense.

[gopiscrap]

6. welcome to DU

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. I had a thread in the Virginia and Civil Liberties Forums about this story.

I have updated them. Thanks.

[94Mountaineer]

8. I've seen it repeated in a couple of places.

Nothing about it makes any sense at all.

I could believe the cops pulled an innocent guy out of the car at gunpoint but the Sheriff being there makes no sense at all, given the job they do.
Then the fact that no department, not even the Sheriff's department or VA State Police, can confirm anything about the story. Not a single radio call from anyone, no requests for K9...a 5 hour stop (based on her timeline) would require a lot of paperwork and there'd be radio traffic to confirm locations of the 4 officers....and presumably the sheriff who is at the scene for some reason.

And that's not even touching on his route home which would be like driving from CA to Illinois and getting pulled over in Texas...and then, when she says she goes to look for him, drives to NYC. It's just an odd story.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. I got the story from Popehat. The link is at the story in the original forums. NT

[94Mountaineer]

10. These are aggravating because they help no one

It puts cop's lives in danger and gives the "police just doing their jobs" idiots talking points about false claims of brutality.

[tomhagen]

5. Wear your Drivers License around your neck in plain site so you don't have to reach for it

It’s called a Lanyard