Whoops, Cops Picked The Wrong Black Guy To Harass

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/weekinreview/30moore.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/M/Moore,%20Solomon&oref=slogin

Great story by a New York Times reporter who was detained by officers while trying to interview gang members in Charlotte, N.C.

 

“What’s The New York Times doing down here?” asked an incredulous black man. He and about a dozen other men were standing in front of a clapboard house in Salisbury. I observed several drug sales there within minutes of arriving.

“Man, you a cop,” said another. “Hey, this guy’s a cop!”

“You’ve got me wrong,” I said trying to sound casual as the men looked at me warily. I started to pull my press identification out of my wallet. “I’m a reporter. I’m just trying to talk to you about your neighborhood.”

In the distance I heard neighborhood lookouts calling: “Five-O! Five-O!” — a universal code in American ghettos for the approaching police. I thought they were talking about me, but thought again as three police cars skidded to a stop in front of us.

A tall white police officer got out of his car and ordered me toward him. Two other police officers, a white woman and a black man, stood outside of their cars nearby. I complied. Without so much as a question, the officer shoved my face down on the sheet metal and cuffed me so tightly that my fingertips tingled.

“They’re on too tight!” I protested.

“They’re not meant for comfort,” he replied.

While it is true that I, like many of today’s gang members, shave my head bald, in my case it’s less about urban style and more about letting nature take its course. Apart from my complexion, the only thing I had in common with the young men watching me smooch the hood of the black-and-white was that they too had been in that position — some of them, they would tell me later, with just as little provocation.

 

If I'm a cop in that situation I want everyone's hands bound as well.

Does this reporter want police officers to question these guys with their hands free?

 

This is not anything new write brain. It happens a lot to African American reporters. I've been told of some being cuffed for just asking questions and it doesn't happen in the south either.
This treatment shouldn't happen to anyone.

 

What situation is that? A black guy standing on a street who does what you ask him to do?

Sounds pretty damn scary.

 

Yeah, but do the cops need to do that to every black male who strikes up a conversation in the streets?

 

Were there not lookouts on the end of the street for the police?

These boys were not talking about the declining housing market. The writer also mentioned several drug deals being made.

 

Nice word choice there, Devil. Keep digging that hole.

 

Devil's never managed to hide the fact that he worshlps authority and has a 50s-era view of race. Calling black men boys is just another example.

 

93 -

Here's what the 'cuff first, ask questions later' presumption of guilt gets you. Also from the Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/opinion/30patterson.html?em&ex=1191384000&en=2d55de718b7f3b32&ei=5087%0A

 

So Devil says he hates Virginia Tech fans.
Has no sensitivity to Hokies on this board when that nut Cho goes and shoots up the place.
Tries to compare writing a college newspaper gamer to being a D-I quarterback.
And now he goes and rips on "boys"?

Yeah, the grave's already dug. Keep digging to China, pal.

 

OK, let's use this nice juxtaposition.

You are police officer and you are called to a house by a local resident who is tired of seeing crack sold in his or her neighborhood. You pull up to the street and two young men run down the street yelling "five-oh" "five-oh." As you pull up to the residence, at 1 a.m., you see a group of black men and women outside. A couple may run away, but a few stay there. You get out of the vehicle to question the remaining men and women.

Do you want these people digging in their pants? Do you want them wandering behind you?

All of you need to volunteer to do a ride along at night in a bad section of town. See what your opinion is after being in the officer's position.

I am a big liberal on most things, but police officers are sticking their necks out every night trying to protect good people in bad neighborhoods. We need to protect those police officers as well.