ces's Journal: Fuck the Police!

Early Tuesday morning just prior to a scheduled maintenance our NYC sysadmin was arrested outside our Lower Manhattan data center and his car impounded. For purposes of this story lets call him "Bill".

The problem? Apparently the NYPD thought Bill's New Jersey drivers license was expired (it wasn't) and they wanted to hold him for "identification". Bill spent 30 hours in jail.

Now mind you Bill is a very well dressed man, every time I've seen him in person I've thought he looks like an investment banker or a lawyer. He also drives a fairly new BMW.

Bill spent four years serving our country in the US Army and he has a Bachelors degree in Information Technology from a well-regarded public university.

Bill is very well spoken, polite, and respectful of authority figures.

Bill also happens to be black.

While I wasn't there and only have Bill's side of the story, somehow I doubt Bill would have been arrested had he been white. Heck I wonder if Bill would have even been stopped had he been white.

Yep, DWB Driving While Black.

At 1 AM in Lower Manhattan Bill was just another nigger.

the more things change...

[Mantorp]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/opinion/23margolick.html?em&ex=1190779200&en=780df0c987a9a309&ei=5087%0A [nytimes.com]

Re:

[ces]

Yep, my thoughts exactly.

You'd think in 2007 we'd finally be judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

Yet black friends and acquaintances tell me they have to be very careful when dealing with police lest they get cuffed and searched at gunpoint, arrested, beaten, or shot.

Re:

[pudge]

I am not denying there's still some racism out there, but when Washington legislator Rep. John Lovick (D-44th), who is also black and a former state trooper -- complains HE is a victim of racial profiling -- BY A BLACK COP -- I dunno, I just don't jump to conclusions. It may very well be your friend was targetted as a lawbreaker for being black, but we also see cops unfairly targetted as racists for being cops.

This is the fourth

[Marxist Hacker 42]

DWB-style arrest (where either the black person had done no wrong, or the black person had done a far less serious crime than what they were charged for or the apparent street justice punishment by the cops was for) that I've heard of in the last month- and it drives me nuts. We've got white meth users on the street who do more crime and destruction than any black I've ever seen- but they shoot the black guy in North Portland. We've got a huge problem in Louisiana with illegal immigrants thanks to the Bus

Is it any surprise?

[Captain Splendid]

When you've got assholes like this [mediamatters.org] who command audiences of millions, what do you expect?

And I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship. It was the same, and that's really what this society's all about now here in the U.S.A. There's no difference. There's no difference. There may be a cultural entertainment -- people may gravitate

Re:

[pudge]

Right, I am so sure that the police department of a liberal Democrat/Independent like Mike Bloomberg is influenced by Bill O'Reilly.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Yes, because I mentioned the explicit master/puppet relationship between O'Reilly and Bloomberg im my comment.

'Tard.

Re:

[pudge]

Yes, because I mentioned the explicit master/puppet relationship between O'Reilly and Bloomberg im my comment.

'Tard.

Well no, you didn't. Instead you asked us to just assume some mystical causal relationship without explaining the details of it. Maroon.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Then stop making assumptions, you ass.

Re:

[pudge]

Then stop making assumptions, you ass.

I didn't. Reading problems, huh?

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

I didn't.

Then quit bitching about it!

Re:

[pudge]

Then quit bitching about it!

I am not bitching about IT. I am bitching about YOU, the BITCH.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

I am bitching about YOU, the BITCH.

Says the perl coder. Also, that sentence sucked. Jazz it up a little bit more next time.

Re:

[pudge]

The truth hurts. Or, doesn't. But it's still the truth.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Oh gawwwd. Yawn. Why the fuck you even bothering? This is like getting into a fight with Ms. Passive-Agressive 2007....

Re:

[pudge]

The funny part is where you pretend you're better than I am.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Once again with the assumptions. Just for the record (so you don't fuck this up again), I do not think I am better than you. That could only be ascertained after we've known each other face to face for a while.

For what it's worth though, I do think you're lower than pond scum. Hope that clears things up.

Re:

[pudge]

Once again with the assumptions.

False.

Just for the record (so you don't fuck this up again), I do not think I am better than you.

Again, you are the one with assumptions. I never said you thought that. I said you PRETENDED it. And your words unmistakably did so.

For what it's worth though, I do think you're lower than pond scum. Hope that clears things up.

Yes, it has been quite clear for a long time that you are incapable of rational judgment.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Wow. Just wow. It's 2007, people won't think you're a big girl's blouse of you go see a shrink.

Re:

[pudge]

Wow. Just wow. It's 2007, people won't think you're a big girl's blouse of you go see a shrink.

If you wrote proper English I might have understood what you were saying there, though I doubt it would have made any more sense.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

GET PROFESSIONAL HELP.

Is that better?

Man, I love Fridays.

Re:

[pudge]

GET PROFESSIONAL HELP.

For what?

And why don't you?

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

And why don't you?

I did, but it turned sexual early on (I love a big hairy bear!). Problem was, he always wanted to be on top, whereas I prefer more variety in my sexual life, so I started jerking off into his coffee in the morning as retaliation. Then, when I found out he's pro-death penalty, it was over. But not until I made him marry me and subsequently took him for half his net worth!

I think he's working closely with Haggard now, last I heard.

Anyway, just a long-winded way of saying I hope

Re:

[pudge]

So, you have yet to try therapy, then.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Ah fuck it, you win. I can't compete with such leadenness.

Re:

[pudge]

I can't compete with such leadenness.

Like almost everything else you say, that, too, is a lie.

One step forward, three steps back

[WillAffleckUW]

I don't know about you, but I'm getting seriously concerned about America.

Re:

[pudge]

I don't know about you, but I'm getting seriously concerned about America.

Three steps back? GETTING concerned?

At the VERY WORST, America is still much better than it used to be. Come on now. Ten years ago a black President was a ridiculous notion (and not just because the people running were ridiculous). Twenty-five years ago black coaches and CEOs were barely heard-of. Forty years ago blacks were getting their civil rights routinely denied by the government, in the open.

We are far better off than we were. We're not as far as we want to be, but that doesn't justify pretend

Re:

[WillAffleckUW]

Maybe for you.

From my perspective, as someone who's lived in other countries and frequently visits them, I don't believe we're as advanced as you seem to think, especially in relation to others.

You do know that I endorsed Venus, right?

Re:

[pudge]

Maybe for you.

From my perspective, as someone who's lived in other countries and frequently visits them, I don't believe we're as advanced as you seem to think, especially in relation to others.

Fine, so you think. Counterexamples? Any examples of how we have gone backward? Any at all? None have been supplied or even implied thus far.

You do know that I endorsed Venus, right?

No, but now I do. What do you think about her blatantly racist comments? How do you justify attacking racists on one side, and endorsing them on the other?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[ces]

Such people shouldn't be arrested?

Not because a cop thought they had an expired license. Mind you the expiration date is rather clearly marked.

Why do you mention how he dresses?

Because it does make a difference in how people, especially the police, treat you. Also to make it clear he wasn't wearing anything that could be mistaken for gang clothing.

My sister mentions the same thing

[bellus quies]

That she get's pulled over more times than hot when she's driving around her friends that are on the men's basketball team. But driving around in the same neighborhood at the same time of night with the ladies on the women's bball team, not so much. Same car, same driver. Just whether it's passengers are a car full of tall black guys versus tall white gals.

Same kinda thing happened to a friend of mine who is hispanic. He was driving in his new mercedes over to my then place in downtown LA to use my apartm

holy crap!

[corbettw]

30 hours in jail because the cop thought his license was expired? How the hell do the police justify that?

Stopped for DWB?

[iminplaya]

You would think by now they would stop you for DWI -- Driving while Iraqi/Iranian. Oh well. This is what happens when we give up our authority so easily. The cops and the politicians are a nasty bunch, but I still see them as a pretty accurate reflection of the society they operate in. They wouldn't be so abusive if we didn't tolerate it.