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Originally Posted by billethkid
175 views.....6 posts.
I suppose this could be viewed as an example of the silent majority.....being silent?
If folks do not participate when anonymous, most certainly can't expect anymore when there is a need to stand and be counted.
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I'll participate. I was worried that it'd be one of those horrible cell phone videos that shows police being brutally violent and threatening to kill or tasering someone who wasn't making attempts to be violent or resisting (there are bunches of those and they're horrifying and I avoid watching them).
This was incredibly tame (comparatively speaking), while at the same time demonstrating CLEARLY why police have earned a poor reputation in some areas of cities and states throughout the country. When they handcuffed him I wished at that time I could've jumped through the computer monitor and protected that kid. Those police know damned well why a young black male in a poor neighborhood would be nervous about being pulled over by a police officer. It's no secret...but they're baiting him, hoping he'll get upset - pushing him to get upset so they'd have a reason to arrest him. That's why they asked the kid why he was acting nervous. They knew the answer before they asked it. They were just hoping for a "reaction."
This is a TYPICAL incident in these neighborhoods. Young black men who are just going to and from work or school, who aren't thugs, don't have drugs, alcohol, or weapons in their vehicles, being stopped by the police for minor infractions that the police escalate through very intentional lines of questioning, into "incidents" that end up with searches - and if the victims (that's what they are - they are victims of the police) get upset - they are arrested.
I've hung out in poor neighborhoods. Heck, I've slept in a graveyard with homeless people, and in a dilapidated condemned building that had a hole in the roof and plastic sheeting over the bed to keep the mattress from soaking when it rained.
Most of the folks living in them are trying to make the best of their situation, and hopefully get out of it. Yes there are thugs, and drugs, and alcohol, and weapons. But most of these people are not thugs, into drugs, alcohol, or killing each other. It makes me sick to my stomach to see the ones who are doing nothing wrong (other than a wide turn - seriously?), being singled out and manhandled and accused and treated like scum, because of the few who actually deserve the scrutiny.
Ask yourselves - when was the last time you even noticed whether or not you were making a "wide turn?" And when was the last time you were pulled over for such a minor infraction? You know minorities get pulled over regularly for failing to signal? For not using their turn signal. It happens. Every single day. Meanwhile, the rest of us who aren't minorities, forget to turn the signal, and then when we remember to use it, forget to turn it off, we roll through stop signs, we don't pull over immediately when an ambulance is trying to pass, we do all kinds of things we aren't supposed to do - and rarely, if ever, get pulled over for it.
SO there you have it. That's my participation piece. This is why the police need their reputation to be repaired. Because there are kids with beautiful smiles and bright futures being bullied and manhandled by cops who think that those smiles and futures are meaningless if their skin is darker than theirs.