# Chronos, why can't we talk about race in a thread about police?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chronos-why-cant-we-talk-about-race-in-a-thread-about-police/839005>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [August 21, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chronos-why-cant-we-talk-about-race-in-a-thread-about-police/839005 "2019-08-21T15:28:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chronos-why-cant-we-talk-about-race-in-a-thread-about-police/839005/10 "2019-08-21T16:34:03Z")

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My initial reaction was “good warning” but after going back to the thread and viewing the clip I’m not so sure.

The OP ends with

> [@If I ran like "Baby" from Baby Driver in a public place, would I be arrested?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-ran-like-baby-from-baby-driver-in-a-public-place-would-i-be-arrested/838872/1):
>
> This may sound idiotic, but I always had the urge deep within me to run like this in a public place (I live in California). Obviously, minus the crime (stealing, etc.)… just pure running and acting like I’m being chased. Would I be arrested?

Basically it looks like the OP is asking if the combination of running _and_ acting is illegal. So to me questions of race, age, gender and all come into play. Let’s face it, if some old white guy like me is doing it a cops first reaction is probably going to be looking for the axe-murderer chasing me. If its a young black man I am not so sure. Same basic scenario if its a woman instead of me. Her and the cop will ask what’s up; a young man and my bet is the cop will do a pat-down and cuffs and then ask the follow-up questions.

Setting aside just how it was raised I offer as well that a more CS-type response was offered in the post above \*\* DCnDC \*\*. So I’m just not sure the original comment by **Chronos** was on target. I’m also not sure that this isn’t a case where the thread should have been bumped to IMHO or elsewhere rather than trying to force it into GQ form/responses. Like most people said the true answer is “it depends” and in this case it depends on too many different things for a fully factual response.

From that point on — call it “fruit of the poisoned tree” and scale back the warnings from it.

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