There are official police reports and there are media reports of what was reportedly said. I expect the media to do a better job of reporting the stories that the media have decided should be highly-publicized.
Where did you leave your SS card and IDs? In your home, perhaps?
I carried my DL, but yes as to the SS card. IIRC it was in my parents’ files and I couldn’t have found it by myself.
Not every time a police officer is called is force a reasonable response.
Some situations where a person cannot/refuses to identify him/herself violence might be an appropriate escalation. Sometimes it is not. It is the police officer’s job to evaluate appropriately. Most police officers make it through the day without getting this wrong. The fact that so many cannot accept that officers can be fuck-ups just like the rest of us is baffling and disheartening.
Why not use your small words to answer my first question to you.
When the adult without ID tells you to piss off and is walking off school grounds with a kid (willingly) in tow, what do you do?
Bonus points for using small words to tell me how you respond when the press points out that the adult was the kid’s grandfather, and was asked by the parents to pick the kid up from school.
True. Just as baffling and disheartening as the fact that so many immediately assume that officers fucked up without knowing all the circumstances.
Complete and utter horseshit.
Seriously. Horseshit from start to finish. Cops would never have been called about an unfamiliar white kid? You think white kids don’t break into houses? (they do). You think cops have never been called? (they have?)
How would I know? Personal experience. In my youth, I broke into houses. And I have personally ran from police when they were called to those houses. I assume by neighbors, but I didn’t stick around to ask. Some of my drug addled friends were not as quick as me and got caught in houses by police. Some of them were not treated with patience and tolerance. Sometimes they got their asses beat before being carted off. White boys, white neighbors, white cops. It happens. Back to the present:
Maybe these particular cops were racist assholes and ruffed up a perfectly innocent and polite black kid. It sure is a possibility. And if more information surfaces to support that scenario, then I will gladly join you in your righteous indignation and condemnation.
But can you honestly not imagine a scenario where there police acted appropriately, given the few facts we have?
Lets review those facts:
- Neighbors call cops about what they assume is a burglar. (Why do they assume this? Because they don’t recognize him. Racists? Bad neighbors? I don’t know.)
- Cops come to situation with a reason to be suspicious (possible break in. this was probably not the first time they responded to such a call)
- They question an 18 year old kid they find in the house. (I will use kid, because I am an old fart now. I will not use child, because that’s stupid. He’s an adult, old enough to fight in our army)
- It is not immediately clear that the 18 year old belongs there. ID not from this address, no photos of him in the living room where there are photos of other family members.
- They use pepper spray on the kid.
These are the facts. And right now, these are the only facts. Everything else is this guy says this, that guy says that…cops overreacted, kid was belligerent…these are things we do not know yet. Both are possible and plausible. Maybe both are true.
I don’t really feel like diving that deeply into this already lengthy thread, but my personal position is that in a person should have essentially a 0% risk of having a potentially violent confrontation with police in his/her own home, regardless of whether or not that resident can or chooses to provide the officers at the door some kind of proof of residency. This, in my opinion, is essential to a free society; the government can’t come to my house and demand papers.
That said, I think it’s much more likely that the cops fucked up, as what should have been a 0% chance for this kid actually happened. Why? What did he do that warranted police intervention in the first place? I mean, he was even wearing his seat belt this time!
True we don’t know the exact details of what happened (though if he attacked the police they would have reported that). But baring his attacking them, there is no reason they, as professionals, should have resorted to pepper spray. And, frankly, there is almost no reason for them to have shown up and confronted a teenager in his own house and demanded proof that he lived there.
Nobody knows that until you prove it. So, cite?
Regards,
Shodan
They did.
I saw “threatening and belligerent” in an article, please point me to the article where the police claim he attacked them; I likely have just missed it. Or maybe that is a synonym for “attacked” for you, but it is definitely not the same in my dictionary.
Demonstrably false. They had a responsibility to do exactly that! It was their damn job, it’s what they are paid to do!
They were called. They were their to investigate, in a neighborhood that had seen several break-ins. Teenagers sometimes do break in to other people’s houses.
I am really not understanding this.
I cited it upthread. Apparently you didn’t bother to read it.
The police officer continued to question Mr. Currie. Mr. Currie became very volatile, profane and threatened physical violence toward the police officer. In an effort to calm Mr. Currie, the police officer asked him several times to have a seat, which he refused. Mr. Currie became increasingly belligerent and profane and the police officer attempted to restrain Mr. Currie with handcuffs to insure the police officer’s and Mr. Currie’s safety. Mr. Currie then struck the police officer’s left arm knocking the handcuffs to the floor.
“He was in his OWN house!”
So what?
The cops didn’t know that to start. The evidence they did have didn’t back it up.
That was kinda the whole point of them being there.
This whole “I’m innocent and why the fuck are cops fucking with me?!!!” thing is retarded.
They aren’t mind readers.
The fact a person turns out to BE innocent has fuck all to do with how the interaction went down. That either stands or falls on its own merits.
Considering what they told the media at first, and considering that they have not charged the victim with any crime, I’m rather skeptical.
Almost no reason doesn’t mean absolutely no reason. I have a hard time coming up with a better reason for the police to enter a house and demand proof of residence than a report of a burglary in progress from a neighbor.
That’s like a flashing neon sign that says “you really need to find out if this guy lives here”.
Calm down. I asked you to point it out. I haven’t read the whole thread. No need to be an ass.
It’s a little different, and they’ve got a person resisting . . . arrest? Or something. At any rate, there’s physical conflict so maybe pepper spray is correct in that context.
But they shouldn’t have been attempting to handcuff a person in his own home. The police initiated physical contact. That is wrong. Completely wrong. I’m not claiming that the kid resisting was right behavior, but the whole scenario is the result of poorly chosen actions by the police.
I’m curious, what would you have them do? Believe him and leave?
The police asked him for an ID, and he produced one that had a different address on it.
Now what should they do?
Well, they tried to investigate further, but the person gets confrontational and threatens violence.
Now what?
They try to calm him down, to no avail. They ask him to take a seat, he refuses. They continue to try and calm him, but he becomes more angry and volatile.
Now what should they do?
When they decide that, for everyone’s safety, they need to handcuff him while they investigate further, he hits the police officer in the arm.
What should they do now?
Yes, in an ideal world, the police shouldn’t have to resort to pepper spray. But when faced with an angry, confrontational, threatening person who refuses to calm down, what should they do? Let him go? Leave him alone? Let him wander the house, threatening them and posing a risk to follow through on his threats of violence?
I don’t think it’s an easy call by any stretch of the imagination.
Maybe, just maybe, the police didn’t charge him because they’re not out to do him harm, that they’re not vindictive bastards who want to hurt black people. Maybe, just maybe, they thought it was an unfortunate event that didn’t need to result in actual criminal charges and was better handled by discussing it with the kid and his parents.
Maybe, just maybe, they’re not the assholes people seem so intent on making them out to be.
It may be a good idea to read the whole thread before commenting. So that you know the facts. Otherwise what’s the point of your comment?