Hollywood Producer Mistakenly Detained by Police

Parent Cafe
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<p>All in all, Charles Belk seemed to take it in stride when he described being handcuffed and held for several HOURS by L.A. police, and made to squat on the sidewalk for all to see. He said, to paraphrase, that he ‘basically fit the description of a robbery suspect; tall, similar clothes, bald and male Black.’</p>

<p>O.K., I see that there might be some slack to hand out to the L.A. Police on this matter. But the description seems relatively general to me. And why did it take 5 hours to straighten this out? The guy was walking to his car and on his way to a party for the Emmy awards show. Mr. Belk’s calm composure seems to indicate that he was not surprised to have had such an encounter with the police. I think his calmness masked true frustration, which is certainly topical of late.</p>

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<p>The police had VIDEO of the actual robber. All they had to do was look at the video and see that the producer wasn’t the guy. But for hours, they refused to do it.</p>

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<p>Well that certainly put the exclamation point on the end of the latest news! African American men must be getting pretty sick of this at this point. </p>

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<p>This is nothing new. I listen to DL Hughley on a regular basis and he always says that no matter how rich & accomplished he is, he is always reminded of his black maleness. It’s a fact of life. It will never change. </p>

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<p>Can you see the police stopping all tall, bald white men??? Aint gonna happen. L.A. police were probably waiting for a NCIS report - after all, aren’t all black men guilty of something these days in the eyes of the cops? No reason for a black man to be in a nice neighborhood unless he was up to no good.</p>

<p>I’m glad that Belk and others get picked up in situations like this, because it helps to prove the point that black men are often discriminated against and assumed guilty until proven innocent.</p>

<p>He HAD to stay calm - he knew that getting angry could get him beaten or worse.</p>

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<p>"…black men are often discriminated against and assumed guilty until proven innocent". </p>

<p>I once served on a jury where the defendant was a black man who had admitted he broke into an apartment but insisted he never possessed a gun. The occupant of the apartment said the defendant had a fun, but there was no evidence of a gun and none was found. I voted to convict for reading and entering but acquit for armed robbery. Some of the jurors were really opposed to that. One of them said words to the effect "So if he’s not guilty this time, he’ll be guilty in the future. You know how they are. " So even proven innocent doesn’t always help. </p>

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<p>“Well that certainly put the exclamation point on the end of the latest news! African American men must be getting pretty sick of this at this point.”</p>

<p>At this point? I think African Americans have endured this forever, it’s just us white people who are waking up to the fact of their frequent harassment or far, far worse… </p>

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<p>What about the black guy shot in WalMart for holding a pellet gun … a toy WalMart had on display? And to think all these those open-carry people never have a problem with their real guns. I’m getting tired of smh at everything.</p>

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<p>I disagree with the phrasing: he was not detained by mistake but on purpose … meaning they didn’t want to and didn’t bother checking out his extremely simple story that he’d come out of a restaurant. </p>

<p>One of the Boston Celtics, Dee Brown, who spent 12 years in the NBA, was forced to the ground in Wellesley back in the 90’s because he was tall and black. He was with his fiancée coming out of the post office. And to show the racism, a call was made to the police that a man who looked like the guy who had robbed the bank 4 days earlier was outside - meaning a tall black man - and this was translated by the police dispatcher into “the bank robber is outside”. I try to imagine that translated into white terms: tall white guy is outside, except in this case the robber had light skin and Dee Brown is, well, quite brown. The entire incident, which included 9 officers with drawn weapons, occurred because black people you know they all look alike even when they don’t.</p>

<p>As to the Walmart, according to the family’s attorney, surveillance video shows the guy had his back to the police, a phone to his ear (he was talking to his fiancée elsewhere in the store), and was leaning on the BB gun like it was a gun when the police shot him. All he had time to do was yell, “It’s not real!” before he was shot and then there are voices yelling “Get on the ground” though he’d already been shot. The call in to the police this time said there was a guy walking around with an AR-15 (assault rifle). Those don’t look anyways similar to BB guns.</p>

<p>Per 538, the minimum number of police killings in the US is over 400. The actual number is unknown but there’s a gap in reporting of gun killings that’s 3000 wide, and some percentage of those are police deaths. </p>

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<p>I hadn’t heard about the Walmart incident. I intend to write to Walmart and ask for their “opinion” on that event and if they plan to assist the victim and his family.</p>

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<p>BTW, I meant to say he was leaning on the BB gun like it was a cane, not a gun. My bad.</p>

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<p>Yesterday I saw a news clip about a black woman in a red Nissan with her two small children in the car who was pulled over and handcuffed because they’d gotten a tip about four black gun waving men in a tan Toyota. After the cops cuffed her and hauled her into the police car, her SIX YEAR OLD came out of the car, terrified with his hands raised. Fortunately, the cops quickly realized what they had done and released her. But really?</p>

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<p>How about this one? This Tuesday, St. Paul, MN, guy was sitting outside a store waiting to pick up his kids from the New Horizon Academy. Clerk calls the police because the guy has been sitting there for 10 minutes. By himself. Not doing anything. Officer comes up to him, as the man is walking, so he’s no longer sitting in front of the store, and demands to know his name. Guy records what happens. Female officer walking alongside him says, “I want to find out who you are, and what the problem was back there". Man says, "Why do I have to let you know who I am? I don’t have to let you know who I am if I haven’t broken any laws.” This is true in MN: there is no law requiring a person to identify themselves to police (so-called “stop and identify” laws). Apparently the store clerk came up to the guy and demanded to know why he was sitting there. Guy also says e explained to the clerk that he sat near the store for 10 minutes before going to pick up his children at a nearby school, New Horizon Academy. Guy continues, “He walked up to me a minute later and got irate with me,” the man says of the clerk. “That’s a public area, and if there’s no sign that ‘This is a private area, you can’t sit here.’ No one can tell me I can’t sit there.”</p>

<p>As described in the Twin Cities Daily Planet: “The problem was,” the officer begins to say, before the man cuts her off, saying, “The problem is, I’m Black.”Seconds later, the male officer approaches, and the man asks, “Please don’t touch me.” “You’re gonna go to jail, then,” the officer responds, before he and his colleague grab the man. “Come on brother,” the man says, “This is assault.” “I’m not your brother,” the second officer answers. “Put your hands behind your back otherwise it’s going to get ugly.”</p>

<p>At that point, the male officer orders him to put his hands behind his back. The argument continues for a few more seconds before the image goes black. But the man can be heard yelling for help. As some children are heard in the distance, the man says, “That’s my kids right there.” “Put your hands behind your back,” the officer can be heard yelling, before threatening to use the Taser. The device can be heard flickering at the 2:17 mark, before the man yells for help again. Later on, the female officer can be heard asking, “Did I not ask you to stop to talk to me?”</p>

<p>Me again. Some people may say the guy should have complied but they grabbed and then tasered a man and arrested him without any reason other than they got a phone call saying a man was sitting in public. No suspicion of him being a bank robber. He had a legal right not to identify himself, though it’s clear from the video that he explained why he was there. The police refused to accept a sensible explanation, even though the man was no longer even sitting in front of a store but was walking to pick up his kids, as he explained to them. </p>

<p>BTW, St. Paul police comment: no formal complaint has yet been filed. </p>

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<p>Lergnom, that story should upset all fair minded people. I avoid conspiracy theorists, black helicopter paranoiacs, sovereign citizen adherents, etc…but the police have ASSUMED too much power over ordinary citizens and the banalities of ordinary life of late. The U.S. is not Saudia Arabia or even the U.K. (a liberal police state) for God’s sake.</p>

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<p>This is outrageous. It is time that people stopped making excuses for the police in these situations. It seems pretty clear to me that the standard police training errs in the direction of authoritarianism and violence (“That’s the way they were taught at the Academy”) and that too many of the people they are letting into police forces are unable to cope with being issued a gun and a badge.</p>

<p>I was stopped a couple of years ago in a neighboring town because my inspection sticker had run out. (I actually had an appointment to get my broken side mirror fixed, so that I could pass inspection, but that’s irrelevant.) The cop asked to see the ID of my passenger. If I hadn’t been so surprised, I would have told him to refuse. What is this, the Gestapo? He had no reason to suspect a couple of circa 60 yr olds making a chocolate delivery in the middle of the day, not speeding, not doing anything untoward at all, of a crime and no reason to ask for ID of anyone but the driver. Especially not when I told him that I had an appointment at a local place to get the broken mirror–which he was standing next to, so he could clearly see the duct tape–fixed.</p>

<p>This is not the first time I encountered a cop who acted in an unduly authoritarian manner. Every time it happens, I think “If this is how they treat a middle-aged, middle-class white woman, how do they treat young black men?”</p>

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<p>Here’s more on the law-abiding black woman with four (not two) young children, driving a red Nissan, pulled over, pulled out of her car and handcuffed by police looking for four black men in a tan Toyota. The end of the video is heartbreaking: her six year old son, who has just seen his mother handcuffed, comes out of the car and approaches the officers, looking terrified and with his hands up.</p>

<p><a href=“Woman and children accidentally pulled over at gunpoint by Forney, Texas police - ABC13 Houston”>Page Not Found | abc13.com - ABC13 Houston;

<p>When my white son was six, I didn’t have to teach him to approach police officers with his hands up, lest they shoot him.</p>

<p>The police have not apologized for mistaking a woman in a red car for four men in a tan car.</p>

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<p>Just watched the video, @Cardinal Fang. That poor mother Those poor babies in the car. I can’t tell you how angry this makes me. This will stay with them for a very long time, unfortunately.</p>

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<p>Folks here are upset about the WM incident. Apparently an ex-military guy decided that the deceased looked suspicious and he and his wife decided to follow him around the store. Now lets see, if you think someone is going to rob a store or go on a shooting spree, why would you have your wife tail the suspect? Also, this supposed criminal walked passed plenty of other customers and they were not afraid because he had the bb gun in his cart. The additional sad part of this story, is when the cops stormed the Walmart, that is when all hell broke loose, and customers started running out of the store. Well a woman, died, I think she had a heart attack, running from the store, she was getting married the following weekend. I have to ask, everytime a non black person, sees a black person, and gets scared, why do the cops have to take them at their word? This never stops. </p>

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<p>I wish there was and “agree but don’t like” button</p>

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<p>Agree! I don’t like hearing about any of this. The Walmart story particularly upset me.</p>