Lets go back to the two “shy” young men who did not fit this woman’s convention of how kids/families on a college tour should look.I have been on many tours where there is just the student, where the student/applicant is not "my typical student:. I am sorry but imo, this goes back to the women who felt uncomfortable and the college security. No one expects her to die, although I would love to hear her side of the story.
Who would have a vested interest in this story, sylvan? Quit dancing around the question. Who are you picturing as the enraged assassin?
I have never said she deserves to die. Do I think this women needs to be outed and humiliated. Oh yeah. Do I think she is a racist , oh yeah ;Do I want her to die? Nol.
I read an op-ed in the CSU student newspaper that refers to the following: “There is a whole Reddit thread created by police officers called ‘please stop making my job so difficult’ that is dedicated to stories of white people calling the police at the mere sight of someone of a different lineage.” Very interesting.
So you’re modifying that now?
What do you want, a name? Bob Stachowitz, Killbuck Kansas. He’s the only deranged human on earth. If only we could stop this madman.
Just to get this out of the way first, I do believe that racism is rampant in this country. While it’s clearly worse in some areas than others, it’s also painfully clear that it is present everywhere.
That being said, I don’t understand why this misguided woman is being labeled as a racist. And I’m not saying that she is or isn’t a racist. What I’m saying is that I have no idea if she is or isn’t. I do feel comfortable suggesting that she is paranoid and used very poor judgment. But too many posters are making accusations that are just not backed by any evidence we have access to - not a whole lot different than said woman’s decision to call the authorities in dealing with her “uncomfortable” feelings.
Read the transcript of her call. It took her a pretty long time to mention that the young men appeared to be Hispanic, and she didn’t even offer that description until the dispatcher asked if they were “white males”. When asked to describe them, she had given her estimate of their height, mentioned one boy’s hair style, and called out their dark clothing.
Maybe she’s racist, maybe she was just being paranoid, as she suggested to the dispatcher. My feeling is that she is probably no more or less racist than the rest of us - and that she would have made the same idiotic decision if it were two white kids exhibiting the same characteristics she associated with “everything that’s happened”.
I feel bad for the two boys. They didn’t deserve to be singled out and humiliated. No one does when they’ve done nothing wrong. But while I don’t condone the woman’s actions, I’m more than a bit troubled by the impulsive and judgmental labeling going on here. Maybe this is a good time for all of us to take a good look in the mirror.
I would say this woman’s behavior was caused by implicit bias. And yes, most people have implicit biases, about something or someone.
@Curiosa, did you read the link in #189?
It was about a guy falsely accused of marching in the Charlottesville protest.
Even though the misidentification was quickly corrected he’s still getting hate mail.
Uh-huh. Some little old Jewish guy in Kansas. That’s who you think will be driven mad with rage because of his “vested interest” in two indigenous teens from New Mexico?
Not buying it.
I’m with those who say it would be overkill to publicize Moonbat Mom’s name. Even though I deplore what she did, she does not deserve public shaming by social media, or worse.
Sherilynn Ifill of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund has a good thread on Twitter tonight about people’s unwillingness to “call a thing a thing,” when it comes to racism… in particular the damaging impact it can have in the legal process. Worth reading.
If you listen to the 911 tape she tells it all, and very calmly. She and her family were on the tour, she tried to talk to the boys who joined late and she said they were not part of the tour, her husband stayed with their kids and she stepped away from the tour to report the suspicious behavior. Another parent on the tour also thought something was off about the kids. She gave a pretty non-racial description (males, about 5’7", shoulder length black hair, parted in the middle).
She never stated a race until asked by the dispatcher, and then she said ‘Hispanic’.
We have 'good Samaritan laws for a reason. We want people to report strange behavior, to help, without fear of being accused themselves. Even the 911 tape removes her name, as would reports provided to the news media. She provided it, wasn’t trying to make an anonymous report. She was afraid. Is she not allowed to report being afraid? She was also an invited guest on the CSU campus.
If she was afraid, why didn’t her whole family leave the tour? Was her son being on the tour more important than her fear?
And this is exactly what happens when discernment disappears. No, people shouldn’t just report being “afraid,” because lack of discernment (and fueled by SOME sort of bias and awful lack of critical thinking) leads to a continual level of stress added to an entire class of people–non-white ones.
I hope the country floods 911 calls with reports of oddly behaving white people–then maybe we’d stop losing our minds and learn to behave with a modicum of sense.
I have never visited Colorado State University, but these young men dress and act like average teens on all the many college campuses I have visted the last decade or so. What kind of bubble does the reporting woman live in that the clothes and hair and demeanor strike her as creepy? Has she never before encountered teens not willing to make light conversation with adults, especially unknown adults? There is nothing out of the norm on the tape or in what she reports in the call. People aren’t justified in calling the police just because they are fearful. There have to be legitimate reasons. She is a mother and potentially endangered some other mother’s children without any reason other than her own irrational fears. imho. It was reckless behavior.
And then there was the group of black women just detained by seven police cars and a helicopter because they were taking their luggage with them as they left an Airbnb in CA…
I suppose the – white–neighbor was justified in calling the cops on them, too. Her reasoning? They didn’t wave at her. So they must be burglars. Hey, you never know… 
Following up on Garland’s post #253
If I was in any public space with my kids, and encountered someone seemingly potentially dangerous, my very first response was to remove my kids from that space asap. (I have done this and am sure many times it was an over-reaction) Then I would decide if further steps were necessary to protect others.
Would other parents here behave differently? I don’t find the reporting woman’s behavior understandable. I could understand she leaves her husband and another parent to keep an eye on individuals she believes potentially dangerous, but can’t fathom she left her kid there as well. That makes me think she really wasn’t all that concerned about their immediate safety. And if she didn’t see it as an emergency situation, there were so many other, much better ways for her to handle her concerns.
“Another parent on the tour also thought something was off about the kids.”
The thought that she left her own kid and husband there but found it necessary to question the guys and then call and that she or her husband found it necessary to gossip with at least one other parent in a group of only 15 people just floors me. She makes Gladys Kravitz look like a saint.
We can’t talk about white fear as if it’s harmless. Legally, it’s been weaponized. “Stand your ground” laws in states like Florida have made it legal to kill people, if you assert that you were afraid of them. Technically Justice is supposed to be blind, but of course in practice these laws are pretty much solely used to protect whites who attack minorities from accountability.
@garland I read about this yesterday. There have been so many cases lately I feel like I should just start a thread called “POC having the cops called on them while doing ordinary things.”
I’m really confused by what her problem was. I would love to know if she has only daughters or something and is less familiar with young men of that age. They look like every other teenaged boy I’ve seen and birthed, although my son didn’t have long hair per his high school. The t-shirts are totally what guys into metal music wear, and many young men are less than social in such a situation.