<p>“Emily, if it makes you feel comforted to spin and twist, go for it.”</p>
<p>I don’t think it is spin. </p>
<p>But on a lighter note:</p>
<p>“is because every third person has a PBA card and can’t be ticketed.”</p>
<p>I have one of those cards but I don’t ever go more than 72 on the thruway and I never speed on city streets. It’s definitely wasted on me. </p>
<p>You could sell it! There is a market.</p>
<p>xiggi. This is what I wrote:</p>
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<p>If you had read A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G I have posted on the Ferguson case you would know that I have never said the evidence was overwhelming. ALL I have said is that I believe there is probable cause for an indictment and that the case should go to trial. The parallel, as I stated above, is that prosecutors don’t want to indict cops. It’s the Garner case that offers overwhelming evidence. </p>
<p>And you know, putting cute little exclamation points on everything does not change the way people receive your messages. </p>
<p>“!”</p>
<p>^ It’s got DH’s name on it and his title (was specially made up for him) so I don’t think so. </p>
<p>See this? <a href=“Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Found Unfit in Previous Police Job”>http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officer-who-killed-tamir-rice-found-unfit-previous-police-job-n261111</a></p>
<p>free reign… law makers just give lip service to doing anything about it:</p>
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<p><a href=“Four Members of Congress Put Their Hands Up in Solidarity With Ferguson Protesters, None Voted to Limit Police Militarization”>http://reason.com/blog/2014/12/02/four-members-of-congress-put-their-hands</a></p>
<p>Ah, no, Emily, that’s not the kind of card I’m talking about. Here, every third person has a courtesy card from the union. Not personalized, not official. Almost something that could be made at home, but here it is a magic when getting stopped.</p>
<p>I don’t understand this. There should be no gray area here. Clearly the cop who placed him in a choke hold is in the wrong. I can’t imagine how/ why anyone would dispute this</p>
<p>I agree lje. I can’t comprehend this outcome.</p>
<p>Honestly, without transparency into grand jury proceedings–or, better yet, outside investigations when a sworn officer is involved–this will never change. NO ONE can say Eric Garner posed any kind of threat to the police who accosted him or stood idly by while he was unable to breathe. The only explanation, in my opinion, has to be that the way these grand juries are being instructed leads them almost every time to a non-indictment.</p>
<p><a href=“The Grand Jury In The Eric Garner Chokehold Case Was Especially Unlikely To Indict | FiveThirtyEight”>The Grand Jury In The Eric Garner Chokehold Case Was Especially Unlikely To Indict | FiveThirtyEight; may be of interest.</p>
<p>That is interesting, ucbalumnus, and it is consistent with what zoosermom has been posting.</p>
<p>Holder announced that there would be a federal civil rights investigation.</p>
<p>I guess I need to have another talk with my 24 yr old son, though I’m not sure what to say. We’ve already talked in recent weeks about his encounters with the police, none of which have been positive. During one of these recent conversations, I found out that he’s been stopped and questioned about his “intentions” while walking in our neighborhood, not once but twice. He no longer lives at home, but in an apartment he shares with roommates, so I’d been in the dark about this second incidence for quite some time. He said he saw no point in telling either of us about the second time, because it would only upset us (Mom, especially). But another incidence, which he told me about immediately after it happened, was him getting stopped and frisked as he was leaving a Barnes and Noble bookstore in the Towncenter. </p>
<p>Like me, my son loves bookstores. Sometimes, we have mother/son dates (dinner out, followed by coffee and conversation at one of the local B&Ns) He especially loves fiction (Vonnegut is a “literary god” as far as he’s concerned), particularly novels centering around dystopian societies. So one evening a couple of summers ago, he was stopped while exiting the store in which he’d spent the last two hours, sitting and perusing. One of Hampton’s finest told my son to his face that he had “seen you slashing tires in the parking garage earlier this evening”. Needless to say, S didn’t take this blatantly false allegation very well. He reported “standing in stony silence, staring daggers at the male cop” as he was being frisked (there were two cops, a male and female). It’s a good thing my Eagle Scout wasn’t carrying a pocket knife (though he’d earned a knife safety chip as a Weblo years ago), because he was let go when the supposed weapon he’d “been seen” using to vandalize cars was nowhere to be found. He doesn’t carry the commemorative Pocket knife he was given as a Newport News shipyard employee, either, a conscious decision he made in the wake of the Towncenter incident. He also doesn’t own a gun. I told him he may as well act as if the 2nd Amendment doesn’t apply to him, because for the most part, it doesn’t. White men can openly converge en masse in public, armed to the teeth, each with multiple guns and dare anyone to “usurp their Constitutional rights”, but a black kid with a toy gun in a park, or a black man talking on his cell phone in Walmart while carrying a pellet gun he intends to buy, is a threat which must be put down, no questions asked. Welcome to “post racial” America. 8-| </p>
<p>I think you say, “Son, I love you.” What else is there to say? Nothing he can do will keep him safe from a person who sees his face and thinks he is a danger by existing.</p>
<p>Poetsheart, I just have no idea how mothers of black children handle this. It’s like having your son deployed overseas - you never know what the day will bring. </p>
<p>Regarding the police dispatcher: I don’t see that there was anything wrong with the dispatcher not relaying the 911 caller’s comments to the police. In fact, it seems to me that you would not want callers’ untrained observations cluttering up a police officer’s response. What if it had been the reverse: the caller says it’s probably a kid with a toy, and it turns out it’s a 20 yr old with a real gun? The police should make a trained observation. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in this instance, the caller knew what they were talking about, and the officer was a substandard performer who should not have been wearing a badge. </p>
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<p>Well, “I love you” is something my son routinely hears from both his Dad and me. Also, “drive carefully”. We talked briefly just a couple of hours ago, and discussed the Garner case. It really breaks my heart that my S views the police as an ever potential danger to his health and well-being, despite his being a law abiding citizen. We talked about what he should do if pulled over by the police and asked for his license and registration. Fortunately, he’s only been pulled over while driving a couple of times. But he drives an old Jetta that has some miles on it and mechanical issues from time to time. One of the times he was stopped was because his brake lights weren’t working (unbeknownst, of course, to S). But a routine traffic stop can never be taken lightly, especially in light of some recently video recorded encounters by black motorists with law enforcement. We discussed the importance of making sure his hands are fully visible during the entire encounter, and when asked to present his driver’s license and registration, that he explain exactly what he’s about to do prior to doing it (ie., slowly reaching into his glove box for his registration as requested, while stating openly that he does not have a weapon of any sort), that he address the cop as “officer”, being unfailingly courteous and cooperative unless he is asked permission to search his vehicle—that, he should never, ever do. </p>
<p>I’m watching CNN for the first time in a very long time (I don’t watch 24/7 news for a variety of reasons but I wanted to see the protests). There is a former police detective on that is there that is making the NYPD look as bad as can possibly be. He’s defending the arrest, the use of force, etc all because of Eric’s background. Essentially he’s saying: “well, if he was doing this, he was obviously doing something much worse and thus the use of force was justified.” </p>
<p>Cops should be out in force saying “Enough is enough. We’re not all like this.” Instead, they have this donkey on there and it’s absolutely disgusting. </p>
<p>Did anyone else see the #WeHearYou tweet from the NYPD? </p>
<p>There are some very braindead people in the NYPD that are clearly not thinking ANY of this through. </p>
<p>^^ I just watched it, romanigypsyeyes. Appalling. </p>
<p>I just watched the video again, and its heart breaking to hear him say over and over, Ï cant breathe", and one of the officers has his head pushed into the concrete. My son graduates from college this year, and so far he has had no run in with the law, but that doesnt keep me from worrying about him everyday. What others fail to realize, is that we start grooming our kids at a young age, even the girls. “Dont touch anything in the store, lest you be accused of stealing”, Keep your hands visible during a traffic stop, lest they will think you are reaching for a gun", NEVER leave a convenience store without asking for any items purchased to be placed in a bag", etc, etc, etc</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, its amazing to me that White men can openly carry even around the President, and exercise their rights. We cannot pick up a toy gun without freaking someone out.</p>
<p>My white D dated a young black man for about a year when she was in her late teens. She said that it was obvious to her that he was treated differently when they shopped than a white man would be and she was treated as suspicious for being with him. I was at the mall once with the two of them and I picked up on it as well. It made my blood boil and made me feel so protective of him. I wanted to scream at the store employees. How dare they?!!! </p>
<p>For me, it was only a small glimpse into what it must be like to be a black parent of a black child. It still makes my blood boil.</p>