Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/27/black-attorney-gets-detained-b.html
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Name the sheriff’s deputy.
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This is why I have friends from Baltimore that are afraid to leave the city and be in rural areas.
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Hell I am as pasty fucking white as one can be and I am not all that comfortable going outside the city.
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The investigation can be limited to two pretty clear questions:
(1) how many other people has this deputy detained on suspicion of impersonating an attorney; and
(2) how many of those people have not been people of color?
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Harford County (and several other horrid backwards areas along the coast) is a major reason that the US East Coast mega-city, often postulated in science fiction. will never happen.
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By the way, if you’re ever traveling along that stretch of US interstate 95, do not stop in Rising Sun.
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Sundown Town?
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Who cares if he was a lawyer or not? Can you not represent yourself in court? Is it illegal to pretend to be a lawyer? I mean, lawyers pretend to be people, so turnabout is fair play.
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Like that’ll help: “Oh you could have printed these yourself.” Once that basic racist assumption is toggled, there no amount of evidence that can’t be explained away with a big enough conspiracy theory.
Firefighter uniform and fire truck? He might have stolen them…
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(This was intended to be a reply to Melz2 (above) about sundown towns. I don’t know what happened)
In my experience, yes. As well as “Boy, we don’t like the way you talk” regardless of skin tone (being lily white myself). I have distant cousins there (look up my earlier post about visitn). When I was a kid, it didn’t seem to matter so much. By the time I was 14 or so, I dreaded any mention of the place.
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The officer asked for a business card as proof? Yeah, good thing you can’t get one of those unless you’re an actual lawyer.
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The sheriff is going to love the pretend lawsuit that gets served.
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“Happens to be black” implies that blackness is a minor detail, not really an important part of the story.
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Lawyering while Black? Or just “Trying to make a living while Black?” Either is purty durn suspishus
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It’s my understanding that if you actually practice law without a license, it is generally a crime in most jurisdictions. Just calling yourself a lawyer isn’t a crime. I suppose since he was in court, it could have been an actual concern. But let’s be real, this was a racial issue.
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I second that. I have a neighbor who works for the department in Harford County. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn that he’s the one. I haven’t spoken to him since the riots in Baltimore a few years back when he tried complaining to me about “those animals” and other less acceptable descriptions. He seemed upset when I pointed out that, though I was white like him, I found his language far out of bounds.
shrug
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If you don’t have a license, t’s illegal to put yourself forth as a lawyer, to represent others, prepare legal documents for others, and the like. Representing yourself is fine…which means that even if he had been the client here, it would have been fine.
(Caveat: Haven’t looked up the specific state laws here, but this is what’s generally the case. From what I can tell, the state laws that vary seem to do so in the direction of allowing non-lawyers to do certain specific tasks, such as preparing documents.)
People, people! Let us please look on the bright side. Mr lawyer fella wasn’t shot! amirite?
no beat down? progress people! PROGRESS! (do I have to put the /snark tag here? I do? geez)
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