Colorado cops draw guns on black man picking up trash on his own lawn

Colorado is supposed to be chill. WTF?

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Where is the poster who has the list of things the cops are afraid of?
They should add “trash collector” or “guy picking up trash with a bucket”

seriously police officers, want some respect? stop with this ‘everything is WAR! SWAT 24/7365.25!’ crap
he showed you his ID, he’s obviously picking up trash and he lives right there. Also when the FUCK are police going to realize even the poors have cameras in their cellphones?
never evidently
never

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Holy fucksocks; I’m glad dude is still alive and not wounded.

An oldie from days of yore; but I contend that cops are not afraid of anything but losing their stranglehold on unchecked power to intimidate harass and kill at will with impunity.

Power corrupts.

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To quote Philip K Dick-

“Roog!”

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I’m a white guy, and one morning in an area I used to live in about 2 years ago I got rudely woken up by a construction crew demanding I move my car out of my own driveway because it adjoined the street, for a major construction project, with no notice from anyone including the utility who was doing it.

I had abusive neighbors on both sides of me and regularly had to hear violent arguments and child abuse, through my walls. I was usually on edge because of this and sleep was the only thing that helped and this man disturbed it in a very rotten way, on a monday morning, at 6 am.

I went down and complained to the foreman and he started swearing at me, so I went full apeshit on him and started swearing profusely at him with some creative language. I’m far from perfect.

Later in the day after I got home, a police officer showed up at my door and asked to talk with me. This was in an area where people were regularly shot and stabbed over drugs and gang violence.

He was calm with me and heard my side of the story. He ended up agreeing with me once he heard it but said I needed to stay a little calmer next time.

Later that year, though it was not that officer, another one from the same Department who had just been hired shot Antwon Rose to death as he ran away, 3 times in the back.

I’ve learned there are good cops but I think my specific situation taught me along with others that there really is overt racism among some police, and I often wonder if I didn’t get tased or shot simply because I was white.

Why can’t a man on his own lawn doing nothing violent threatening or otherwise not be threatened by the police, and happen to be black? The more I read, day in and day out, I’ve lost nearly all respect I had for police, which was never that much.

If anyone members here are police, don’t look away from this stuff. If you see someone in your department do something like this, don’t let it stand, and make them get their shit together because this stuff needs to stop no matter what color someone is.

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Neither police nor the public need a watrant nor permission to step on private property. This only applies to posted property that clearly states “private property. No trespassing”

yup, the damn union has created a semi police state. In many states the union has gotten the government to agree to a very pernicious demand. All cops that are charged with a crime must be shown all the evidence agains them before the first interview or sworn statement.

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According to the police statement, the officer, who has not been named, decided to question the black man when he saw him behind a private property sign and wondered if he was allowed to be on the property.

Because black people don’t own houses, so obviously he was trespassing.

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He could have been using a loaded AR-15 <insert creative use of gum, tape, etc.> to pick up trash and would not have been a crime. Worthy of a, “hey, what are you doing?” Perhaps, but that would have been it.

Only in America.

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And what does a bad apple do?

Spoils the whole damn bunch.

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I can’t watch the whole thing now, but did the guy ask for a supervisor? That screams “Let me talk to your supervisor.”

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This is where I get a niggle - the cop shouldn’t have been uneasy to begin with! It’s implies that knee-jerk suspicion of black people was okay, the cops just need to handle it differently.

I am all for police building trust within the communities they work, but that starts with not doing shit like this. Maybe if the cop was giving the guy a reward for doing a public service? But until being black is no longer a crime, it doesn’t matter how many friendly conversations cops try to have - it will always be anxiety inducing for a black person.

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Not even that. It should have been quite obvious what he was doing.

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Cops are suspicious all the time (disproportionately so with POC). Again…WE CAN HAVE BOTH. That’s the wonderful thing about “conversation/communication” it handles BOTH in one fell swoop. It eases or confirms any distrust or suspicion on both sides of that equation. Hand on gun and threatening commands leads to uncooperative behavior which leads to more heavy handed action, etc etc. The conversation will almost always lead to good places for these type of situations.

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I am not saying that police shouldn’t try to have friendly conversations with POC (though I think they should understand that ANY police interaction could be anxiety-inducing for a person of colour). What I AM saying is that the cause for that conversation can’t be “well, you were black and doing something I find suspicious” because it doesn’t deal with the inherent racism.

Policing should be friendly where it can, but friendliness can’t be used as a cover for confirming/refuting unfounded suspicions.

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I’m genuinely surprised that garbage isn’t already on the List of Things That Frighten Police.

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Thank you for expressing what I was thinking.

In either scenario (the one that really happened or the one laid out by users here with “friendly conversation”), once the cops went away, in his shoes, I would shake my head and say something along the lines of “f’ing racist cops…”

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Woops, should have read your initial comment. Yes, if someone is picking up garbage with an AR-15 it might warrant some follow-up questions.

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I didn’t say it was. I am saying we can have BOTH. We can work towards ending unfounded suspicion based on racism AND we can encourage positive conversations and building trust.

Seriously…we are on the same side on this, please stop arguing something that is not an argument.

The interaction is already well underway by the time the film is rolling, so we have little idea how it started or how it escalated. However, the anxiety black people feel in these situations is well documented. Black parents and educators even have to train their children about how to deal with the police.

That’s why the “friendly conversation” might be a bit of a white liberal fantasy - when that cop walks up, you don’t know what they’ve got in store for you. However, I say all this as a white liberal, and I think we need to listen to the actual victims about how they want to be treated. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say “not be approached for frivolous/unfounded suspicions” would be on the list.

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