“The Tuskegee experiment did not reflect the US Public Health Service at its best.”
“The events of Abu Ghraib did not reflect the US Military at its best.”
“The events leading to my client’s arrest do not reflect Mr. Dahmer at his best.”
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Right. I should hope there is a police apology too.
Though I assume the bank teller spent some hours also sitting in handcuffs in the back of the police car while the police investigate if they did anything illegal.
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I think an antipology would be the ones where the person apologizes by saying they are sorry people got offended, which to me typically comes across as a “No, fuck you” apology.
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Say hello to China.
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To be fair the police should have never done anything other than say to the bank employees ‘and you think a 12 year old and her grandfather did what?!?!?!’ over and over again. I keep hearing police can exercise discretion and this would definitely be one of them.
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Johnson, 56, and his granddaughter were using government-issued Indian Status cards, his birth certificate and her medical card. He said the employee became suspicious and went upstairs with their cards.
He believes the employee might have been suspicious because he had $30,000 in his account — an amount he and every other member of the Heiltsuk nation received in December from the federal government as part of an Aboriginal rights settlement package.
Bank of Montreal and Vancouver Police Department express regret
…over looking like a bunch of racist idiots in front of the public.
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I think 100K cash would be a more meaningful apology.
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I think Canadians think they can let themselves off the hook by comparing Canada’s racism against Indigenous people to America’s racism against black Americans. The reality is that Canada is just awful. The proportion of people we imprison and people we brutalize/kill is smaller, so the problem is less pronounced in some ways. But the disproportionateness of our targeting of Indigenous people is more extreme the last time I checked (it’s also worth remembering, of course, that while American cops love targeting young black men, they also love targeting Indigenous people). There are places you can go in Canada and you’d think you were in the Jim Crow south (e.g. it’s -20 out and the white people get to wait inside the mall for the bus while the Indigenous people have to wait outside the mall for the same bus).
The Bank, obviously, owes these people an apology (and I hope they offered a person one to them, in addition to the sort of broad disavowing the incident on twitter). I’d far more interested in what happened with the police. My guess is that the bank teller probably acted against policy and will be disciplined or fired. My guess is that the cops who thought it was necessary to break out the handcuffs for an old man and a 12-year-old girl - based on what, them possessing valid ID? - will go on with their day like nothing happened.
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Wuuuut? Wow.
Someone needs to post a video and/or write an expose about that craziness.
Just how do the white folks keep the indigenous folks outside in that situation?
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What’s really fucked up about this is that he already had the money in his account - the deposit had already cleared and the account balance was none of the teller’s business. In fact, this should have made the teller more attentive and amenable to the 12-year-old’s opening of an account. VPD has a long history of racism and corruption but is making progress to better treatment of citizens. I assume the VPD chief and the police board will use this to straighten out some behavior issues with the patrol officers.
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They’re kept outside by being asked to leave if they’re not shopping. ‘Excuse me, are you shopping?’ ‘No, I’m waiting for the bus’ ‘You can’t do that here, please go wait outside’.
However if you observe closely, that initial question is only asked of visible minorities (of whom indigenous people are the majority where I live, though immigrants and others with dark skin get the same treatment) or really sketchy looking white people. If I were to wait inside, there’d be no question about my intentions, therefore no requirement to go out into the cold.
It’s really low-key, easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention or have the even slightest inclination to ignore it.
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Thanks for this explanation of what sounds like let’s see, passive-aggressive racism? Fucking horrible.
I do think it could be documented on video.
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I think suing both BM (nice initials there) and the Vancouver police (and winning) for CA $100 million would be more appropos.
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I am very sorry you chose to be offended.
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Approaching people and asking them to leave sound’s pretty active to me.
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Yeah, true. Especially when combined with NOT approaching other (paler) people.
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Some of the organic models can even pass for humans.
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For the past 20+ years I’ve spent a dozen-plus days every winter as a volunteer working for an Arizona tribe. They’re relatively fortunate to have a large area of their own where they can get away from the background bigotry. Which is all the more striking when you see how they’re received when they go out of it to towns that would dry up and blow away without the money that on-res business brings them.
I’ve been there long enough that they have started to trust me. Some. I’m flattered.
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I don’t get it. How is giving them cash a meaningful apology?
A meaningful apology consists of:
- taking responsibility
- expressing regret
- asking for forgiveness for the harm and distress you caused
- making clear that you understand what exactly it is you did wrong
- explaining in detail what you are going to do to make sure this never happens again
- offering adequate restitution
I doubt that in this case financial restitution is necessary, or helpful. But they could name the branch after the Grandfather and Granddaughter, and send the employees to do community work so that they can form meaningful relationships with indigenous people.
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