Originally published at: Cops stop two Black men who are just riding bikes, order one to crawl | Boing Boing
…
11 Likes
Fortunately, this time, nobody was killed.
I know this isn’t how you meant it @Carla_Sinclair , but my first thought was “pretty low fucking bar we’ve got here in America.”
37 Likes
At least the cops, this time were using Time, Distance and Cover; rather than charging in and shooting people. But, yeah, the bar is so low, it is practically subterranean.
One of the cops tells the clearly confused men that they match the description of two suspects,
And, pray tell, officer, what was that description?
14 Likes
Those officers match the description of quite a few suspects.
42 Likes
Oh, you know, Black male. tallish short, fattish thin. Dressed in clothes. The usual.
37 Likes
May be hoodied and dangerous.
18 Likes
The Onion gets it spot on again:
37 Likes
Oh, I think she very much was signaling the “pretty low fucking bar we’ve got here in America” part.
17 Likes
You gotta dig down into the dirt to find that low-bar to begin with.
13 Likes
Any lower and you’d be ordering drinks from this guy…
10 Likes
JFC! So now one of the things that can fall under the, “they didn’t comply with commands,” umbrella is they wouldn’t fucking crawl on hands and knees over 20+ feet of concrete?!?
15 Likes
suspects
Usually when I’m running from the law, it’s not directly towards them riding a bicycle with high-visibility blinking lights. Way to detective, Sherlock.
20 Likes
Don’t forget, clean shaven, with a beard…
11 Likes
Who wants to bet that there never were “two suspects” in the first place, and that was just the excuse to frisk two black guys in a fishing trip for wrongdoing?
14 Likes
No bet, cuz that’s exactly what it was, of course. Their actions during the stop make that perfectly clear.
7 Likes
In Europe, a case like this becoming public would make national, maybe global, news. It would be all over in the news. The policemen would be fired if not trialed, the local police chief would resign and the minister whose resort this is would ensure far reaching police reforms. The opposition would (justified or not) demand the minister to resign. The detained boys would be in many political talk shows talking about the injustice done to them.
In the US? Hardly worth a headline.
3 Likes
Yeah, this is a classic police opener the world over. It’s clever, because it makes their otherwise obvious harassment seem (in the moment) justified.
6 Likes
I’m sure they have a suspect description that fits really well, even ignoring the obvious super broad descriptions. One of the things that a lot of cops will keep on hand is a list of suspects for basically every crime in the last 6 months. You can definitely find the right combination of clothing, height, and weight if you have every crime in a city for a long enough period of time. Sure the fact that the thief was wearing jeans and a hoodie 5 weeks ago doesn’t help, but it gives them plausible deniability, which is what the list is for.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
