So is this racism or the fact that males are now looked at as “stranger danger”?
I’m thinking both. I take my daughter to the library all the time, and I get down and play with her. Other little kids always come up and start interacting with me. They really like playing with adults, and usually the parents are parked on the benches, on their phones, ignoring their kids. I get stink eye all the time, and actually had someone whisk their daughter away from me, making it pretty obvious they thought I was dodgy. I doubt this would happen if I was female.
But this kind of freaks me out. I’m super-white, and my wife is of Mediterranean ancestry. Darker genes usually win over lighter ones, and my daughter is no exception. This could happen to me. Poo.
The person who originally called the police seems to be an asshat who jumped to a silly conclusion, but I don’t think anyone else is to blame here.
The police got a call saying “I think a guy on this bus kidnapped a child,” they tried to call the number back for more information, and didn’t get an answer. Of course they would be obliged to follow up and stop the bus.
The police assessed the situation, quickly realized there was no danger, apologized to the guy and his kid, and drove them home. They did everything right in this situation, as far as I can tell.
Crap, you beat me to that GIF by 2 seconds! 
The officer apologized and gave Thompson and his son a ride home.
South of the border we handle things a little bit differently.
Maybe, but if I’m reading the story right, the caller apparently also gave his racist reason for it. I’m not sure how I feel about the cop going on that, but at least the cop drove the man and his son home.
I can’t imagine that cops are running around checking whether the nannies match their kids. 
Most kidnapped children are abducted by a family member as part of a custody dispute. So if you were playing the odds you’d probably catch more kidnappers by targeting the adults who DID look like the children they were traveling with.
Taking the pair off the bus counts as detaining them in my book. If having different color skin from your (adopted?) child counts as probable cause, I’d be disappointed. And Albinism isn’t exactly hard to detect, even for non- dermatologists. It would have been a lot better if the cop had taken a look at the guy, seen why he was tattled on, and then gotten off the bus.
The way I understand the rules, if ID had been asked for, he’d have been obligated to comply. But getting off the bus without being arrested? I think the RCMP are on shakey ground here.
(edited to add) Besides which, I can imagine a very short converation with the kid:
Cop,“Can you tell me who this is?”
Kid,“This is my daddy”
case closed.
Yeah. Even though it is extremely rare, the average male is seen as a sexual predator of children. When I first joined a Christian home school co-op that met once a week, I volunteered to walk a kid to the rest room. Not go in with, just walk them down and back. I was told it was against policy O_0. I was the only male there at the time.
My ex has instructed my daughter that if she is lost, to find a mommy - a women with a child - to help.
Sexual predators of children are the exception, but I wonder if they’re rarer among women than men, making your ex statistically correct. Or maybe that’s just my own prejudice.
If this were acknowledged as a case of gender privilege, it would be a sign of emotional maturity all around. Of course, it in no way makes up for all the other examples of gender privilege that apply to males. But if women get to ask for equality in the workplace, men should get to ask for equality in childrearing. If women need to point to that disparity in the workplace before it can be acted on, men have the same need to point this one out as well. I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a Men’s Right’s Activist, just because they sometimes also say that.
To my understanding, the only crime that a woman is statistically more likely to commit, is prostitution. Every other category, men are more likely, or they’re roughly equally likely to be men or women.
the bus stopped and the driver told everyone to stay in their seats
Police are one thing, but does a bus driver have the right to detain people?
nobody did anything wrong.
I’d be interested if anyone knows where to find the studies that could settle the question. If I am being prejudiced (entirely possible), I’d like to correct that.
True story: I am white…mom is black. We have three kids. When our second child (first son) was born, he and mom were upstairs in the hospital waiting for me and our daughter to visit. Now only siblings are allowed upstairs to visit…because children are disease carrying cretins. So security checks kids going up and ensures only siblings are headed up. They stop my daughter and I (she was 4 at the time).
Security: Sir, where are you headed?
Me: Upsairs to see my spouse and our newborn son.
Sec: Sir, only siblings are allowed upstairs, she cannot go up.
Me: I know, we are going to see her brother.
Sec: I thought you said you were going to see your son? You cannot go see other people’s children.
Me: Again, I understand this. We are going to see my son, her brother upstairs.
Sec: Sir, I don’t think I can let you bring her upstairs to see someone else’s child. You can go see your own.
Me: sigh Ok, lets spell this out…I am white.
Sec: Yes sir.
Me: My wife isn’t.
Sec: looks at my daughter looks at me looks at my daughter again LIGHT BULB…oh my lord, I am so sorry sir!!! I didn’t even realize!!!
Me: it’s ok. can we go see them now?
He let us up again apologizing profusely for not having realized my daughter was much darker than me because she is mixed. Funny thing was, he wasn’t a 70 something who perhaps couldn’t grasp it socially…he was young. Maybe early twenties. You’d think he would have seen interracial kids by this point?
I have just returned from visiting relatives in multicultural North London, and if the idiot who called the police ever visits there, he or she will spend their entire time reporting people for being suspiciously different from their offspring.
