27 Likes
In defense of the person who made the callā¦better safe than sorry?
I donāt know. While I get this dude and his son were inconvenienced. Is it the worse thing in the world that someone spoke up when they thought something was suspicious?
1 Like
Refreshing to see that given the constant shit getting thrown on the pile where time and agin cops act like they can do anything they please.
2 Likes
Not everyone wants to escalate a confrontation with police for philosophical reasons.
A police officer can ask you to step off the bus and have a chat, if they are following up on a report of suspicious behavior. You certainly have the right to refuse and go into āam I being detained?ā mode. But in some situations ā like a crowded bus with your four-year-old son in tow ā itās better to be kind than to be right.
4 Likes
What, on the face of it, was suspicious?
Iām definitely a different skin colour from my grandson. I would hope that if I encountered a suspicious minded prodnose said person might have the rudimentary intelligence/politeness to ask him who I was, rather than call the police. (Plus Iād have the pleasure of being able to say āWhat are you, a UKIP supporter?ā in my stuffiest RP voice. But, as I say, in N8 Iām never likely to have the opportunity.)
14 Likes
I am pretty sure this is because man are also statistically more likely to be risk takers.
Or just dumberā¦
3 Likes
One person did, and the cops canāt get in touch with them.
8 Likes
I agree. But this could have been the Ontario Provincial Police, in which case I would disagree because I am down with OPPā¦
Okay, I will show myself out now.
14 Likes
Yes, but only if we step up and actually take on the same amount of responsibility.
Edit: which happens in many situations, but far, far from the majority.
7 Likes
Tasers and possibly pepper spray would be involved.
2 Likes
The cops donāt necessarily get to choose whether or which calls they respond too. Even if you, for example, dial 911 by mistake they need to call you back to establish whats going on, or (and sometimes and) send an officer to your location to establish whats going on. I once called my local departments non-emergency line after finding a lost dog on my porch. Just to see if anyone had reported a dog missing. They were required to transfer me to 911, and send an officer out to take a report, as noone had reported a dog missing (turns out the officer recognized the dog, and was able to call the owner to pick it up).
Once there they need to carry out certain actions, and garner certain information for a police report or other paperwork. There are department regulations, laws, and ethical requirements involved. Especially when children are involved. Once some one called and said āI think a child has been kidnapped, and this is that childās current locationā they have to respond. Send an officer, establish whats going on, and take identifying information for paperwork. The officers discretion come in how thatās handled, and what they do with the information garnered. They could have stormed the bus with guns drawn. They could have questioned this guy loudly and incredulously in front of the whole bus crowd. They could have detained him at the station, and with his son held by family services until the mother showed up with a birth certificate 5 forms of ID and family photos to absolutely establish the relationship and custody status. They didnāt, they discretely questioned the guy, then drove him home. Iād say they handled it properly.
All of which is not to say that all police officers or departments do respond to all calls or even handle them in the way this has been. But when we hear about departments ignoring 911 calls, or officers refusing or avoiding filing a report. Weāre usually hearing about those as massive ethical violations on their part.
9 Likes
Police attempted to thank an idiot for embarrassing everyone involved and ask them first check what century they calling from before dialing.
Srsly, itās not uncommon at all, not even a little bit, to see multi ethnic families in TO.
16 Likes
A friend, a white guy, married to a fairly dark-skinned Filipina has these lovely children, and Momās genetics has dominated on skin tone and hair color so far. He was once at a park with his kids, Mom was elsewhere.
Some Mom, after chatting with him for a while, hinting at questions of the kidsā ethnicitiy and national origin and adoption rules, finally asks, point blank: āSo, where did you get your children?ā
āFrom my wifeās uterus.ā
36 Likes
Maybe some of the āproblemā was the gentlemanās albino appearance is different. A clear case of Elricās Malady. And maybe the kid takes after the mother in appearance. But shouldnāt social cues tell you more? The kid is probably happily sitting reading, chatting w Dad, looking out window, oh who am I kidding! heās playing on Dadās cellphone. I imagine most kidnappers donāt let their victims play on their phone? Hello?
I feel bad for the police having to follow up on jumpy possibly racist ass-hats day and night. Hopefully they relived that scene from SuperBad to set things right, eh?
10 Likes
I think this is more emblematic of how genderizing certain roles can lead to misperceptions of inequality.
In this case, child-rearing has been heavily feminized over the years, so much so that men who engage in it are viewed with suspicion. It isnāt so much that women are holding onto something (as if it is theirs to give up, given the broader context in which one can view it as having been forced upon them), but rather a confluence of social pressures.
I think this plays into other aspects of our culture as well; education for example. Why are there more women teachers? It isnāt because there is a cabal of women keeping men out, but rather the work has been feminized and undervalued, and thus men are not encouraged to seek employment in that sector.
Of course it isnāt just that simple, but cultural biases like these are deeply embedded in our culture and difficult to properly sort out. In both the examples above, the perceptions of inequality on the part of males (in regard to education and child rearing) can be directly attributed to sexist social practices dating back hundreds of years.
Basically, if we feel slighted itās our own damn fault.
17 Likes
I donāt know. The cop probably has to have a brief conversation no matter what. If it were me, I would rather have that conversation off the bus, rather than in front of a bunch of other passengers. The police canāt really just ignore reports of child abduction even if the reporters seem like racist idiots.
3 Likes
I think a kidnapper would avoid public transportation too.
But we donāt know, maybe there were other clues? Kids are prone to being distressed in a flash as well.
You are probably right, but sometimes crazy stories have better explanations.
4 Likes
In this case correct. It wasnāt anything the officer could observe that would determine the length of the interaction, there was information to collect because of the nature of the call in which some asshat suggested they were witnessing a major crime.
3 Likes
Gave me goosebumps.
5 Likes
Safety is an illusion. Acceptable risks are acceptable. And nobody likes nosy racists.
11 Likes
