Reply to White cops harass and pepper spray Black Army Lieutenant in Windsor, VA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As is so often the case with these videos we don't know the full context.  What we see in the video is a felony stop where the police officers are approaching the suspect with guns drawn and order the suspect to exit the vehicle. This is not the default approach to a routine traffic stop, which tells us something has transpired before the arrival of the officer wearing the body cam that we have video of.

The suspect is non-compliant and argues at length with the officers that he doesn't have to follow their directives, refuses to leave his vehicle, tells the police to "keep their hands off me," resists arrest, etc.

[b]That the suspect is in the military and in uniform has nothing to do with anything.  [/b]

Being in uniform doesn't change a thing when you are interacting with the police.  Tons of service members get arrested off base for all manner of things in uniform and out.  (and yes, largely for traffic violations, drunk driving, etc)

[b]Characterizing this as "white cops harass and pepper spray black Army lieutenant," is characteristic of just how screwed up our society is on race relations right now.  [/b]

Why insert race into this?  Are white cops allowed to enforce the law? Are black army lieutenants obligated to follow the law and obey lawful directives when interacting with the police?

What if the police are -gasp- white, does a black army lieutenant still need to obey their commands at a traffic stop?

There is no evidence that race played a role in this interaction evident in the video.

Finally, he was not "attacked."  He refused to comply with the police at length during a traffic stop.  He was eventually pepper sprayed, which seemed to prompt him to at least get out of the car, after which point he refused to cooperate further and resisted arrest, before finally being taken into custody.  The one officer should be counseled on his language, but this is hardly a case of police brutality.

All the suspect had to do was get out of the car and cooperate.

[/quote]

White apologists like you are why we have such a race problem in this country.  Between the article and the video we have the context that you deny.

The officers reported the driver was pulled over for a mistaken lack of a rear license plate.  The driver, being a minority, was fearful of what would happen in a dark area, so he drove to a well-lit area and parked under a light as is shown in the video.  The officers called this "eluding police" even though he drove slowly and parked.  The police spokesman spoke with quotes from the two officers.  When asked about the driver's decision to drive to a well-lit area, the second officer acknowledged that the driver's decision to drive to a well-lit area happens "a lot and 80% of the time, it's a minority."  In other words, people who are fearful for what happens and want to make sure that the body cam footage can be seen clearly.  The officers admitted that by the time he stopped under the light, the license was clearly visible.

So, by the time the vehicle had stopped, they had determined that the pull-over for a missing rear license plate was false.  They had determined that the driver's action were completely normal, especially for a minority driver and were not evidence of "eluding police".    In other words, there were no violations of law, there were no violations of traffic regulations.  It was an ordinary traffic stop.  In an ordinary traffic stop, the officers should have had a standard two point stop.  In fact, looking at the body cam footage, you can see that the second officer (the one with the body cam) did in fact spread out and approach with a clean shot at the winow and the first officer approached from the rear staying out of the second officers line of sight to the driver.  The driver complied with the command to put his hands out the window and was trying to talk to the officers.  At that point, they could have spoken to him, but they would not allow him to speak at all, instead only barking out "get out of the vehicle".  Let me ask the white readers here who have been stopped for a traffic violation how many times they have been stopped and order to put their hands out the window and get out of the vehicle without being able to talk to the detaining officer?  I'm Asian and have been driving for almost 40 years.  I've been stopped a handful of time for things from moving violations (speeding, not stopping at a stop sign) and simple problems like a tail light out.  In the evening cases, I also drove to a well-lit area.  I have never once been asked to put my hands out of the vehicle and never once have been asked to exit the vehicle.  Normally I roll down the window, the office approaches, I greet them formally and they explain what the stop is for, ask for my identification and registraition information.

The driver was acting calmly, kept his hands visible and asked to please talk to the officers, but they would not even give him the respect to listen to him.  He said when he was told to exit the vehicle that he was afraid to unbuckle his seat belt and they only barked at him to exit the vehicle and told him he had a reason to "be afraid".  Yes, the reason he had to be afraid was that he was a minority being targetted for "driving while black" and these officers had no intention of treating him fairly.

And, you, PP, are so clearly operating from a position of white privilege.  Your entire posting reeks of white privilege.  You can see clear racism here, unfair treatement of a minority with a minority who has said that he is afraid to even reach for his seat belt, is afraid to pull his hands into his car and all you can say is that he deserved to be pepper-sprayed.

White people like you are exactly why we have a race problem in the US. [/quote]

Again,  the best you can come up with is to insist someone must white... as if that would advance your argument somehow.

The driver's behavior was a textbook example of how to turn what should have been a total non-event into a real confrontation.

He argued, insisted he didn't have to get out of the car, and then resisted the officers when he did.

You want us to believe he was too dumb and scared to understand what he was being told to do,  but he was arguing and resisting. [/quote]

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