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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It looks like this discussion is actually getting back to being productive so let's continue further by looking at another incident of "Walking While Black."

[b]Video shows Seattle cop arresting elderly black man using golf club as cane[/b]
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/29/video-shows-seattle-police-officer-arresting-an-elderly-black-man-carrying-a-golf-club/[/url]

This particular incident isn't a simple case of mistaken identity when a crime has been committed.  This incident is, as a PP described, an example of a rogue police officer violating their systemic training.  What impact do incidents such as this have on public opinion of law enforcement and the existence of racial discrimination toward non-whites and what is the significance of public opinion versus data and statistics when it comes to issues of racial discrimination?[/quote]
I just read the article and watched the video.  I'm not sure why you're making this out as a racial incident.  What I saw in the video is a police officer who says on camera that the guy swung a golf club at her when she turned the corner at some point earlier.  She seemed polite and respectful as she asked him to put down the golf club before she approached him, and actually seemed slightly flummoxed about his refusal to put the club down.  When she ultimately approached him and detained him, she seemed pretty gentle about the whole thing.  He seemed a bit addled, which perhaps led to him refusing the police officer's instructions and generally defying her.  We don't have video here of the earlier event, so cannot tell what happened there.  But unless the police officer was just making up the earlier event as a pretext to harass this guy, I don't see any problem with how she conducted herself here.

Now to be clear, the article refers to some Facebook posts where the officer complained about people turning situations into racial issues.  I can understand the officer being frustrated, but she should have the common sense not to post such complaints on Facebook.  If that's what caused her to get reprimanded, I can understand.  But I'm not sure why she'd be reprimanded for how she treated the guy.[/quote]

You make a very good point about the possibility of an earlier altercation/confrontation which preceded the recording that coincides with the officer's account that "she had witnessed the man swing a golf club toward her, striking a stop sign as she drove past him."  I appreciate you bringing this up because it leads me directly to a question that is of considerable significance - and that is the question of credibility.  As you indicated in your response we have no video to substantiate the officer's claim of an earlier event so it's basically the officer's word against the elderly black man's.  The elderly black man has no previous criminal history and spent 30 years in the military, attributes that are commonly consistent with a being considered an upstanding citizen.  Yet and still, it seems he lacks credibility to you PP.  Why?

I'm sure you're not so shallow-minded as to say that simply because he is black his word is worthless.  I'm sure you are not so bigoted as to say that because the elderly black man claims he is the victim of racism his testimony is automatically insubstantial.  So what then leads you to question the elderly black man's credibility, could it be a mere matter of predilection for the police?  No one is perfect, not even the men and women sworn to protect and serve us and we all have inherent biases and prejudices that don't just disappear when a person puts on a uniform and is given a badge.  Still, many of us are inclined to accept the word of one person over another simply because of that uniform and that badge and therein lies a very vulnerable aspect of our justice system - a flaw that affords the possibility of all kinds of discriminatory policing.  Don't you think some officers are aware of that advantage in credibility and don't you think some officers misuse that unquestioned credibility to their advantage and don't you think one of the areas in which that misuse could be evident is in racial profiling?  [/quote]

I've actually got no particular opinion of his his credibility at all.  I assume he's just a normal person who lies just as much, or as little, as the rest of us.  But his credibility is irrelevant here.  I never heard him say, "gosh officer, you must have the wrong guy, because I didn't swing a club at your car!"  Instead, he just refused to put down the golf club and complained that it's his.  And I don't particularly believe the police officer either, since you may recall I noted the possibility she might be making the whole thing up.  I just figure the truth is better sorted out when everyone's calm, and not when one guy is refusing to put down his golf club.  Don't you agree?

I'm pretty frustrated though that you'd make all sorts of (inaccurate) assumptions about me and my beliefs -- flirting with calling me a shallow-minded bigot -- based simply on the fact that I don't interpret this situation as an example of racial profiling, despite the complete absence of any evidence for that position.[/quote]

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