Anonymous wrote:On another note, that James Blake is one class act.

I agree. Just read this today (came here to share it when I saw your comment) and the following was in the article.

"I think that that kind of police officer tarnishes the badge, which I have the utmost respect for and I believe that the majority of police officers do great work and they're heroes," Blake told the AP. "So this person doesn't ever belong in the same sentence with the heroes that are doing the right kind of police work and keeping the public safe."

http://news.yahoo.com/ex-tennis-star-james-blake-fire-nyc-officer-175328988--spt.html

The cop in question has been on the force for 4 years and too many allegations. IMO he shouldn't have still been on the force the night this happened.

Anonymous wrote:On another note, that James Blake is one class act.

+100

On another note, that James Blake is one class act.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's say it's not about race.
Let's say it's simply about the prevalence of improper procedure and reckless conduct by overzealous wanna-be-action-hero authorities.
Isn't that something that needs to be addressed?
Doesn't such behavior jeopardize the rights and safety of all citizens?

Agree. I don't want to be tackled by a cop in the event they mistake me for someone suspected of identity theft. Don't I deserve protection from some cop who over reacts? What happened to professionalism in the police force?

I would say it's still there with most officers but there is no perfection in any large organization. So you must hold those accountable and get rid of them. Studies have shown that when you adhere to a more rigid policy it is more often followed.

Anonymous wrote:Let's say it's not about race.
Let's say it's simply about the prevalence of improper procedure and reckless conduct by overzealous wanna-be-action-hero authorities.
Isn't that something that needs to be addressed?
Doesn't such behavior jeopardize the rights and safety of all citizens?

Agree. I don't want to be tackled by a cop in the event they mistake me for someone suspected of identity theft. Don't I deserve protection from some cop who over reacts? What happened to professionalism in the police force?

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, we don't have a problem with racial policing disparities. Nope, nothing to see here. move along.

I think you need to look up the definition of profiling. Blake wasn't profiled, he matched the description of a suspect and was identified by a witness to be said suspect. The only "bad" thing in this story is how he was approached and taken into custody.

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Anonymous wrote:It was a mistake, the top police brass apologized profusely and the officer has been suspended. There is a definite resemblance to the suspect, though.

Did anyone say it wasn't a mistake?

Forgot this part, didn'tcha? The other fact you are ignoring is that it was clearly a black individual that committed the crime to begin with. Was that racist too, that the actual guilty individuals were black? Should the police gone after Asian individuals or Caucasian individuals instead while searching for the suspects?

Actually, the other guy was innocent, too. Moreover, the alleged crime was a nonviolent financial issue, so even if he had been guilty, the whole matter of attacking the suspend and never identifying himself as a cop was still way out of line.

You have NO idea who is packing any sort of weapon and who isn't. So whether or not the crime was financial is of no never mind. The officers went on the best information at the time, and that's what a trained officer is supposed to do.

Officers are routinely killed during traffic stops. Those individuals were not violent at the time they were stopped, until they because violent.

So, you believe that the police should be able to tackle any citizen at any time, and wrestle them to the ground without identifying themselves as law enforcement? No matter the alleged crime and lacking any verification of the alleged perpetrator's identity?

Because that's what happened here. Can you imagine such a world? In which you can just be minding your own business and at any time some thug in plain clothes can grab you and throw you to the ground because you might resemble someone who committed a nonviolent crime? The officer (and the victim) are lucky the victim didn't fight back, which is the normal response when attacked by someone who doesn't identify themselves as a police officer.

This. I think part of the issue is some people can't imagine that world because that isn't the world they live in. They don't have to imagine their mother, their father, their sisters, or brother or themselves ever being in that type of situation. Would the person that thinks it's okay for the cop to behave that way with Blake because of mistaken identity give the police a pass if it was their brother that basically could have been killed if they did anything less than be humble and non-confrontational when randomly approached by undercover cops that didn't identify themselves? Oh, and remember not to reach for your wallet to prove your identity because that could be misconstrued as going for a weapon.

What really gets me even more about this situation is when the NY Mayor mentioned in an interview having "the talk" with his son, NYPD basically have him their back at the various events where the Mayor spoke.

Yeessss! He was standing there, against the wall, not looking to flee. Not in an aggressive stance. That cop literally blindsided him and then threw him to the ground. Does police work generally involve this level of physicality on a day to day basis?? (I lived in DC and came across more than one uniformed 300+ lb police officer) The need/opportunity to need to physically subdue a suspect seems like it would be not an every day occurrence. I could be mistaken. But that guy went after him like it's part of his daily routine. And if it is, it's reasonable to ask why.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if Blake was targeted based on his race and I don't know if cop was racist. I do know the cop was over aggressive given the situation. Even if the Blake was the actual perpetrator the way the cop went about it was unnecessary and borderline reckless. I don't think the issue has to be race dominated to see the wrong here. Maybe you police brutality cop defenders can try to see it from this perspective.

Absolutely. NO ONE should have been treated that way. Just ask for friggin' ID.

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Anonymous wrote:A mistake...yeah...

The officer, James Frascatore, who is white, is a defendant in two federal lawsuits filed earlier that allege excessive force in separate incidents.

Last year, Frascatore was named in an amended complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn alleging he and seven other officers and sergeants beat and unlawfully arrested a man in a Queens deli in May 2013.

The officer is named in a complaint filed in May alleging that officers used excessive force against a man named Warren Diggs for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk in 2013.
That's not a mistake...
That's a frigging pattern.

You people will not be happy until every police officer throws up his or her hands and walks away from the job. Then what will happen?

No need to quit.
Just do your job properly and professionally.
Stop acting like you're the latest action movie hero quick to shoot choke or tackle someone unnecessarily and just be an officer of the law.

That's the point. Not that they made a mistake but that the cop tackled him when the person they were looking forward was suspected of identity theft, NOT armed robbery.

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Anonymous wrote:It was a mistake, the top police brass apologized profusely and the officer has been suspended. There is a definite resemblance to the suspect, though.

Did anyone say it wasn't a mistake?

Forgot this part, didn'tcha? The other fact you are ignoring is that it was clearly a black individual that committed the crime to begin with. Was that racist too, that the actual guilty individuals were black? Should the police gone after Asian individuals or Caucasian individuals instead while searching for the suspects?

Actually, the other guy was innocent, too. Moreover, the alleged crime was a nonviolent financial issue, so even if he had been guilty, the whole matter of attacking the suspend and never identifying himself as a cop was still way out of line.

You have NO idea who is packing any sort of weapon and who isn't. So whether or not the crime was financial is of no never mind. The officers went on the best information at the time, and that's what a trained officer is supposed to do.

Officers are routinely killed during traffic stops. Those individuals were not violent at the time they were stopped, until they because violent.

So, you believe that the police should be able to tackle any citizen at any time, and wrestle them to the ground without identifying themselves as law enforcement? No matter the alleged crime and lacking any verification of the alleged perpetrator's identity?

Because that's what happened here. Can you imagine such a world? In which you can just be minding your own business and at any time some thug in plain clothes can grab you and throw you to the ground because you might resemble someone who committed a nonviolent crime? The officer (and the victim) are lucky the victim didn't fight back, which is the normal response when attacked by someone who doesn't identify themselves as a police officer.

This. I think part of the issue is some people can't imagine that world because that isn't the world they live in. They don't have to imagine their mother, their father, their sisters, or brother or themselves ever being in that type of situation. Would the person that thinks it's okay for the cop to behave that way with Blake because of mistaken identity give the police a pass if it was their brother that basically could have been killed if they did anything less than be humble and non-confrontational when randomly approached by undercover cops that didn't identify themselves? Oh, and remember not to reach for your wallet to prove your identity because that could be misconstrued as going for a weapon.

What really gets me even more about this situation is when the NY Mayor mentioned in an interview having "the talk" with his son, NYPD basically have him their back at the various events where the Mayor spoke.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Profiled for being black? Uhm, I look more black than this guy.

He was profiled for matching the description and whereabouts of an identity thief.

I don't know what is going on in this picture but James Blake does look black irl. This photo was cherry picked to make your point. How honest and straightforward of you pp.

We all know there will be screw ups in any profession. When those screw ups are allowed to do the same thing again and again and again we have a problem. It is even more of a problem with those screw ups can fuck up or end your life. The medical and legal professions have the same problem but I can try to find out who the crappy lawyers and doctors are and avoid them.

On top of all of this we have all these untrained cops who think they are super spies abusing the technology they've been given. What do you think the cops in BFE or Loudoun are doing with their stingrays? Assume everyone of your emails/txts etc are being viewed by your local leo. It's only going to get worse as we give these untrained people more tools to violate our civil rights. Do we even have civil rights anymore?

I agree with you, he does look black but wouldn't he be considered a light skin.

https://www.google.com/search?q=james+blake&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=705&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAgQ_AUoA2oVChMI_rbvqfHxxwIVx6GACh01rQ77#tbm=isch&q=james+blake+tennis

Anonymous wrote:

Profiled for being black? Uhm, I look more black than this guy.

He was profiled for matching the description and whereabouts of an identity thief.

I don't know what is going on in this picture but James Blake does look black irl. This photo was cherry picked to make your point. How honest and straightforward of you pp.

We all know there will be screw ups in any profession. When those screw ups are allowed to do the same thing again and again and again we have a problem. It is even more of a problem with those screw ups can fuck up or end your life. The medical and legal professions have the same problem but I can try to find out who the crappy lawyers and doctors are and avoid them.

On top of all of this we have all these untrained cops who think they are super spies abusing the technology they've been given. What do you think the cops in BFE or Loudoun are doing with their stingrays? Assume everyone of your emails/txts etc are being viewed by your local leo. It's only going to get worse as we give these untrained people more tools to violate our civil rights. Do we even have civil rights anymore?

I just don't get the attitude of some posters to absolve and excuse police brutality as "part of the job" or "collateral damage" or something people should learn to live with...
I get the fatigue of the racial factor. That's understandable, but even without that component y'all still want to argue that it's okay for cops to just do whatever.

Let's step away from James Blake for a second and look at Zachary Hammond in South Carolina.
He was shot and killed by police during an undercover marijuana sting and his family’s attorney said evidence shows the 19-year-old was shot twice in the back from near-point blank range AND a witness reported to the FBI that an officer got something out of his patrol car’s trunk and placed an object beneath Hammond’s corpse, which is most likely the “white powdery substance” allegedly found at the scene. And, more disturbingly, the witness reported seeing officers lifting Hammond’s dead hand and high-fiving it.

Nothing racial about this incident, the victim was white. Yet even in this case posters still see it as sacrilegious to criticize cops or hold the authorities accountable for their errors in protocol and judgement. If the race elements of James Blake's incident irritate you to where you can't focus on the facts then explain to me why Zachary Hammond's death doesn't rile you up and warrant some much needed attention toward the topic of police brutality and crooked cops.

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Anonymous wrote:It was a mistake, the top police brass apologized profusely and the officer has been suspended. There is a definite resemblance to the suspect, though.

Did anyone say it wasn't a mistake?

Forgot this part, didn'tcha? The other fact you are ignoring is that it was clearly a black individual that committed the crime to begin with. Was that racist too, that the actual guilty individuals were black? Should the police gone after Asian individuals or Caucasian individuals instead while searching for the suspects?

Actually, the other guy was innocent, too. Moreover, the alleged crime was a nonviolent financial issue, so even if he had been guilty, the whole matter of attacking the suspend and never identifying himself as a cop was still way out of line.

You have NO idea who is packing any sort of weapon and who isn't. So whether or not the crime was financial is of no never mind. The officers went on the best information at the time, and that's what a trained officer is supposed to do.

Officers are routinely killed during traffic stops. Those individuals were not violent at the time they were stopped, until they because violent.

So, you believe that the police should be able to tackle any citizen at any time, and wrestle them to the ground without identifying themselves as law enforcement? No matter the alleged crime and lacking any verification of the alleged perpetrator's identity?

Because that's what happened here. Can you imagine such a world? In which you can just be minding your own business and at any time some thug in plain clothes can grab you and throw you to the ground because you might resemble someone who committed a nonviolent crime? The officer (and the victim) are lucky the victim didn't fight back, which is the normal response when attacked by someone who doesn't identify themselves as a police officer.

Your lies are bolded. This was a case of mistaken identity

There are no lies. He was brought to the ground by a plainclothes officer who did not immediately identify himself as law enforcement. The mistaken identity is irrelevant because that is totally inappropriate EVEN IF THEY HAD THE RIGHT GUY. Frascatore has racked up a lot of complaints in only four years on the force. I expect he's seen Lethal Weapon a few too many times and thinks that is how he should comport himself.

This was my whole post:

Your lies are bolded. This was a case of mistaken identity

Now the few times I was brutally thrown to the ground in the Metro by black women after I put my metro card in the turnstile? Those were not cases of mistaken identity. Those were out-and-out assault and theft.

It's notable you took out the part where I was assaulted in the same fashion, but that individual was actually in the process of committing assault. THAT was totally 'inappropriate' and in actuality a CRIME.

Was the woman who assaulted you in the same fashion sworn to uphold the peace? Was she trusted by taxpayers to protect them, and paid to do so? Was she lauded by society as a hero for just doing her job?

More to the point, was what happened to you treated as a crime? Or did people argue you pretty much had it coming, and that random assault is the price we pay for a free society?

No it was decidedly NOT treated as a crime. Both times. It was ignored by metro. No one said the tennis player had it coming - it was plain and simply, mistaken identity. He was not tackled because he was black. He was tackled because he closely resembled another black individual who was suspected of committing a crime. That's it, that's all.

You are the EXACT reason that white people such as myself tune out to this issue. You do not have a filter. Everything is racism to you, everything. You might want to get some behavior mod therapy. You'll be a lot happier overall.

Anonymous wrote:

That would be a grotesquely skewed perception. Out of the hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers in the US, who have millions of positive interactions with citizens each and every day, we allow overhyping and oversensationalizing of the tiny handful of cases of police violence shape perception. Note, I'm not saying police abuses don't happen, nor do I defend them, but this wholescale, across-the-board mischaracterization and demonization of law enforcement is totally unacceptable.

No one is demonizing law enforcement. But how do I know who the bad apples are? How can I trust that the one that pulls me over for a broken taillight is one of the good ones? If I have no idea who the good ones are, and I know that even the good ones protect the bad apples, I have to enter every interaction with law enforcement with the assumption that he or she might be a racist thug looking to break some heads that day.

I'll tell you this much... If you get pulled over and have a huge of a chip on your shoulder toward cops, you're probably not going to have a good experience, because even the good cops wouldn't want to be taking attitude and shit from you.