Arrested by Undercover Officers After Trying to Sell His Laptop Online
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Side note - he wasn't arrested, he was handcuffed, had a weapon stuck in his back, was detained, had an illegal search performed on his possessions, and all by purported law enforcement officers who refused to identify themselves. In many ways this is worse than being arrested - with an arrest there are other layers of law enforcement to appeal to and receive justice. With an arrest at least we would have officers names, charges, etc, which if faked could theoretically result in discipline or firing of the officer. I know it doesn't always work that way, but at least the checks and balances exist.
With this kind of officer-level illegal search and detainment, there is very very little that can be done to seek any sort of justice. If this kids mom wasn't a reporter, nobody would have heard or believed the story.
I have some news for you. Arrest means nothing but detained/held/stopped. Most people imagine an arrest action has something formal to it, like having your rights read or someone announcing you're arrested. But it doesn't. You've been detained? You have been arrested. The cops zero obligation to tell you anything and they never have had such obligation.
As to whether it was illegal? The police have wide latitude to determine probable cause for whatever. You're right this kind of thing happens all the time, you're right it's despicable. But sadly, it's broadly legal and more or less the "normal" way the law works.
If you read the wikipedia article, it describes rights but you will notice the only limits in the US is how long you can be held and whether your statements can held against you (at which point you are supposed to be read you're right, except for limitless exceptions to this requirement).
No, they have wide latitude to try to claim probable cause but cannot create probable cause out of thin air. If a court later decides there was none, the evidence is tossed anyway (and permanently tainted).
But that's just arguing over semantics that typically don't come up at the court hearing. People get charged with non-relevant crap all the time to trump up the charges.
However from what I've read on this story it sounds as though the young man was simply detained pursuant to an investigation (or at least that would be the official story).
Where's the mythical "good guy with a gun" when you need one?
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/04/nsw-po...
"New South Wales police are on the verge of securing “extreme” new powers including to impose curfews on citizens, restrict who they spend time with or limit their communications, if they suspect involvement in “serious crime-related activity”.
The new “serious crime prevention orders” (SCPO) are similar to the control orders used on suspected terrorists, but broadened to a range of other offences including theft, tax evasion, money laundering or homicide.
Those acquitted of serious offences can still be issued a SCPO, as will people deemed to have engaged in conduct “likely to facilitate” a serious crime, defined as one punishable by at least five years’ prison."
Welcome to my local police-state.
What the actual fuck? This is despicable no matter what. They just have to be "suspected" to be subject to these insane powers?
But, the real insanity is that a crime like tax evasion is included in this list. Seriously. Tax evasion? Now, I know that the thing these all have in common is that they're commonly purpetrated by the mob and all, but tax evasion just doesn't rise to the level of homicide or even money laundering.
But getting to the point, you really shouldn't allow isolated acts like this to influence you.
You're much more likely to be killed by the next earthquake in the Bay area then you are to be killed by dopey police officer.
I immigrated here from the U.S. and the only contact I have with the "government" is my annual tax filing.
Where previously I had nearly 6-monthly encounters with police just for (I guess) being a black/Muslim man. "Random" traffic stops escalating to inquiries into everything about my life.
Long live Australia.
[Edit: I DO routinely run into my neighborhood Australian police on Fridays, that's because we frequent the same local bar and catch up for drinks and games of pool.]
What makes you assume he/she would base this decision on simple self-interest rather than principles?
Not sure if you're being sarcastic here... In Vancouver, the summers are gorgeous without being sweltering. The winters are mild.
Affordability is definitely an issue, but if you work in tech then it shouldn't really be a problem.
Very happy to be back out west (especially with the glorious weather we've been having this month).
How so? Wolfram Alpha puts Sydney at ~1.2x the cost of living of LA: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=move+from+Los+Angeles+t...
Given that our GDP per capita is 1.25x US I think that we're about even. Also as someone moving from Melbourne to the SF Bay, there are areas within each country that are very far apart. Melbourne is far cheaper than the SF bay.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazi...
This is the price we have to pay to keep oppressing blacks, latinos, Muslims, and whomever the undesirable group of the month might happen to be. Your third mistake was underestimating the cowardice of Americans especially the cowardice and fear of white America towards blacks, Hispanics, and recently Muslims. Americans have given up most of their freedoms in exchange for a brutal, oppressive police force whose sole purpose is oppression, racism, and cruelty. What happened to you is totally fucked up, but if you think paying $100k in taxes makes you immune or somehow protected from this brutal oppression machine, you simply do not understand the forces at play here in America.
For now, I think a good start toward this goal is to start seeing people--all people--as human. That's not just something the police have to do, but something I have to do vis a vis the police, and everyday people have to do vis a vis both police, convicts, and "criminals". I'm personally willing to let go of my hate for the police and the justice system in this country if and when we start treating all people like humans. That means we don't use the threat and actuality of rape, torture, and murder in jail as a punishment when the actual punishment is going to jail. To me, it means police and government officials are held not only accountable, but to a higher standard than normal citizens (worse penalties and certainly no immunity from liability). It also means not criminalizing everyday activities.
Until then, the only thing we can do is speak up, bring awareness, and hope the police don't target us. And probably one of the most important things, teaching our children the truth about police, not the fairy tale of "serve and protect."
There you are wrong, starting with e.g. reporter Radley Blako and his readers, and extending to large swaths of the white or thereabouts population who buy books like Arrest-Proof Yourself (http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Dale-C-Carson/dp...) This was reified for me in ~2008 when a local cop played a game of chicken with his car and my body.
Some of it is that the author lives in Santa Clara County, California as mentioned in another comment. Citizens in Bay Area counties are allowed to own (some types of) guns, but by and large not to carry them, and that appears to help the Badge Gang feel they can treat nearly the entire populace as their playthings.
Take that too far in my part of the country, a combo of Greater Appalachia and the cultural South, and the calculus changes rather a lot. And in my county, when I last renewed my concealed carry permit, 5% of the age eligible population had one, and gun ownership is not quite ubiquitous, but extremely common and steadily increasing. And many of the cops are on our side; can you imagine a Santa Clara County law enforcement public affairs type confirming that a woman had an "absolute right" to use lethal force against some home invaders?
Radley Balko is one brave writer, that's for sure. But even he's just going to write about the atrocities here after the fact. Maybe what I should have written is not that no one cares, but that very few people do, and they cannot change anything. Even Balko does not realize the full extent of the problem of living in a police state like this, probably because he doesn't recognize it as a police state. And while his assessments of what exactly is wrong with our police in "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces", for example, are spot on, his solutions are lame. He understands the hate that communities in the US have for police, yet suggests that more foot patrols will help. We are way, way beyond that. Without strict liability laws and restrictions on police, there is no fixing this. While cops can get away with murder, there will be no fixing this. If having justice, which includes not murdering innocent people, is not enough of an issue for Americans to change this system of horrific, Holocaust-scale imprisonment, it really does seem like almost nobody cares.
There is nothing about this indicative of actual police procedure. Craigslist-originated robberies are fairly common in urban U.S. CL regions.
In any case, there are contradictions in her account. For one, she expresses concern about his "personal files" being probed, copied and taken (with no indication why any would be of any interest to any level of law enforcement), yet this was a computer he was selling to a complete stranger as it was -- why would any personal files of any value or vulnerability be left on it in the first place?
Appalling. I wish it were more unbelievable.
Damn, US you a scary country.
This is mostly down to how your standard police don't have any firearms at all. So you could say things are at least a few places elsewhere a little different.
I'd rather deal with cops who might shoot me than cops who will definitely get a confession out of me if they want one.
"For 2012, the US Department of Justice reported a 93% conviction rate." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate
In the US you can have your cake and eat it too: get shot by cops and have to plead guilty to avoid spending a huge chunk of your life in jail in favor of spending a slightly smaller chunk of your life in jail. America's the greatest country in the world (when it comes to injustice by the numbers).
Not very different from the US.
So, you're talking anywhere from (roughly) seven times as frequent acquittals to over 40 times as many.
"Not very different", you say?
I understand why the incident could have resonated with Ms. Taylor, but I also think as a journalist she has a responsibility to not promote an organization which is flagrantly failing to follow the law around nonprofits. Instead Ms. Taylor could have promoted several other charities with better track records if she felt this was the proper moment and venue to use to promote charities focused on civil rights. For instance [1][2][3][4] all received 5 star ratings on Charity Navigator and have purposes in line with those stated for the Trayvon Martin Foundation.
1. The Southern Center for Human Rights: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...
2. The National Center for Law and Economic Justice: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...
3. The Institute for Justice: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...
4. Futures without Violence: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...
How did her son know it was a weapon pressed against his back?
How could the handcuffs possibly have cut his wrists? Handcuffs don't have, like, blades on them that just cut you as they're hanging off your wrists. Seems like something added to punch-up the narrative.
And then tag it with a couple "Trayvon" mentions at the end. This screams "hoax" to me.
Healthy skepticism is useful, but if you think that the editor-at-large of a well known U.S. media publication would conduct a public hoax involving her son, well, you do you.
What I mean by the second part is when you come up with a reason to question a claim, that doesn't automatically weaken or invalidate the claim. Your first contention is basically "how can it be racism from just a craigslist posting?", that is, how did the assailants know he was black? Well, it's possible the assailants became more aggressive at the time of the meeting, after seeing the seller was black. Or perhaps the seller included a name more common with people of color. This is not suggesting that either absolutely is the case, but they are both likely and not uncommon scenarios in the present day. If you're going to begin speculation in this manner, it is only fair and reasonable to consider how your conclusion might also be falsified, considering alternate and equally plausible scenarios.
Or in the case of the cuffs, for which your comment seems to rely more on a rather dismissive statement of ignorance - cuffs certainly can and do cut and tear into skin when not used properly. Just do a quick image search for "injuries from handcuffs" (warning, some images on this search are nsfw and unpleasant) and it's plain enough to see multiple examples of damage from handcuffs, whether it be bruises or lacerations - it's fairly hard metal tightened hard around a fragile point on the human body. It's not hard to imagine how that could do damage or how bad the damage could be when used improperly (Intentionally or not). Yes, it is important to get this verified (a picture from the author would do nicely), but the basis of your skepticism is not really set in reality, but seemingly in raw skepticism.
The point I'm trying to make is that it is good to withhold judgement, but the attitude and the questions you raise really aren't sound, and instead appear almost vindictive.
Be skeptical, but part of that requires being a bit dispassionate and openly considering reasonable possibilities. It does not mean building up speculation as the foundation for a conclusion. It is possible this is a hoax, as you say. But to suggest it "screams" hoax is inaccurate.
You can't know it is a weapon. It is on your back. I've never been handcuffed, but they can hurt.
I have, however, been surrounded by cops taking folks home. Some friends of the dude I was dating, and we happen to have different skin colors. 4-5 cop cars, lights, drug dogs in a small public housing parking lot. I start getting questioned about drugs, and expected me to know a lot about my passengers. "People have been doing crack here, and we've found out white people are doing it too". I was let go, and to this day I hope those dudes were ok.
I've been pulled over for swerving after a lane change. Dude said we were drunk, even after we passed the breath test. It was late, we were driving around talking, but happened to be in a mostly poor, african-american part of town and we weren't. Her baby was mixed, though. It worked, we called it a night simply because of harassment.
Had guns out once with lots of cops. I'm still not sure what I did wrong. The park closed at 11, but since it was getting dark a parks department employee asked us to leave (but not the other people). Down the road we were surrounded, guns out.
The point is that there are a LOT of these sorts of stories, and it has taken a few killing with news coverage for them to finally - 20, 30, 40 years later - for anyone to start doing anything about them.
I was lucky enough to get out of my fear of the police because I've since moved. Racism exists everywhere, but not everywhere will tolerate it from their police department. When I'm out walking home at 2am here, I'm no longer afraid of the police. I won't even get stopped asking what I'm doing out, why i'm in a neighborhood, etc. So long as I'm just walking along, everything is good... and i'm in a city of 180k people.