Posted on Jul 10, 2016
Do you personally know a police officer who arrested someone because of race? If so, what happened?
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Curious if anyone has witnessed race being the primary reason someone was unjustly detained or arrested. I have witnessed people getting arrested in many situations, but typically it involves the person breaking the law and then doubling down by being disrespectful and in general a jerk.
Police
Politics
Government
Ethnicity
Racism
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 67
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I never arrested anyone because of their race and I never saw anyone else do it. However at least 90% of the minority offenders that I arrested or saw arrested claimed that was the reason.
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SPC (Join to see)
I posted that because it shows how these men were targeted and placed in jail unjustly. The stats of these arrest go towards the ones that have a negative affect on African Americans. It shows that police systems can be corrupt. 1000 innocent men should raise alarm but I bet you never heard about this story.
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SPC Randy Torgerson
SPC (Join to see) - My only question about your article is, that this seems like a pretty big story... when I did a google search no main stream media lists this information or has investigated it. In fact only a dozen media outlets I've never heard of just re-wrote the story. Which means only one no-named media source has brought this to light.... I'm not disbelieving of the story exactly, because it happened in LA back in the 90's. But it was a big international story then.
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SPC Randy Torgerson
SPC (Join to see) - Your right, which on face value is strange. You would think this kind of story would fall right in line with the media outlets.....
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I was a Trooper during the 70s,80s and the beginning of the 1990s and I can tell you that I never stopped, ticketed or arrested anyone because of their race. Hell, I wasn't prejudice at all. Everyone was fair game and everyone was treated the same. Now there were a few exceptions and those were the people that did not know enough to keep their freaking mouth shut. You know what I mean! lol To those people I had a saying and it had nothing to do with race. FEA!
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PFC Jeffrey Hochman
MSG (Join to see) -
What you may not understand and many cops don't always articulate it well is Behavioral Pattern Recognition or BPR. Many people be they minorities or not get stopped because of signals and triggers they unwittingly give out. The cop may say "well he was acting suspicious". As a supervisor in a large urban department "New orleans police" I used to make my officers tell me what they meant? Eventually they would articulate the subject appears to be scanning the area in an irregular manner as if conducting countersurveillance Or they would describe the subject was favoring a leg or a side or grabbing a pocket. Possibly hiding a gun or drugs. So there is very rarely racism involved in a stop. It's god police work and just needs articulation as to the what's and whys.
What you may not understand and many cops don't always articulate it well is Behavioral Pattern Recognition or BPR. Many people be they minorities or not get stopped because of signals and triggers they unwittingly give out. The cop may say "well he was acting suspicious". As a supervisor in a large urban department "New orleans police" I used to make my officers tell me what they meant? Eventually they would articulate the subject appears to be scanning the area in an irregular manner as if conducting countersurveillance Or they would describe the subject was favoring a leg or a side or grabbing a pocket. Possibly hiding a gun or drugs. So there is very rarely racism involved in a stop. It's god police work and just needs articulation as to the what's and whys.
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MSG (Join to see)
PFC Jeffrey Hochman - No one is perfect and don't get me wrong my Sister-in law and my cousin are both police officers in Philadelphia and I probably would have gone into law enforcement if I didn't decide to go active duty. I have the utmost respect for officers and what they do. I realize that there are a lot of "instinct" stops that result in good police work. For every 100 good police officers there's that one who ruins it for everyone.
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PFC Kevin Adrian
I have never personally known an officer who did this. To the opposite I have seen the opposite happen. I have seen officers disrespected, spat on and two of them who were like family to my wife and I were gunned down. It absolutely makes me sick to see these groups trying to say they are being singled out fron the crowd. This black lives matter crap irritates me to no end. My great grand mother died in Dachau and they have never seen the oppression and violence like the Jewish people have for thousands of years You've do not hear us whining or saying we are owed something for nothing. I have been shot, stabbed and beaten half to death for being a Jew so I do have a dog in this fight. I support the brothers and sisters in blue . May G-d bless and protect them all.
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Unless an officer tells you it's because of race or he's using racial slurs towards you, you're only guessing. However, I have been stopped (only once) and perceived it was because of race in White Settlement Texas where the Armory (duty station) was located. Driving home around 2130hrs in my truck that has 22 inch rims on it, a cop made a u-turn and drove behind me for about 30 seconds then I was pulled over. The officer asked for my license and where was I coming from. I asked him why was I pulled over and he replied, "Your license plate light is dim." I then tell him that I have a CHL and my 45 is on the right side of my hip and my license is in my back right pocket. He removes his weapon and tells me not to touch my weapon but to slowly grab my wallet and hand him both licenses. I do so very slowly. He checks for warrants and returns with my licenses and said everything was clear have a nice night. I wait for him to depart and get out to check my license plate light of course and was shocked to see nothing wrong with my license plate. Was the stop because of a suspicious vehicle? As an Active Duty Soldier, I drove the same route every day and some nights for eight years and have not been stopped again and have not changed the light bulb.
Race? Just my perception. However, I thank God for law enforcement officers across the country. Heck, my dad was a cop. You're going to have some cops who shouldn't be cops just as we have Soldiers who shouldn't be Soldiers. Cops who fail to follow the rules, regulations, guidelines, policies, etc., should be charged just as Soldiers who violate the UCMJ are charged. -Just my two pennies
Race? Just my perception. However, I thank God for law enforcement officers across the country. Heck, my dad was a cop. You're going to have some cops who shouldn't be cops just as we have Soldiers who shouldn't be Soldiers. Cops who fail to follow the rules, regulations, guidelines, policies, etc., should be charged just as Soldiers who violate the UCMJ are charged. -Just my two pennies
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CPT (Join to see)
Sounds like you reacted properly. Must have been tense.
I actually had a dark tinted Lexus with wheels and was followed on many occasions. I always look at it as the police are active and suspect this helps the general public. I could not be a police officer with life, late shifts, cameras in my face, disrespectful people and stressfull encounters. Nevermore the situations when a person assults them.
I actually had a dark tinted Lexus with wheels and was followed on many occasions. I always look at it as the police are active and suspect this helps the general public. I could not be a police officer with life, late shifts, cameras in my face, disrespectful people and stressfull encounters. Nevermore the situations when a person assults them.
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PO1 David Swift
My son at one time had long hair and a beard while in college he got stopped all the time by police because they said he looked out of place. The one thing I have always told him was to answer all questions and say yes and no sir
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SPC Randy Torgerson
Thats not a bad story at all..... but I'm not sure he could have known what your race was late at night. When I was on the job and it was dark out side, I could almost never tell who I was pulling over even if it was a man or a woman. But still sounds like he did everything correct. And thank you for your service.
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Sgt Ramon Nacanaynay
Misunderstandings are easy. Understanding is difficult, frustrating, requires feed-back, . . .
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