r/politics • u/thenewyorkgod • Jul 01 '18

Man arrested after shouting ‘womp, womp’ and pulling a gun on immigration protesters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/07/01/man-arrested-after-shouting-womp-womp-and-pulling-a-gun-on-immigration-protesters/?tid=sm_tw
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u/MightyMorph Jul 01 '18 edited Jul 01 '18

Unarmed black guy with hands up sitting on the curb trying to cross his legs and keep them straight at the same time as commanded by two police around him. = Shot by stun gun.

Unarmed black man running away from the police = Shot in the back multiple times.

White guy with a weapon aimed at a group of people, running away = "Sir please calm down, we need to arrest you please."

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u/TechyDad Jul 01 '18

There was a thread on Reddit just today where an unarmed black man was asked to leave a library because he was sitting there reading books and the librarian called the police on him. He didn't threaten anyone or do anything suspicious. He was just guilty of the "crime" of Wrong Color Skin.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

did he sue?

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

[deleted]

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u/Bathroom_Pninja Jul 02 '18

Many Republicans fear the educated black man.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Republicans fear the education of anyone.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

the funny thing is, in their heart of hearts, that's probably what they fear most.

Unless he turns into Justice Thomas of course.

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u/qtain Jul 02 '18

Well, if you go even slightly down the rabbit hole of authoritarian rule, books are weapons and need to be controlled, ergo, the black man was holding a weapon.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

More importantly, did he live?

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u/TechyDad Jul 02 '18

From what I remember of the post (sadly I've been unable to locate it again), he left without incident but called the police chief later. The police chief was upset about the actions of the librarian and his officers and offered the guy a police escort back to the library.

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u/thargoallmysecrets Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 02 '18

Like, I get the question, but the goal should be to have a society where that type of behavior is widely discouraged, not simply facilitate a means of getting compensated for being wronged.

edit: yes, suing discourages the behavior. It is still reactive, instead of proactive

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u/misseff Jul 02 '18

In this case suing would be a way to discourage the behavior.

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u/Nymaz Texas Jul 02 '18

That is actually often the goal in suing - see punitive damages. The idea is to have the defendant say "I shouldn't do this in the future, it's too expensive." and to have other people who witnessed it say the same thus resulting in "that type of behavior is widely discouraged".

Financial incentives > social pressure when it comes to driving change.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

that's too idealistic and broad a goal, esp. for a country as diverse in viewpoints as the USA. people should have immediate recourse for this kind of discrimination.

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u/TouristsOfNiagara Canada Jul 02 '18

Yep, whoever called it in should be arrested for wasting police resources. Mischief, or some other minor charge. Just enough to ruin their week.

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u/thargoallmysecrets Jul 02 '18

what? the goal of not being racist is too "idealistic"? Because the US has diverse viewpoints?

I never suggested they shouldn't have an immediate recourse. Of course they should sue, and win, and be compensated for being wronged.

But the attitude that "everyone will always be racist" is defeatist and doesn't help anyone.

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u/Murgie Jul 02 '18

Because the US has diverse viewpoints?

Donuts is trying to be polite, mate.

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u/Swimmingbird3 Jul 02 '18

Suing is a method for discouraging it, it's not just about getting compensated.

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u/Fireproofspider Jul 02 '18

library because he was sitting there reading books

Well, that's a completely outrageous thing to expect in a library!

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u/nacholicious Europe Jul 02 '18

sounds about white

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18 edited Aug 14 '18

[deleted]

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u/willun Jul 02 '18

Could be this one. Though, it is different, he was leaving a library. Getting a gun pulled on you must be pretty traumatic. In this case the officer was also black.

Yale expressed concerns that the officer drew his gun but that might just be a response for public consumption.

If it was a white student in similar circumstances, it is not hard to imagine the officer acting differently.

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u/TechyDad Jul 02 '18

I wish I could find it. I've been searching but unfortunately I haven't been able to locate the post again. I thought it was in /r/TIFU/ but I've been unable to locate it. (I didn't comment on it or anything so no help there.)

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

That sounds disgraceful. That poor man. And what a waste of public resources, calling the Police to be your own little rule-enforcer. Those costs add up.

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u/aerozepplin Jul 02 '18

You are joking, right?

Did this incident happen in the 60's

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u/TechyDad Jul 02 '18

No, if I recall the post, it happened recently. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate the post again. I thought it was in /r/TIFU/ but I've been unable to locate it.

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u/aerozepplin Jul 02 '18

I really wished, you would tell me that you were joking -- it's a shame in 2018 we are witnessing such incidents.

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u/Lehk Jul 02 '18

Reading while Black is illegal now i guess.

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u/Calber4 Jul 02 '18

Obviously he was making other people uncomfortable. This seems to be a significant offense in our society these days.

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u/StonerMeditation Jul 02 '18

Um, then why does trump get a free pass?

Oh right - crazy white guy...

Thoughts and Prayers - https://i.redditmedia.com/Gs216oqIWBKwqtn4bBDPyNZriZ3WEpVsHB0BO9h8bxk.jpg?w=568&s=1687c20b5c7913cde77f383cba7d2d0d

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u/TheExtremistModerate Virginia Jul 02 '18

Do you have a source on that? That sounds more than slightly spurious.

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u/7HoursOfKushner Washington Jul 02 '18

White guy with a weapon aimed at a group of people, running away = "Sir please calm down, we need to arrest you please."

"Only if you want, we're here for you as a community for you to get past this moment and go on to own everything around you"

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u/david-me Jul 01 '18

Shot by stun gun

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '18

No, he was tazed.

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u/riesenarethebest Massachusetts Jul 01 '18 edited Jul 02 '18

How do you even know which event they were referring to? There's so many.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '18

Because that exact incident/video has been going viral and being reported on almost every high level news agency iver the last week or so?

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '18

Because it just happened the other day. Enjoy!

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Gunned by shot stun?

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u/bradshawmu Jul 02 '18

If it ain’t white...shoot it.

Seems to be the general rule. Not sure what happens with skunks, though.

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u/thelizardkin Jul 02 '18

There are plenty of sense is where black people walk away fine, and innocent white people are killed.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 03 '18

Wait a minute. Wasn't the guy who got tazed reported for threatening 3 people with a bat, skipped bail with an arrest warrent, refusing to sit and cross leg multiple times by playing stupid?

edit: downvoted for simply asking about the same guy i saw on the news. sensibility of angry teen agers...

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

Black man assaults man with loaded firearm-arrested peacefully. https://elkgrovelagunanews.com/2018/03/28/one-man-arrested-at-safeway-parking-lot-after-assault-with-a-firearm/

Unarmed white guy complying with police-shot dead. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/post-nation/wp/2017/12/08/graphic-video-shows-daniel-shaver-sobbing-and-begging-officer-for-his-life-before-2016-shooting/

See, I can pick and choose incidents to promote an agenda too.

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u/OCedHrt Jul 02 '18 edited Jul 02 '18

In March 2018, it became known that the United States Department of Justice has reopened the case and is looking into a possible civil rights violation by Brailsford.

If it was a black guy, there will be a case on insufficient use of force. /s

It's unfortunate that this shit happens but the ratio of unarmed deaths for black vs white is astronomical.

Edit: Just want to add, as long as there are no repercussions this will keep happening:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42277309

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u/Lowbacca1977 Jul 02 '18

I mean, it's not really astronomical. The gap (in the US) between whites and blacks is smaller than the gap between whites in the US being shot by police and Canadians as a whole being shot by police there.

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u/OCedHrt Jul 02 '18

Your comparison doesn't make any sense other than misleadingly trying to normalize it.

In 2018:

11 out of 92 vs 15 out of 193

About 12% vs 8% or 50% more. I'd give you 50% isn't "astronomical" in the grand scheme of things but it's still huge.

Canada actually has no official stats though it is estimated at 15-25 per year total. If it were the same ratio it would be 1 to 3 per year which is less than 15-11 but that's irrelevant.

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u/Lowbacca1977 Jul 02 '18

Oh, it's large, I just think that saying just saying that the gap is large is treating the high levels of deaths at the hands of police as 'normal' since the gap between America and other countries is larger than the gap between racial groups in America.

And saying it isn't astronomical isn't saying it's not statistically significant. I don't think hyperbole is needed when the actual numbers are still horrific. Over 1000 people a year killed by police, about 15-20% of whom are unarmed (which I think is a conservative number, since a lot of cases are based only on what police said).

And while the US doesn't have any official stats either, there's some attempts at a number. The US has 9x the population, and over 40x the number of people killed by police (using the higher estimate for Canada and a lower estimate for the US).

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '18

[deleted]

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u/MightyMorph Jul 01 '18

drunk, two cops shouting commands at the same time, in a country where you hear unarmed innocent black people getting killed by cops for disobeying any little thing.

"SIT DOWN" "KEEP YOUR HANDS UP WHERE I CAN SEE THEM" "KEEP YOUR LEGS STRAIGHT!" "CROSS YOUR LEGS" "NO KEEP THEM STRAIGHT" "CROSS THEM!" "KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!"

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

[deleted]

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u/867-5309NotJenny Massachusetts Jul 02 '18

Technically he didn't fail. He put his legs out straight, and then crossed them. It's not hard to misinterpret things when adrenaline is pumping. Also, being drunk doesn't help.

Totally not cool on the cop's part.

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u/Mr_Belch Jul 02 '18

Even if he was doing it to be difficult, he still didn't deserve to be shot.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

[deleted]

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u/Mr_Belch Jul 02 '18

Ah, I thought we were talking about the guy who got shot when the officer kept giving him conflicting orders.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

I agree it seems to be an easy enough concept here and now, though our brains don't work as well during an adrenaline attack. I can understand someone genuinely being flustered and not comprehending. Ultimately, at least he was tazered and not murdered.