A Black man, son and realtor toured a house. Police surrounded the home and handcuffed them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

Thorne and his son were touring a home Sunday with real estate agent Eric Brown, who’s also Black, in Wyoming, Mich., when police suddenly surrounded the house with guns drawn. The officers were responding to a neighbor’s 911 call about a break-in. They ordered the three out of the house, handcuffed them and put them in separate vehicles.
...
Thorne spotted an officer in the backyard and called to him several times through an open window. The officer pointed his gun at Thorne, he said, leading him to duck. He told the officer there were three of them in the house and they were coming out with their hands up. He made sure his son was behind him.
...
Brown explained he was a real estate agent on a scheduled tour. Still handcuffed, he showed them his credentials and said he had a confirmed appointment to show the home. He explained how he had used an app on his phone to access a lockbox with the house key.
...
One law enforcement agent can be heard telling Thorne’s son, “Don’t worry too much about this. … I think it’s going to be a big misunderstanding.” After removing the handcuffs, police told the men that neighbors reported seeing the same black Mercedes outside the house that was there during a recent break-in. When police arrived at the house, a Chevrolet and Hyundai were parked out front.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/06/black-realtor-michigan-police-handcuffed/

These police officers are so incompetent that they can't run a license plate check, or recognise car models, but racist enough to use guns and handcuffs for people in a house that had been shown 40 times in the previous 3 weeks. Add "buying a house, or selling one" to the list of Things It's Illegal To Do While Black.

[samsingh]

1. i don't understand why the Black community doesn' band together politically and put their foot down

about this crap

[JHB]

5. It's not the Black community that needs to do more than they've already...

...been doing.

It's the "White community" that needs to put their foot down about people assuming that if they see black people in the neighborhood, they're up to something criminal.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. They have, and they are repeatedly undermined by white supremacy -- including from those who

would otherwise describe themselves as "allies."

[StarfishSaver]

10. Oh come on

We're not being undermined. We've just been banding together and putting our feet down the wrong way: too loudly and too aggressively and not doing it in ways that don't cause discomfort or inconvenience to white people. If we had done it the right way, we could have singlehandedly nipped this in the bud a long time ago.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. You're right -- it's all about getting the tactics and tone JUST RIGHT.

Otherwise, sorry -- the struggle continues.

[StarfishSaver]

8. Gee ... Why didn't WE think of that?

But why is it up to the "Black community to band together and put its foot down"?

Why shouldn't the white community band together and put ITS foot down? They're the ones causing the problem ...

Sheesh.

[LymphocyteLover]

26. Right? My thoughts exactly

[Retired Engineer Bob]

41. Blame the victim mentality n/t

[FlyingPiggy]

14. Or maybe the white community can stand up and speak out

Against these aggressions. No. I mean REALLY speak out. When the white community spoke out in droves, the world and the infrastructure listened. Reforms were made. This needs to continue to happen.

[obamanut2012]

17. Seriously?! What do you think they have been doing for 150 years???

Good God.

[olegramps]

31. It is not the responsibility of the Blacks, but of every truely American to demand change.

[SoonerPride]

33. I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU DON'T PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN

[live love laugh]

40. BLM was a banding together--white dominated media demonized it. nt

[StarfishSaver]

42. Black people should band together .. but not too many at one time

and not say "Black" or "defund the police" or "white people" ... and not kneel or march or talk about history or do or say anything else that might upset any white person in any way.

[live love laugh]

43. 😂😂😂😂

[Ohioboy]

2. Thank God nobody got shot-this time.

[secondwind]

3. Disgusting beyond words. This can't continue this way!!!!

[Johnny2X2X]

4. 2 things

If they were white, the neighbor never calls the cops. 2, if they were white, if the neighbor did call the cops, the cops would have knocked on the door and simply asked them a couple questions and then went away.

I had a cop show up at my grade school one Summer before because someone reported "some kids" inside the gymnasium. Turns out, we had a key and were sent there to gather some supplies for football practice. No one drew a gun, no one yelled for us to come out with our hands up, the officer just said, "hey, you kids supposed to be in here?" One of us said, "yes, we're getting some supplies, we have a key." And that was that.

This happened in my town, I live in Grand Rapids, was born in Wyoming though. I know right where this is. The whole nonchalant attitude of the police about this since is striking. It's obvious it still hasn't occurred to them that if these people were white, no guns would have been drawn, and it would have been handled totally different.

[kysrsoze]

6. I'm wondering if this was a not-so-subtle message from a racist shitbag potential neighbor.

I wouldn't be surprised.

[Delphinus]

11. That was

my first thought too.

[TygrBright]

18. ding-ding-ding! We have a winner!! n/t

[hibbing]

25. Yep, I for sure would look elsewhere n/t

[LymphocyteLover]

27. clearly, yes

[IronLionZion]

34. Neighbor would probably harass them daily

because he doesn't want diversity in the neighborhood.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. FTP, who say they responded "reasonably and appropriately." They believe it was reasonable and

appropriate to handcuff these people, and that it was reasonable and appropriate for neighbors to assume Black people in a house for sale had broken into it.

[rsdsharp]

13. I will never understand, why in the mind of many cops,

“We got a call,” cancels all civil rights of those the call referred to.

[Tommymac]

16. No you got it wrong. They only cancel civil rights of POC.

Others are free to move about the country.

[rsdsharp]

22. Check the videos on You Tube. It's not just people of color.

[lagomorph777]

15. "Don't worry too much about this. ..."

The cop who said that is the one who now has something to worry about.

[Hiawatha Pete]

19. Absolutely disgusting. In an ideal world those police would be fired.

Hope the victims launch a civil suit.

[Aviation Pro]

20. The first question a dispatcher

Should ask when a caller reports ‘black men’ should be, “Are you white?”

[monkeyman1]

23. this shit need's to stop - now !!

Cop's are not all bad !! it's cop's that are on their ego trip's & can't figure shit out ! personally, I don't care if a person's skin color is passionate pink as their minding their own business & not bothering anyone else!! get rid of the bad cop's . anymore , cop's let the court's decide right & wrong ! no wonder police have a bad rap ! when i was growing up , all of kid's on the block knew cop's on a first name basis ! now day's , it is like us -against them ! should not be that way . just like politicians get rid of the bad !! this country the been a fucking joke . it's finally turning around . just think , us veteran's ,alive or dead fought for this country & have to put up with kind of shit ! " END OF FUCKING STATEMENT " .

[Mosby]

24. There were multiple points in this where racism played a part

Starting with the neighbors.

[rickyhall]

28. Too many Karens, I guess.

[calimary]

29. This is getting freakin' EMBARRASSING.

Just freakin' EMBARRASSING!!!

[Hulk]

30. Just so sad...

And yet we are supposed to bow down and adore those in the law enforcement profession. Idiots like this make that impossible.

[blueinredohio]

32. Good thing it happened BEFORE they bought the house

now they know what kind of neighborhood it is.

[niyad]

35. Apart from everything else wrong with this appalling episode. . even I, who knows

very little about cars, can tell the difference between a Mercedes and a Chevrolet.

[PatrickforB]

36. The racist who made the 911 call needs to be arrested and charged.

Just saying. I don't remember what the term is for someone who calls the cops to 'report' someone who is black just because they are black, but there is a term describing that, and it should be a felony punishable by a large fine and imprisonment.

[rockfordfile]

44. I agree

[Moostache]

37. A tale of long ago lore...

I grew up in Indiana, just over the Indiana-Michigan state line in 1970's and 1980's.

One year, round about 1988 or so, I was driving in Michigan and leaving a house party that someone had called the police for...I left the home about 5 minutes before the police arrived there, but one of the patrol cars sent (I believe there were 4 in total) had set up an ambush position on a side road.

For anyone familiar with the New Buffalo / Grand Beach Michigan area (very narrow lanes and tight turns) or the general conditions of the roads in wintertime and especially during a snow fall (slick and hazardous), what follows may (or may not) surprise you. As soon as I got to a 4-way stop and braked, the car fish tailed slightly and skidded before stopping almost into the intersection...I then proceeded to go and was immediately pulled over by the car lying in wait.

I was not terribly concerned, as I was not drinking or inebriated or anything else, just annoyed and white. When I asked the officer what was the problem, he said I was out of my lane and had snow covering the license plates! In January. DURING a snow storm! On an unplowed road! I was pulled for ostensibly for having snow on the license plates during a precipitation. Of course, the real reason for the stop was I was the first car to pass this unannounced road block on the only road that exited the neighborhood from the house then being raided for "disturbing the peace", and he was looking for anyone on possible DUI or underage drinking charges. He thought he had me on that DUI, but it was obvious I was stone cold sober and he needed to make something up on the spot...so snow on the license plate it was.

Fortunately for me, my passenger was quiet (though quite a bit drunk) and the police were more concerned with breaking up the party in progress down the street...I was "let off...this time" and told to get home and off the roads. They could not pin anything else on me without sounding like an imbecile in court, so I left and went home with nothing more than some irritation and a slightly amusing anecdote.

Point is NOT to excuse the insanely racist behavior of the cops in the case in Wyoming, and definitely not to equate my fortune and relative lack of dehumanizing orders or actions by the police to those of the victims here; just to provide clarity to those who still refuse to see racist treatment where and when it exists. White skin has its own built-in assumptions and privileges that black skin is always denied.

Until the day arrives that any person of color receives the exact same level of non-concern and courteous treatment which I have on multiple occasions in my life from the police, we will continue to live in a divided nation, where the law is applied very unequally and very selectively, and it was true when Lincoln said it, and remains true today - a house divided against itself cannot long endure.

[live love laugh]

38. "incompetent"? That gives them a pass.

They’re intentionally harassing black people if it’s not obvious — with itchy trigger fingers looking for any excuse to kill them.

[Volaris]

45. So fuck these cops, BUT...

Even if they ran the plates, would that tell them this person was a real estate agent?

I kinda think I dont WANT that information attached to my CAR?
ymmv on that point, but yeah...guns drawn for a house that has a FOR SALE sign in the yard, IS a bit unnecessary.

[muriel_volestrangler]

46. It might. But it would remind them it's not a black Mercedes

and so no reason to associate it with the previous incident (and I haven't seen a description of that which makes it sound like guns would have been necessary, if it happened again)

[Volaris]

47. Fair points