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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsQuickstop owner installs video cameras to protect his customers and employees from the police:
Earl Sampson has been stopped and questioned by Miami Gardens police 258 times in four years. Hes been searched more than 100 times. And arrested and jailed 56 times. Despite his long rap sheet, Sampson, 28, has never been convicted of anything more serious than possession of marijuana. Miami Gardens police have arrested Sampson 62 times for one offense: trespassing. Almost every citation was issued at the same place: the 207 Quickstop, a convenience store on 207th Street in Miami Gardens.
But Sampson isnt loitering. He works as a clerk at the Quickstop.
So how can he be trespassing when he works there?
Its a question the stores owner, Alex Saleh, 36, has been asking for more than a year as he watched Sampson, his other employees and his customers, day after day, being stopped and frisked by Miami Gardens police. Most of them, like Sampson, are poor and black. And, like Sampson, many of them have been cited for minor infractions, sometimes as often as three times in the same day.
Saleh was so troubled by what he saw that he decided to install video cameras in his store. Not to protect himself from criminals, because he says he has never been robbed. He installed the cameras 15 of them he said, to protect him and his customers from police.
Since he installed the cameras in June 2012 he has collected more than two dozen videos, some of which have been obtained by the Miami Herald. Those tapes, and Sampsons 38-page criminal history including charges never even pursued by prosecutors raise some troubling questions about the conduct of the citys police officers.
The videos show, among other things, cops stopping citizens, questioning them, aggressively searching them and arresting them for trespassing when they have permission to be on the premises; officers conducting searches of Salehs business without search warrants or permission; using what appears to be excessive force on subjects who are clearly not resisting arrest and filing inaccurate police reports in connection with the arrests.
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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/3769823/in-miami-gardens-store-video-catches.html#storylink=cpy
Lots of people need to be held accountable for this travesty.
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)And you wonder why Blacks in general don't trust the Police?
John Lucas
avebury
(10,946 posts)Too many police departments or officers are just plain out of control and people feel helpless to do anything about it. This country is truly becoming a police state to the detriment of society.
mwooldri
(10,291 posts)Respect, but don't trust - that's the rule I go by. An officer will have my initial respect, but depending on their actions that respect can go up or down.
Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)This goes far beyond racism.
CSStrowbridge
(267 posts)I really hope these cops are fired immediately and any criminal charges that can be brought against them will be brought against them. The federal government should step in if the local and state governments won't.
sakabatou
(42,082 posts)DiverDave
(4,874 posts)sickening cruelty just because they can.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)As reported this is clearly way over the top, it seems that it should be raising redflags with any supervisor who is half awake...unless it provides a paper-trail that somehow works for the beat-cops and their station house.
It could easily be blamed on racism, but this is energetic racism most people don't pursue their work that energetically unless there is a reward.
What is it, and who makes the decision to award it?
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Power tripping may be part of this but it seems to not nearly be enough. After a while harassing people in the same old way, gets boring if not tiring. And this seems not to be the behavior of a single person in need of extreme quantities of narcissistic supply...its spread over the entire unit.
Seems to me that does indicate it is something about the system...but WHAT? Do the patrol cops get bonuses or promotions based on the number of incident reports they file?
Javaman
(62,439 posts)countless hours of his superiors doing a few things that would "fudge" their crime reports.
degrading such things as rape to misdemeanor crimes. All so they could appear as if crime in that area was under control and the cops were doing a "great job"
also they would target minorities purposely time and time again for nothing at all just to fill a quota for the month.
This behavior is rampant through out the US.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)No different than a gang member coming to rough you up to make sure you pay for your protection money and keep quiet about their crimes.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)The police often think the poor are targets for good reasons. After all, they are...you know...poor.
And often black.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)When people scream about how the entire news is in the pockets of TPTB, think of this story.
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
LuvNewcastle
(16,820 posts)Just as bullies on the playground look for the smallest guy who they know won't retaliate, the cops look for people they can push around and assert their dominance over them. They behave much like gorillas; too many people in society behave like gorillas and don't even realize it. Gorillas shouldn't have power in human society.
Police are supposed to take psychological evaluations before they're allowed to be cops, but apparently they screen for the wrong things because the gorilla behavior is much too common among them. I guess the government must want gorillas. They might make them detectives if they're judged to be chimps.
I wish they would choose humans to be cops; even neanderthals would be better. They would have a smaller pool of choices if they chose only humans instead, but maybe we don't need so many damn cops. Let's try having some more quality and less quantity.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Do I need a icon, fellow DUers?
I don't see a difference. The number of the times the same man's time was wasted at his place of employment, by those who had to have known he had a right to be there, indicates that living while black is a crime.
It's telling someone to 'get back in their place' and denying them the one that any rational person would grant them. Where is his lawful place, a plantation or a jail?
Okay, call it OTT, but what is the answer for the man doing his lawful best to be employed?
Miami Gardens PD is running a con game, degrading the rule of law and the Constitution. And it's the US Consitution, not the Confederate one. There is a huge difference in the two countries and their mindset on equality. The latter sees the man as a permanent slave by matter of color. EOM. The former denies that.
I am glad to see this store owner prove an obvious fact of life for too many citizens. How does one advance in life under such constant threat?
The Miami Gardens PD needs to be gone over just as thoroughly as this gentleman was. And I do mean gentle man because his patience and perserverance to do the right thing and go to work is an honor to civil society, which has not benefited him much.
This should be in the national news. Kudos to the store owner!