Hmmmmmmmmmmm - here we go again

[malaise]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/08/emerson-college-professor-wins-traffic-case-alleges-racial-bias-from-newton-police/f7Vbx2MJ1BD3QhioFjAmyI/story.html#comments
<snip>
Newton police Officer Gregory Helms thought he saw a bald African-American man with glasses and a thick beard, but maybe he saw a smooth-faced African-American woman with a full head of hair.

In a strange case that played out in Newton District Court on Tuesday, the officer had cited Emerson College professor Jabari Asim for operating a vehicle without a valid license. But a clerk magistrate vacated the June citation and found that Helms probably cited Asim’s wife, Liana, a licensed driver who was simply running errands.

“This occupied my mind and my time for three unnecessary months,” Asim said after magistrate Larry Okstein made the ruling. “How could they not see the difference?”

After the hearing that involved a private attorney, more than 10 pieces of evidence, GPS records, and sworn affidavits, Asim, also an NAACP newspaper editor, alleged the citation was motivated out of implicit racial bias.

Asim’s prior claims of bias played a role in the dramatic traffic hearing in Courtroom 2, as the Police Department and Asim’s lawyer, Thomas D. Herman, presented differing accounts of what happened on June 22.

An Emerson professor received a citation for driving without a license, but said he was not in his car at the time.

The police, which called Helms as its only witness, used street cameras and introduced evidence to establish that a gray Nissan Quest registered to Asim was traveling in Newton at about 6:15 p.m.

By Helms’s account, he noticed the driver giving a “nervous” look, so he ran the vehicle’s information through the state database. In minutes, Helms found that Asim’s license was “denied/nonrenewable,” so when the officer’s light changed, he looked for the vehicle to issue a citation.

‘For a black man, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If we look at the cop, it’s dangerous. If we look away from the cop, it’s dangerous. It’s a double-edged sword.’
Jabari Asim

When he was not able to locate the vehicle, Helms said he looked up Asim’s driving photograph and recognized the man as the driver. Helms sent a traffic citation to Asim’s home.

“He had that beard,” Helms said in court, referring to the Nissan’s driver and motioning to Asim.

However, according to the GPS on Asim’s cellphone, eyewitness statements from colleagues, and store receipts, Asim had spent the day at Emerson College. His wife, Liana, was driving through Newton.

--------------------------------
Technology is catching up with these LYING COP.

[retrowire]

1. lmao

either the hair was on top of the head or the bottom officer, make up your damn mind. Hahaha

[malaise]

3. I love the nervous look

Man these LIARS aren't even good at lying.

[Omaha Steve]

2. .

[malaise]

4. Indeed

WTF????

[Demeter]

5. These sworn testimonies just get more and more ridiculous

There is no honor in this profession any more, and damn few honorable cops.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. Every cop I've ever known has bragged about being able to lie on a report and get away with it.

I could swear I just read a story the other day about a black guy getting pulled over because he made eye contact. It may have been a YouTube video or video from Photography is Not A Crime.

But yeah, damned if you do damned if you don't .

[tblue37]

37. Yep, you did:

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/ohio-cop-tells-black-man-he-tailed-him-and-pulled-him-over-for-direct-eye-contact/

"Ohio cop tells black man he tailed him and pulled him over for ‘direct eye contact'"

A black Ohio man got a police officer to admit to him on video that he followed him for nearly two miles and pulled him over for making “direct eye contact,” talk show host David Pakman reported.

“As suspicious as ‘making direct eye contact’ may be to a police officer, doing the exact opposite — that is, avoiding eye contact with a police officer — could be considered equally suspicious by an officer,” Pakman noted. “In other words, both making eye contact and not making eye contact with police could, conceivably, be grounds for a traffic stop, if you agree with the general principle suggested herein.”

(SNIP)

[Enthusiast]

6. Just incredible.

[hobbit709]

7. They're so used to getting away with their lying that they do it even when

modern technology proves the exact opposite.

Like that one in NYC recently where they charged the guy with DUI and resisting arrest while sitting in the passenger seat in a parked vehicle. After the cops swore that's how it went down, the lawyer introduced the video from the security camera from the building. OOPS! as Rick Perry said.

[malaise]

8. Isn't that the truth

and then they blame the victims and those fighting against these atrocities.

[GitRDun]

9. Kick and Rec

This stuff needs to be kept in front of our faces until we finally get it.

[Demeter]

11. Correction: Until THEY (the men in blue) get it

and their bosses and the city lawyers and the judges....

The people in power, abusing that power, and getting away with it.

[GitRDun]

13. No

we...as in white people.

This stuff happens like breathing...and where I live...most blame the victim.

[saturnsring]

14. No them as in the men in blue black Americans have nothing to worry about with this white person

Why isn't that post racist?

[Demeter]

17. Technically, it's "noblesse oblige"

the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged.

[Demeter]

16. It happens to all "ordinary" citizens--it's a feature of imperialism

and a measure of just how broken our social network is.

True, minorities (black or Asian) are more easily identified as "safe targets" for abuse of power, but also the less prosperous, the less pretty, the isolated, the mentally or physically ill, the stranger, the non-English speaker...it doesn't really matter any more.

It's gotten noticeably worse in the past 50 years. The good effects of the 60's have worn off.

[malaise]

21. At the international level it is imperialism but at the national level

I think hegemony is the better concept.
There is less racism today than back in the 60s - we know more about it because of social media and access to way more information
-

[Demeter]

23. Maybe less "official" state-sanctioned racism (just like sexism; govt. has moved with times on paper

but it's still ugly out there.

Make no mistake about it, though, it's imperialism at home and abroad, although at home it's usually called fascism...but there's no difference, really.

Hegemony: leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.
"Germany was united under Prussian hegemony after 1871"

[malaise]

24. They have similar meanings but I prefer hegemony

in terms of socio-economic, cultural and political dominance of all spheres by a social/racial/ethnic group over others. We disagree re it being fascism - not all imperialists are fascists.

Still you are correct that it is still ugly out there. The racists crawled out with Obama's two victories and social media provides a medium for them to spread hate. They were largely excluded from the main stream but the white supremacy fringe is way more visible these days and more than a few state employees are members of these groups.

I am actually surprised at how well Trump's racism is playing among these morons.

[Demeter]

29. I choose Imperialism because we 99% are less than people in TPTB eyes

Not quite property, not officially enslaved...more like self-propelling, future compost....

[marmar]

12. Like the cop in Ohio who said a man............

........ MADE eye contact with him, so he had to pull him over.

[malaise]

22. How dare you look at the cop

That's the behavior of fascists.

[aidbo]

26. And Freddy Gray was chased down, arrested, and killed

because he wouldn't make eye contact with police.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[uponit7771]

32. fuck n wow!!!

[Not Sure]

36. Since that story broke I like to make eye contact with cops and maintain it

while giving my best "these aren't the droids you're looking for" face. So far no problems. Of course it probably doesn't hurt that the older I get the more I resemble Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Seriously though: fuck this cop.

[brush]

15. Way past time to raise the IQ requirements for cops

Too many dummies on police forces trying to up their "collar" rates with stupid shenanigans and feeble lies we're supposed to believe as reasons for their actions.

These dummies, often also bullies, cause big problems by preying on mostly black and brown motorists (i.e. Sandra Bland).

Perhaps cops should be required to have at least an associate's degree.

[yellowcanine]

18. I would look nervous too if I were a bald woman with a full beard.

Dang, I hate when that happens.

[Nye Bevan]

19. That cop has been proved to be a liar and should be fired.

And any previous convictions of anybody that depended on his testimony should be overturned.

[ProfessorGAC]

28. ^^^This^^^

Didn't he file a false police report?

[mountain grammy]

20. Just amazing.

Lesson to cops; stick to that lie, no matter what! Lesson to black men; damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The cop should be fired for lying. The story doesn't tell us, so I assume nothing happened to the cop. what bullshit!

[malaise]

25. Really crazy stuff

Something has to give

[Nuclear Unicorn]

27. I'm pretty sure lying on an official report is a crime. The cop should be prosecuted.

At a minimum.

[d_legendary1]

30. Nothing's gonna happen to this cop

The only thing they're gonna do is rescind the ticket and call it a day. Meanwhile this guy gets to pull that same stunt on someone else who won't be affiliated with the NAACP and have the means to hire an attorney.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

31. Brings a whole new meaning to a woman being someone's beard.

[uponit7771]

33. Not all cops are racist

[Not Sure]

35. No, but they all dress alike so it's difficult to tell them apart

I just go with the default racist cop until proven otherwise.

[IronLionZion]

34. Hair and gender don't matter

neither does the complete lack of any crime or traffic violation. If someone might possibly look nervous, they are going down.

How can someone not know the difference between a bearded bald man vs a woman with hair and no beard? So basically this cop saw a nervous dark skinned person and decided to look up their plates just in case he won't make his quota that month?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

38. Wow...never knew anyone could get a ticket "in absentia" It doesn't

say why he lost his license, does it? totally irrelevant, but just curious.

[SmittynMo]

39. Can you imagine where this would have gone if

we wouldn't have the technology we have today?

Sometimes I think the police and the prisons have an agreement to keep the cells full.

Cha Ching!!!!

[malaise]

40. Additionally when you refuse to tax the rich, you have to squeeze every red penny

out of the poor - it's like the new Jim Crow - exploit those who are poor.