Austin police swarm white man for walking with black granddaughter
81 replies, posted
[quote]
The Austin Police Department (APD) was unapologetic Wednesday after a swarm of officers detained a white man over the weekend, simply for walking home with his black granddaughter.
As it happens, that man was journalist-turned-political consultant Scott Henson, who writes the blog [URL="http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/"]Grits for Breakfast[/URL], covering criminal justice reform issues. In [URL="http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/02/me-apd-and-babysitting-while-white-part.html"]a lengthy post filed Saturday[/URL], Henson explains that he and his granddaughter were confronted by a swarm of officers who arrived in nine or 10 patrol cars, simply because he was seen walking home with his granddaughter from a local recreational center.
Speaking to Raw Story, the APD denied any allegations of racism, insisting that the call came in from a civilian female who frantically followed the pair in her vehicle while calling 911. “I’m not sure if it was a staff member there at the rec center, but it was somebody who saw it happen,” a police spokeswoman said.
In the bizarre tale, Henson explains that this was not his first time being detained by Austin police for appearing in public with his granddaughter, but it certainly was the most frightening of his two experiences. Babysitting his granddaughter Ty, 5, last Friday night, Henson explains that as they walked home from the Millennium Youth Center in east Austin, a female deputy confronted the pair and asked the girl to identify the man she was with.
He claims that she did three separate times, and that they were let go. As they continued their walk home, “Ty was angrier about this, even, than I was,” he explains, and she began asking questions.
On his blog, Henson continues:
“Why is it,” she demanded a few steps down the path, stomping her feet and swinging her little arms as she said it, “that the police won’t ever believe you’re my Grandpa?” (Our earlier run in had clearly made an impression, though she hadn’t mentioned it in ages.) “Why do you think it is?,” I asked, hoping to fend her off with the Socratic method. She paused, then said sheepishly, “Because you’re white?” I grinned at her and said, “That’s part of it, for sure. But we don’t care about that, do we?” “No,” she said sternly as we walked across the bridge spanning Boggy Creek just south of 12th Street, “but the police should leave you alone. It’s not right that they want to arrest you for being my Grandpa.” More prescient words were never spoken.
Moments after that exchange, the cavalry arrived with Tasers drawn.
Henson says he was put in cuffs and Ty was whisked away from him, then questioned repeatedly about whether she’d been kidnapped. After repeatedly informing the officers that they’d “screwed up” and demanding someone get on the phone to verify his relationship to Ty, Henson was finally released without an apology, and instead had to sit through multiple lectures about how the police were just doing their jobs.
“After the cuffs were off, I said nothing to the APD cops as I carried the child away toward home,” he writes. “But I did pause when I passed the deputy constable – who still could barely look me in the eye – to say aloud to her, ‘You knew better. This is on you.’”
Reached for comment, Austin Police Department spokeswoman Lisa Cortinas confirmed the incident, telling Raw Story that a civilian had made the call to 911, reporting a white male running into the woods with a black girl.
“Four to five staff members chased him into the woods, along with a county constable, and the complainant that called in was actually following the man in her vehicle,” she said. “The constable stopped the man and was advised that he was the child’s grandfather, and just a minute or two APD officers also stopped him, because we were looking for him too. Then we verified with the mother that the child was supposed to be with the grandfather.”
While the details in Henson’s account and the APD’s official line clearly conflict, it does seem clear that the police acted on a third-party’s prejudice, not their own. Henson did not respond to a request for comment at press time.
“We have to treat that as a legitimate kidnapping until we’re able to determine that it’s not,” Cortinas insisted. “When we get a 911 call saying someone just ran into a facility and took a child, we have to take that very seriously.”[/quote]
[url]http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/austin-police-swarm-white-man-for-walking-with-black-granddaughter/[/url]
are you fucking serious
Holy shit a majority of the american police seem fucking stupid from half the stories i read about them.
[QUOTE=Araknid;34724249]are you fucking serious
Holy shit a majority of the american police seem fucking stupid from half the stories i read about them.[/QUOTE]
That's because news isn't made when the 200+ other police departments [B]function correctly[/B]
Well if the call came in from somebody it's the duty of the police to follow up on it. For all they knew, it could indeed have been an abduction case.
Same applies to the person who called the police. It was stupid of her and I can't see why she thought this was any different from any other guardian and child, but as I say there was a marginal chance she was correct.
Better safe than sorry, I guess. Though the police really should say sorry, or at least whoever called them should.
[QUOTE=Cone;34724374]Well if the call came in from somebody it's the duty of the police to follow up on it. For all they knew, it could indeed have been an abduction case.
Same applies to the person who called the police. [B]It was stupid of her and I can't see why she thought this was any different from any other guardian and child[/B], but as I say there was a marginal chance she was correct.
Better safe than sorry, I guess. Though the police really should say sorry, or at least whoever called them should.[/QUOTE]
it was because the guardian was white and the child was black. entirely.
[editline]16th February 2012[/editline]
a lot of people still can't grasp the concept of interracial families, and it's sad.
[QUOTE=TheHydra;34724434]it was because the guardian was white and the child was black. entirely.[/QUOTE]
Probably.
So it was just a case of either extreme ignorance, or potential racism [I]brought on[/I] by extreme ignorance.
Slightly offtopic but goes in context of the eternal "US cops are dumbe" debate on FP.
Resources should be put into admitting certain shortcomings with the police departments and coming up with ideas to improve them instead of arguing about how there are always "bad apples" and that there's no way to make it better than it already is.
Though in the case of police brutality/excessive force and racism there are underlying cultural problems to solve first.
This isn't necessarily the cops' fault, as they simply got a call from a person saying that they had seen something that looked like a kidnapping. While it may have been stupid to react, what if it really [I]was[/I] a kidnapping? What would you rather have, false positives, or kidnappers going free?
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;34724542]This isn't necessarily the cops' fault, as they simply got a call from a person saying that they had seen something that looked like a kidnapping. [B]While it may have been stupid to react[/B], what if it really [I]was[/I] a kidnapping? What would you rather have, false positives, or kidnappers going free?[/QUOTE]
Uh someone calls and claims a kid was just kidnapped, why is it stupid to react?
EDIT: if you're not referring to the cops there then nevermiiiiind.
[QUOTE=postal;34724565]Uh someone calls and claims a kid was just kidnapped, why is it stupid to react?[/QUOTE]
I believe he's talking about the people who called the police in the first place.
[QUOTE=Cone;34724576]I believe he's talking about the people who called the police in the first place.[/QUOTE]
Oh right, well then yeah.
I think the "civillian woman" who reported the case is the most retarded one here, she sees a man walking with a little girl from a different race who most likely didn't appear to be in distress and she calls the police up? When I was a kid I would go for walks with my grandad a lot, and my grandad would pick me up from school sometimes, perhaps because we are both white though it was not so "suspicious"?
The police should have apoligised still, I mean they can as well explain they were just responding to a call they recieved but an apology would be polite.
The bit with his granddaughter's questions is honestly adorably hilarious. I could just imagine a little girl pitching a fit to a bunch of cops about how they're 'racist' and 'taking my grandaddy just because he's white'
Bet the cops would backpedal fast as shit if that had happened.
'A few bad apples'
Say what you will,but the so called 'few apples' are becoming 'Loads of bad apples'.
[QUOTE=znk666;34725610]'A few bad apples'
Say what you will,but the so called 'few apples' are becoming 'Loads of bad apples'.[/QUOTE]
Small group of policemen in the US mess up
ALL poLICEMENT aRE PIGSSSSSSS
[QUOTE=znk666;34725610]'A few bad apples'
Say what you will,but the so called 'few apples' are becoming 'Loads of bad apples'.[/QUOTE]
But they're not bad apples, at all. They were doing exactly what they were supposed to do.
[QUOTE=Araknid;34724249]are you fucking serious
Holy shit a majority of the american police seem fucking stupid [b]from half the stories i read about them[/b].[/QUOTE]
Yeah that's what happens when you base your opinion on anything solely on news stories.
They could have at least apologized. Self Righteous dicks.
[QUOTE=znk666;34725610]'A few bad apples'
Say what you will,but the so called 'few apples' are becoming 'Loads of bad apples'.[/QUOTE]
whoah man take a seat for a minute and catch your breath
all that reading you did must have burnt out a few cells, don't want to push you too hard man
Wow, this is beyond stupid.
Why did they use this picture [img]http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/austinpolice-flickruseralamosbasement-615x345.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=znk666;34725610]'A few bad apples'
Say what you will,but the so called 'few apples' are becoming 'Loads of bad apples'.[/QUOTE]
Did you even read the article?
[editline]16th February 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Araknid;34724249]are you fucking serious
Holy shit a majority of the american police seem fucking stupid from half the stories i read about them.[/QUOTE]
Hey look, someone else that didn't read the article, but apparently got plenty of agrees for it.
The police get a call from someone saying a girl has been kidnapped, the police temporarily detain the pair while they determine if they're actually related. Once that was cleared up, they were let go.
How does that make them "retarded bad apples?"
To be completely honest, this sounds less like a case of police abuse and more like a failure in communication.
If they had been confronted earlier by an officer and then let go, that should have been communicated to the rest of the department.
its sad when people are so paranoid that something as simple as a grandfather and granddaughter walking warrants a swarm of cops.
[QUOTE=scout1;34724306]That's because news isn't made when the 200+ other police departments [B]function correctly[/B][/QUOTE]
i was unaware i should get news coverage for actually doing my job correctly?
What the shit?
[QUOTE=znk666;34725610]'A few bad apples'
Say what you will,but the so called 'few apples' are becoming 'Loads of bad apples'.[/QUOTE]
It was actually a civilian that reported this as a kidnapping. I would certainly hope the police would take a kidnapping report seriously.
So that means in this case the civilian was a bad apple. If a few bad apples spoil the bunch, then I guess that means the entirety of America is shit.
I wish bad reading was back. People read the damn article, they were there because they got a call that he probably kidnapped the kid. Don't say the police officers are bad, say the racist idiot that called them is.
And so another black child is taught to fear the police. gg cops
[QUOTE=Araknid;34724249]are you fucking serious
Holy shit a majority of the american police seem fucking stupid from half the stories i read about them. [/quote]
[QUOTE=znk666;34725610]'A few bad apples'
Say what you will,but the so called 'few apples' are becoming 'Loads of bad apples'.[/QUOTE]
The police were doing their jobs. They got a call, they investigated. Certainly there was a problem, but blame should be put at the person who called, or as ewitwins said, a failure in communication. Instead of going "herp derp police officers bad and corrupt" why don't you, I don't know, read for once.
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