Sure, fuck the police but I argue a white person or a black person is heading for a bad time if they act the way that he acted. I can’t speculate on this any more than anybody else on “what if” scenarios should Tyreek have been white, but if you create a situation where the cop does not feel safe (e.g. rolling up your 100% tinted windows against their instructions) then you are going to get an escalation from the police.
if you create a situation where the cop does not feel safe
You reach for your license ‘too fast’ - cop does not feel safe Acorn falls on car - cop doesn’t feel safe You are boiling water at home - cop does not feel safe You are writhing in pain underneath their boot - cop does not feel safe
US cops are literally brainwashed into feeling like the public is a threat to them. They are wired to look for a reason to escalate.
Fine but those situations are not the same as “angry and noncooperative citizen disobeying my request and I can no longer see what is happening inside the vehicle.”
I would argue that this is actually the correct situation for a police officer to feel more concerned for their safety.
The fact that we need to be concerned for our safety at all while “disobeying” a cop is proof that they act too aggressively and with almost no accountability. Cops can start a gang and murder you and no one bats a fucking eye
Why would a guy in a McLaren, who already gave you his ID, raise suspicions that he might be trying to harm you by simply rolling his window up? This cop mentality that everyone is seconds away from ambushing them like they’re in Fallujah circa 2002 is absurd and drives a lot of this police brutality and overreaction. Don’t forget that these are paid professional government employees. It’s not the citizen’s job to coddle police and play into their own personal paranoia and delusions just to avoid getting beaten or shot.
I dunno, I’m way less terrified of the guy with a 40k watch in a 150k car than I would be in any other situation. Unless I was super jealous that this black dude was rich, and he didn’t show immediate respect to me. Then I might pull him out of his car despite having everything I need to write the citation and being in 0 danger literally surrounded by other officers.
I don’t have any studies to hand, but isn’t the disparity between police responses to non-white vs white suspects a given at this point, in the US at least?
But lets look at your argument both ways.
On the one hand you’d be arguing that race disparity in police responses doesn’t exist at all and so wouldn’t apply here.
Or
Race disparity exists, but in this specific situation it doesn’t apply for some reason.
If that’s the case , id be interested in hearing why you think it doesn’t apply in this specific circumstance?
Neither of those sound plausible to me but i could be missing what your actual argument is entirely, in which case, would you mind explaining why it doesn’t fall in to the above categories?
It’s more the latter. I don’t argue that race disparity exists. I’m only arguing that Tyreek did not do any kind of favor to himself in how he handled the situation. I’m sorry he got pulled from his car and cuffed, but my reaction to the video was that he had this coming. Blatantly disobeying an officer’s requests and in a way that can lead the officer to feel unsure over his/her safety and perceived control of the situation is going to end poorly. This could easily happen to a white person.
It’s more the latter. I don’t argue that race disparity exists. I’m only arguing that Tyreek did not do any kind of favor to himself in how he handled the situation.
Agreed, but “didn’t do the most optimal thing in a given situation” isn’t the same as “deserved to be dragged out of his car”
Especially in a situation where it is known to be significantly more dangerous, regardless of behaviour, for someone of a more melanin-rich persuasion.
This confusion is easily resolved though, let’s clarify with a couple questions.
Do you think anyone (regardless of race) should have received that level of response in that situation ?
Do you think anyone (regardless of race) would have received that level of response in that situation ?
I’m sorry he got pulled from his car and cuffed, but my reaction to the video was that he had this coming.
I’d personally view that as two opposing viewpoints, either you think he had it coming or you’re sorry it happened.
Blatantly disobeying an officer’s requests and in a way that can lead the officer to feel unsure over his/her safety and perceived control of the situation is going to end poorly.
And this is the crux of the issue, officers feeling unsafe and their level of perceived control is known to have a direct correlation to how reflective your skin is.
That doesn’t even account for the officers with a blatant racial bias.
So you can argue that point, but the threshold for where actions end up in poor outcomes is intrinsically linked to race, any argument you make is going need to account for that or it’s going to be perceived as missing a large chunk of the context.
Which is what is happening here.
This could easily happen to a white person.
That’s subjective but again, let’s clarify :
In these exact same circumstances, you’d expect a white person to be treated in the exact same way ?
I really can’t imagine thinking that no matter how disrespectful someone was during a traffic violation, that escalating to pulling someone out of the car and putting them in handcuffs is ok.
Office was never in any danger, he was actually surrounded by other officers. You should be able to disrespect an officer and that should not escalate being physically handled like that.
The expectation for a criminal in a criminal act is to have as much force as needed applied to them to get them to comply. The expectation of an asshole at a traffic stop should be to get his big ticket and keep moving.
If you don’t want to be called a boot licker, stop licking boots!
