Wednesday, May 16, 2018

On The Woman Calling The Cops Out For BBQing While Black

I didn't comment on the other recent story of a white-person calling the cops for people doing innocuous things while black, the women who called them out on a family peacefully barbecuing because I don't know if the person on the video - taken by a white-person - is the woman whose name is identified online as being her.  I worry when the internet posse identifies what are otherwise private people because there is no accountability for mis-identifying someone and possibly ruining if not endangering their life.  So I wouldn't participate in doing that.  I would feel uneasy if they got her name right.  

Do we know that they identified the right person?  

What the woman did, calling the cops because people were having a BBQ and how it escalated was bad, it risked turning what was probably an innocuous event into something that could easily turn deadly.  From what I saw the cop handled what was clearly a perplexing situation a lot better than a lot of others have, though some wonder why he didn't ask her for an ID.  

But, really, all I know is what was on the video so I'm not going to pretend I know more about it than what happened.  Clearly she was wrong in taking the card of the woman filming her and not returning it.  And, as said, her reaction to a family having a peaceful BBQ in a park was way over the top and irresponsible.   That said, the potential of the internet vigilantes to make it even worse is high. 

I did like the community response of holding a party.  That was nice.  Maybe they should have invited the woman to it and shown her there wasn't anything to be afraid of.  

5 comments:

  1. Made-For-Internet-Outrage. I'm really trying to stay away from stories like that. I did like the community party, though. Good on 'em.

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  2. Ever read, 'A Turn of the Screw,' by Henry James? I've been told you can tell a person's political views based on their interpretation of the story.

    Regarding the Great Oakland BBQ Caper, technically, from what I read, the woman was right - the park has areas designated for charcoal and gas barbequing and the people she reported to the police were charcoaling in the gas area. By all accounts, she told them this and demanded they stop, then called the police.

    Now, was she overacting? Not even a question. Actually, that's not a strong enough term. But, why assume she's a racist and not just a nosy busybody? I used to live on a block with a woman just like this, who would, I kid you not, walk up and down the street looking for things to leave notes for her neighbors about.

    I grew up in a mixed neighborhood in suburban LA, and she didn't discriminate. Now, I imagine, she'd be called racist instead of just annoying.

    I will say, you are being naïve if you worry about "I worry when the internet posse identifies..." The press is becoming further polemical in their outlooks and outrage. Getting the whole story absent any agenda and with all the facts presented to allow the reader to reach their own conclusions appears old hat. This is the press that gave us Donald Trump.

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    1. From what I read I didn't draw the conclusion that she was right about it at all. Calling the cops on them and standing there as long as she is reported to have stood there trying to get the cops to come and bust them is certainly extreme.

      How you could come to the conclusions you have from the video that is the only record of what happened, I can't fathom. Where you grew up has noting to do with it. I certainly don't think I really knew what was happening. The cop who came apparently didn't think the BBQing while Black family were doing anything he would arrest them for. It was hardly something that warranted her reaction and risked what could become a dangerous incident.

      Your idea of which media is responsible for Trump is bizarre. The media that is responsible for Trump is A. that which created his public persona, especially the people who put on his TV shows and which gave him so much free air time. NOT TO MENTION THE TABLOIDS AND CABOLIDS ALL OF THEM CONSERVATIVE WHO PROMOTED HIM AND LIED ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON. Not to mention the goddamned New York Times.

      You have a habit of putting the blame in the most obviously wrong places. I've certainly been willing to be understanding of those who voted for Trump and to have pointed out that all of those groups which are blamed for him were hardly uniform in their support for him. After more than a year I have come to the conclusion that those still with him, as he went back on virtually all of his lies of support for the working class, etc. have been shown to have been lies, as he filled DC with the most corrupt regime in modern history, they support him because they are fascists who are essentially evil. Most of them more enamoured of their racism and sexism and bigotry than even their own self-interest. The media that produced them is not liberal, it is right-wing.

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  3. If the rules of the park state that charcoal grilling is forbidden in that section (which, based on a ‘Chronicle’ article I read, it is) and she asked them to stop and they refused, technically, she was in the right, legally. But you’ll note I then added her behavior is beyond overreacting to the situation.

    I read a piece about the incident in the ‘Chronicle,’ as I mentioned previously. “Abram's grill happened to be in a non-charcoal location.”

    I do know a nosy busybody when I see one. I grew up across the street from one.

    Of course the police were confused by the reason for the call. It was absurd to call them. Hence my comment about the term “overreaction” not being strong enough to faithfully describe her behavior.

    But the race of people involved appears to be a Jamesian litmus test, whereby if the races of those involved is given more significance the more liberal (and habitually virtue signaling) one is.

    The media as a whole is responsible for Trump, it is the sensationalistic and tabloidish media as much as the misguided virtue signaling media that helped elect him. The kind that turned a situation involving a nosy busybody like the woman who called the cops on the out-of-area BBQers into a WHITE woman versus BLACK men kind of story.

    Where do have I habitually put the blame in the “wrong places?” I just explained that reading about the incident and the details (plus my own experience with meddlesome people) gave me a different, less political, but just as likely breakdown of the situation.

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    1. The nosy woman who made the video? Reportedly a White Woman, herself?

      Yeah, I'll be it happens every day, doesn't it. Some random white person calling out the 5-0s on some White guy for using the wrong species of BBQ grill in an area designated for grilling.

      Um, if you want to know where to put the blame for the racialization of such incidents, you could do no worse than to blame the rather huge number of people who have killed, injured, harassed, falsely arrested, falsely called the cops out on Black People who have done nothing wrong, in the hundreds, maybe thousands of such incidents every year.

      You clearly have a problem with Black People and Women in general.

      I won't bite on your Turn of the Screw thing, I don't see the relevance of it. I wonder what Henry James would say about it.

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