13251132, Two thing. 1.) Police have an obligation to investigate. Posted by Buddy_Gilapagos, Tue Apr-17-18 02:36 PM
Use this other hypothetical: Neighbor calls the cops and says I think these two black kids just broke into a house and are stealing something. If the cops ran up on the two kids and arrested them based solely on what the neighbor said, that's bullshit. If the cops did a little bit of investigating and said,
Cops: Did you see them break into a house? Neighbor: No. Cops: Well why do you think they broke into a house? Neighbor: IDK. I've never seen black kids walk through this neighborhood.
Of course in that example the cops should say, "well if you didn't see anything and you have no basis for thinking they stole something, then there isn't really anything we can do".
Now in reality cops don't even do that but if the cops went and talked to the kids and asked a couple of questions, that wouldn't even be doing as much as these starbucks cops did.
In other words, if the starbucks cops went and asked what the two black dudes were doing there and they said waiting for a friend and the cops fell back, then yeah that'd be harassment but it wouldn't have made the news.
But in this instance the cops didn't investigate, the starbucks manager wanted them gone and they become the starbucks enforcer.
2. Which is my second point is that the cops weren't passive in this.
Using your voter suppression example, if there were klansmen standing out front a voters booth it would be the cops job to go and make it safe for people to vote either by arresting the klan (because that sort of voter suppression is a crime) or by escorting voters into the voting station.
But it's not like the cops stood by and watch a crime happen (kick people out cafe because they are black). What the cops did in this instance is the equivalent of helping the klansmen intimidate voters.
>> >>except for >>reasons that are in violation of Civil Rights Laws. >> > >For example, the police do not enforce voter suppression in >violation of the Voting Rights Act. They don't enforce >violations of free speech. These are handled in civil court, >not the criminal system > >
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