<p>@Dpgriff - yeah, it really is. I read that whole thing and that wasn’t just an officer being a jerk - that was really REALLY bad. Those officers need to be fired, maybe even tossed in prison for a few months.</p>
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<p>Tossed in prison? For what? Investigating a crime?</p>
<p>North Korea would be proud of you, Itachi.</p>
<p>My comment did have a negative connotation but many southerners might agree with me. There are still people who want to secede. I’m sure there are plenty of southerners who would be happy if they weren’t attached to the north anymore.</p>
<p>I’d pick the jersey shore over racism any day. And I bet you would have a different opinion if you were the victim of racism. Your probably an middle/upper class white kid.</p>
<p>I’m not saying this isn’t racist; but, is there any chance the officers actually thought this man was a criminal. Race aside, if he looked like a suspect, the officers should search him. I have to agree though, from what this article presented, these officers deserve some kind of repercussions.</p>
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<p>I heard the N-word more often in New York than I have anywhere in the South.</p>
<p>Just sayin’.</p>
<p>Every single crime that has been reported at my university since I entered was committed by a black man. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that police are going to be suspicious toward black men at a university, especially if a crime had recently been committed.</p>
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<p>Right, you’re one of those “if they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear from searches” types, I forgot. No, they shouldn’t be tossed in prison for “doing their jobs.” They should be tossed in prison for what they did AFTER it was OBVIOUS this was not the man they were looking for. </p>
<p>I’d go as far as saying the forced search against the car is still within the bounds but… everything else… not so much.</p>
<p>He requested a description of the “charges” against him - they said “you don’t need to worry about that” - this is illegal, and they did it twice.</p>
<p>They questioned the validity of his license - while this isn’t directly illegal it’s obviously bordering on harassment. </p>
<p>Their behavior changed after learning he was a law student - they were obviously prejudiced. </p>
<p>Tailing him home after it was MORE THAN CLEAR he was innocent IS however harassment and DEFINITELY illegal.</p>
<p>They couldn’t be thrown in jail for very long but a month or two ought to fit the crimes they committed against this innocent person.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, Itachi, being rude isn’t a crime. The day we start imprisoning people for acting cold is the day we become what we fear the most.</p>
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<p>It isn’t illegal; he was being detained as the result of an investigation, and was let go without being charged with anything. </p>
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<p>In a college town where lots of students have fake IDs, ensuring that people’s licenses are accurate and not fake is part of their job. Once again, not illegal and not harassment.</p>
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<p>And? Maybe he was being a jerk to them and was getting the cold treatment back.</p>
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<p>No, it isn’t. They can drive wherever they damn well please. Once again, not a crime.</p>
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<p>So, their crimes consist of enforcing the law and investigating robbery complaints. Lets lock up all the cops and let the criminals run the show, right?</p>
<p>I’m black and live in DC and I totally feel for this man however, crimes commited by blacks in DC (not far from UVA) are majority. Robberies, fights, beating, you name it. Blacks are always the ones.</p>
<p>However on the flip-side to this, I would get really mad and aggravated if two white cops stopped me and knew that I wasn’t “the guy”, but still did all the things that they did to the uva student. Yes they are doing their job and yes he might have fit the exact description but answer this, is a black guy attending UVA as a law student likely to commit a crime? Would they do this if a white man fit that description? Would this situation have been played out differently if one of the cops was black? This is definitely a racial discrimination but too bad that it cannot land them in jail. It’s sad that blacks have to go through this however, its life and something we have to just live with. Many of you saying its not that bad obviously have never been racially discriminates. It’s really easy to make an opinion about something you have never experienced.</p>
<p>LOL - Itachirumon, maybe you could get a job as Obama’s Chief Tolerance Officer. Wouldn’t it be convenient if he had someone specifically designated to throw people who don’t break the law in jail? Boy does California logic make me laugh!</p>
<p>Honestly, much of the outrage over this kind of thing would offend me if I were a minority. the people that scream “racism! hate crime! abuse of power!” at everything are implicitly asserting that minorities are naive and possess and almost childlike innocence that prevents them from having any control over their own situations. The more liberal minded in this country have created this narrative in which it’s always the big bad white man against the poor, defenseless minority - and frankly, that’s, uh, kinda racist, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Are people seriously defending what these cops did? I mean are you ****ing kidding me?</p>
<p>I’m not, as I stated before. I merely think they were doing their job (stopping someone who fit the profile of a suspected criminal) and then it got out of hand, for which they should probably be reprimanded - but NOT “thrown in prison” for.</p>
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<p>Who are you to say the police officers deemed it OBVIOUS this was not the man they’re searching for? Just imagine this for a second. What if after the police officers looked at him and just decided right then and there that it was OBVIOUS the man was not the criminal. Then, the man shot both officers. Now, would you be saying the same thing? Remember what perspective this article is from.</p>
<p>Dude. Don’t get me wrong. Before this incident, I had an exceedingly good impression of my school’s police.</p>
<p>Throwing them in prison would, again, be a two month sentence and more or less make an example out of them. Say THIS is what happens when you exceed your authority and your “searches” enter the category of harassment/intimidation. I’d like to see more of their record but from the sound of it, they have no business being cops if they behave like that. </p>
<p>@Antipacifist - No sweety, it’s more like “Racist white man attacking minorities” how is saying that this is wrong being racist? How is attacking racism as incorrect being racist? Sounds to me like you’re the type of person who likes to say that minorities bandy around “the race card.” Basically, you assert that liberals are secret deep cover racists who have this Sambo imagery of minorities as helpless, naive, innocent little children right? Ho-hold on here… my brain just blew a fuse. You’re joking right? That’s really what you see when this crap happens? I… really don’t think I need to go any further, your comments really speak for themselves.</p>
<p>@UVA - define “looked at him” do you mean a top-down look or the rather violent slam him onto the cruiser and search his pockets look? Cause… if they already checked him over, how could he shoot them? They’d have found the gun during the pat down. Throws your argument completely out. Besides, why would he just randomly shoot them? Because he’s black and they’re cops? THAT’s racism my friend.</p>
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<p>So, Itachi, you support throwing people in prison who have committed no crime whatsoever? </p>
<p>Like I said, North Korea would be proud.</p>
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<p>It has happened before-google “Lovelle Mixon.”</p>
<p>^Of course it’s happened before but how LIKELY is it? Is it likely enough to merit heightened scrutiny just because he’s black? That’s profiling and that is RACIST dude, HOW is this complicated? </p>
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<p>I support firing people from their jobs when they’re clearly incompetant - if it’s found during the investigation that their violations merit jailtime and the victim wants to press charges, then yes, I support them being tossed in jail. You seem to be under the impression they committed “no crime whatsoever” so naturally, my position sounds like lunacy. I believe there was clear intimidation and harassmennt involved here, and possibly even more - enough to get them fired and potentially enough for a month or two in prison. Not long, the crime isn’t big enough to be long. That’s where we differ - you don’t think anything was wrong here, and I’m baffled that anybody could ignore all that was wrong here.</p>
<p>the guy is a freaking Law Student. A UVA Law Student.</p>
<p>In case you haven’t realised, UVA Law is one of the top 14 law schools in the US. </p>
<p>how does he fit any sort of “profile”?</p>
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<p>ugh, i wrote something and then my browser screwed up and my whole post vanished. Anyway, what I basically had written is that YES, minorities often do play the race card, just like women often play the “gender card” and, to an increasingly large extent, white males play the “white male card” when “their” spot in a university or at a job or whatever is taken by a minority because of AA (and I’m against this mindset, even though I also disagree with AA). if you could evade a crime (or better yet, shift the topic of debate completely away from the crime itself) by hiding behind your race, wouldn’t you? I’m obviously not saying that minorities are ALWAYS guilty - it’s just that the truth is that MOST people try to transfer the blame onto other people given the opportunity. I’m also not saying that the police were in the right here - but that they had every right to pull him over for questioning because they’re POLICE. </p>
<p>(and again with the “sweety” thing… i don’t know what you think you’re accomplishing by saying that?)</p>
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He was a black male. At my university, whenever something suspicious happens around campus, we all get texts saying things like “be on the lookout for a white male, approximately 5’9, brown hair, seen near student union.” Is this racism? is it harmful racial profiling? </p>
<p>And the law student thing has no relevance here, anyone can commit crimes.</p>