The norm is that young black men are not given the benefit of a doubt. There was a recent study by some law enforcement agency( wish I could remember which one) that surveyed police perception of young black men as oppose to young white men. The two groups of men wore similar clothes and put in similar situations. The survey revealed that young black men were seem as suspicious and the perception was the same for black and white officers. Police are conditioned to a high number of crimes being committed by young black men. That perception crosses over and affects perfectly innocently young men. It breaks my heart.
Evermom, doesn’t it look like the op was talking about this in the context of education, not law enforcement?
@moooop It wasn’t professors who violently arrested him, it was law enforcement.
It also bears noting that ABC officers in C-Ville seem to have a problem judging when alleged alcohol violations actually warrant arrest: There has also surfaced a report of a fairly recent case of a female UVA students wrongful arrest for walking out of a local grocery store carrying a bottled water, which agents mistook for an open container of alcohol 
She ended up spending a night in jail for the offense, and was later awarded a settlement from the resulting law suit in the amount of $212.500.
Seriously? Could they not have easily ascertained that the liquid in the bottle was water there at the scene? I’m sure she told imformed them of this fact at the time. So C-Ville’s ABC agents: Stupid? Incompetitent? Power tripping racists?
i stay out of the political discussions here at CC…they’re exhausting 
and I already talk with enough folks about these issues in my real life.
But two things combined have made me feel exceptionally sad/frustrated/hopeless about this one. To recap; Black kid who’s an Italian major in the Honors College at UVA tries to use a fake ID to enter a bar. He’s arrested and during the arrest is exceptionally roughed up (my interpretation) by the officers and needs 10 stitches, etc. At the same time, i’m talking with my kid about an incident at his high school…both my kids attend a large, urban public high school that’s 70% african-american (we’re white). I’ve known most of these students since 1st grade. In any case (disguising this a bit), but the president of a leading school organization (a senior who was accepted SCEA to one of the Ivies in December) was caught at school with pot…and he was clearly stoned. He was given a stern talking-to and a 2nd chance, so to speak. I agree with this approach and am grateful that my kids attend a school where common-sense rules. But then my son said, “He’s lucky that he’s white, ya know?” And I was all, “what?” And my kid said, “If you’re white, they know you have a chance to turn things around. You get another try. But they figure that the black kids can’t crawl out of it so they get rid of them right away” (meaning, transfer them to the public school for trouble-makers). And this makes me just exceptionally sad and despairing…hard to put it into words…but even at the most enlightened and great schools, some kids get that 2nd chance that most of us need to life…and some don’t…
http://jezebel.com/reports-black-uva-student-beaten-by-police-for-having-1692199936
Going forward, let’s first make repetitious statement of the obvious by the usual CC denizens unecessary: “all the facts and information” about this case are still being investigated. However, as things stand right now, it looks like the fairly ubiquitous college practice of an underage student trying to enter a bar without proper identification resulted law enforcement overreach. The student in question was wrestled to the ground and seriously injured in the process of being arrested for the offense. Since Martese Johnson is a black male, this case is gaining national attention. Johnson is a respected student in good standing at the school. He is a member of several campus organizations and has no criminal record. Given the many prominent national cases of alleged police brutality involving black male suspects in recent months/years, the question that begs answering is: was this really necessary? According to the Cavalier Daily: “Johnson was “arrested on charges of resisting arrest, obstructing justice without threats of force, and profane swearing or intoxication in public” and held in jail overnight.”
Of course.
In that case, the girls had brought a case of La Croix from a grocery store and the ABC cops assumed it was a case of beer. How come the ABC cops are unfamiliar with typical beer logos vs. soda or water logos? Answer - they’re either incompetent or they don’t care about terrorizing innocent young people, or both.
In this case, the young woman was white. I’m not sure about the ABC cops but the officer who supposedly showed a badge (which none of the girls saw) was female.
Studies indicate otherwise moooop:
www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2013/race-school-discipline.aspx
I certainly don’t know all the details of the case, and certainly wonder why this one kid out of all the drunk in public people wandering around on St. Patrick’s Day was chosen for arrest. But I have one basic question:
Why did the cops have to wrestle him to the ground to arrest him?
Video starts too late to show that, but he’s still struggling while on the ground.
Cops may have been in the wrong for singling him out. And who, knows, the cops/ABC may have gone directly to wrestling without giving him a chance to comply.
Bottom line: Cop says stop, you stop. Cop says put your hands up, put your hands up, etc… Get a lawyer and argue the discrimination/legality/etc. later. But comply with the directions given. Whether you are black, white, or purple with pink polka dots.
According to the Washington Post, it’s the UVa Pres that asked ABC back in the city again:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/violent-arrest-of-black-u-va-student-sparks-scrutiny-of-virginia-abc/2015/03/19/8a557db6-ce55-11e4-8c54-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html?hpid=z4
Pretty awful.
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“Nothing suggests he was in possession of a fake ID.” Is this pertinent? He was not allowed entry into the bar. He either tried to get into a bar with a fake ID or with no ID. And oh, so if you have a fake ID (which I had at one point, but used perhaps once before I realized staying on campus and out of bars was safer), you advertise it to the world (his roommate said he didn’t have one)?
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ABC agents certainly do investigation and will raid places a la Eliot Ness. I was not aware that they got involved with day-to-day “policing” of the legal age to drink. But there are things like transit cops and others who the public needs to obey as if they were regular police officers. The wisdom of UVA inviting ABC to help “police campus drinking” because of the murder of one of their students should be questioned.
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I’m not sure where “he had to get stitches” = “clearly he was assaulted for NO REASON while he was being arrested”. I agree with that is why there needs to be an investigation. I have white relatives who were arrested and injured, one who claimed he was permanently injured in the leg due to an arrest (while he was drunk - any idea about whether this kid was drunk or not?) but with no money for a lawyer, just became a family story.
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10 stitches <> seriously injured in my book. If he was resisting (yes, that is even just saying “hey, you aren’t real cops, you can’t arrest me” because they are ABC or arguing with cops), they could have brought him down to the ground and he hit his face on the pavement or sidewalk.
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Apparently, the gentleman is recorded saying: “I go to UVA! You (bleeping) racist!” over and over again. Seems like he was shoving in their face that he was a college boy = elitism not racism?
Story may be simple once the details or out, or complicated. Chances are, it will be a settlement regardless of whether the arrested gentleman was drunk, disorderly, or resisting arrest. Because he is black.
And I have to laugh “trauma will stay with me forever” - uh, dude, YOU were trying to enter a bar as a 20 year old, so you made the situation happen. The ABC were just doing their job - maybe they did use excessive force, but you were breaking the law. The kid is using the “but I attend UVA!!!” card like it is some kind of get out of jail free card. It’s like, hey, I’m a privileged college boy, you can’t do this to me! I fail to see how his race mattered in this case, unless you see the world as 100% racial issues.
Let’s just distill this down to what it is - a drunk kid gets arrested after trying and failing to get into a bar. Let’s not make it into a conspiracy against all blacks on the planet by all people in positions of authority. Investigate, sure. Look at previous cases - how often are drunks injured when they are arrested?
And BTW - is being intoxicated violating the UVA honor code, and makes the gentleman subject to expulsion? If so, a huge plus to fight to get charges dropped based on his injury - what would be the downside of resisting arrest?
So, apparently Johnson was NOT drunk when he was arrested. Martin is a professor of emergency medicine at UVA Medical School.
10 stitches does equal seriously injured to me. How injured to you expect to get while being arrested? Maybe a chafed wrist from handcuffs? He didn’t commit a crime, he wasn’t fleeing, he wasn’t arrested and he ended up with 10 stitches! That’s more than excessive.
He was turned down at the bar because when he was asked for his zip code he answered a different one than (the older) one printed on his ID. He could have been going to the bar for food. BY VA law, all bars must make 45% or so of their revenue from food and not alcohol. THE ABC IS SUPPOSED TO CHECK THEIR BOOKS TO MAKE SURE THEY COMPLY. Were they doing that? No, they were pouncing on rejected bar patrons.
It may or not have been racism but it certainly was police abuse of power. And yes, he did yell “I go to UVA”. I saw that as trying to get them to see reason, to see that he wasn’t a criminal. You can see it however you like. What he said most was, “how does this happen”? Is that a call to respect his college boy privilege too? Or could it be a cry of utter disbelief and horror at the violent abuse he was suffering at the hands of people who we pay to keep us safe?
Although it is not officially in writing, my understanding is that the use of false IDs to buy alcohol for decades has not considered to be subject to the honor code. In any case, the ABC would have charged him with having a false ID – IF HE HAD ONE. Instead, the ABC charged him with using profanity. (That matter has been litigated in other states - people are allowed to swear at cops without being arrested for it.).
My understanding is that many bars that serve the college market in Cville allow students who are under 21 to enter with a hand stamp or another method that shows they are not allowed to drink. Other local people have said that African-Americans who are not UVa students are often denied entry to places that are geared towards students.
The bouncer saw the whole thing and said the violent takedown was unwarranted.
Even one stitch while being arrested for being suspected of a fake ID is one too many. If I’d been wrestled to the ground, let alone made bloody in any way, you can bet the ABC would be sued for their shirts and underwear by my parents, with officers and whoever was in charge of their training permanently barred from any law enforcement job and that they’d try to make this VERY public.
TEN STITCHES! that’s almost unthinkable to me.
This student is an Honors Student at UVA. Who wasn’t drunk. Who had no fake ID. Who was ultimately charged with “swearing in public”, indicating how little there was to attacking him.
What I feel right now is horror.
Coy Barefoot is sharing additional unconfirmed details on his facebook page. I can’t link to his page, but it can be easily found. For those of you who believe the student was in the wrong by trying to enter a “bar”, Mr. Barefoot provides a good explanation of how Virginia does not, in fact, have bars. Allegedly IDs were being checked that night by one of Trinity’s owners.
Coy Barefoot is saying Martese Johnson presented a legal ID to the restaurant/bar that he was legally allowed to enter. As he is only 20 years old, he wouldn’t have been allowed to buy a drink at the restaurant/bar, but he wasn’t trying to buy a drink but to enter the restaurant/bar in the first place.
Va has archaic liquor laws from the ABC stores with the charm of the local DMV to special agents with police power who have been instructed to crackdown on underage drinking at colleges. They have little else to do and that’s a problem. They get overzealous. It would be easy to get a cut requiring 10 stitches by falling or being dragged down in an arrest sequence. But they better have a good reason or he just lost his footing and fell.
[quote]
Chances are it will be a settlement regardless of whether the arrested gentleman was drunk, disorderly, or resisting arrest. Because he is black.[\quote].
Why of course. Isn’t it axiomatic? Black men are almost always awarded monetary settlements when law enforcement uses excessive force, even if they’ve broken the law, because black males are a privileged class in America. That’s why there are so many of them walking around flush with tax payer money from such suits and resultant settlements, why so many of them encourage their friends to sue also, and why so few black men actually end up jailed or in prison. 8-|
Right again, because clearly Martese Johnson was the one doing the face shoving that night, what with being so drunk on his own black male privilege and sense of elitism. It was Saint Patrick’s Day night in a college town, and he probably mistakenly thought he was entitled to behave the way any number of his white male peers were behaving that evening: trying to walk into a restaurant/tavern and be served. The nerve!
Too right! After all, it’s not like he was was being lynched for whistling at white women, or being run out of town by hood wearing Klansmen. Trauma my ass! So he ended up bloodied, and in need of ten stitches. No biggy. He had it coming. If you break the law, the police are entitled to jack you up a bit. Didn’t his parents tell him that?
Too bad he didn’t have you, rhando, to put him in his place before it all went down that night. He could have been spared so much self-delusion. You could have explained to him that he shouldn’t think of himself as some sort of upwardly mobile, education seeking guy trying to walk into a tavern on St. Paddie’s Day just like many of his counterparts. That way, he could have been avoided asking “How can this happen?” so repeatedly and with such incredulity. The poor sap…He really could have used your guiding hand.