Yes, again, the dad is not angry about the stop in and of itself because he son fit the specific description of the suspect. His issue is whether or not a gun should have been drawn. Apparently that is also being questioned by the
Administration - therefore, the investigation. In law enforcement, any use of force is investigated. Most of the time as a learning experience so that protocols can be adjusted as needed and training provided, if warranted.
The students, especially those of color, have rallied around the son. Not saying he is not shaken by this, but he has his village around him for support.
@Hunt: I appreciate your commentary here, but I have to say: “Bully pulpit?” Relative to the enormous power and PR machine of Yale?!
My fundamental takeaway on reading the column was how brave Blow was for, yes, using his position to put it out there – despite being a Yale “insider,” despite silence and a gentleman’s “letting it go” being the far easier path, despite the fact that going public with the incident while his son remains a student could prove uncomfortable. Consider the nasty business of Michael Simons and Yale Medical, for example, a toxic state of affairs allowed to fester for far too long (and ultimately served only to harm the school’s credibility and reputation). It’s all too easy and common to say nothing, sweep under the rug, and/or actively cover up the less pleasant bits at our elite universities. Seeing folks on the inside call b.s. and speak out about their own dirty laundry is, to me, important and admirable.
Some overzealous police officers once pulled guns on my 15-year old (white) son as he did nothing more than walk out of a 7-11 with an Arizona Tea in his hand. (Whoops!) So, aside from the issue of race – which I think is a highly troubling aspect of the Blow case – I have some small idea of what this feels like as a parent. I’ve read Blink and know that we were frankly just lucky. It was that close. Blow’s son also could have been shot in an instant. (Whoops!) Blow Sr.'s outrage is appropriate and I have to believe Yale will now, thanks to and precisely because he went public, make some necessary changes.
I would add that this is not a Yale specific issue, per se. This could have happened at any University.
The issue is really to further the dialogue about how much leeway is appropriate to give police in common situations. It is a good example for discussion because this is a young man who is doing one of the least suspicious things he could be doing – coming out of the Yale library. He wasn’t in a suspicious location, involved in a suspicious activity at all.
Is drawing a gun appropriate even if it had been the perpetrator in this case?
Is this standard procedure on campus for suspects of all colors?
Since there was no indication that the suspect was rushing or had a weapon, wouldn’t it be easy for the officer to follow the suspect while waiting for backup officers to arrive?
Is a red hat enough to warrant drawing a gun?
Would a blue hat be enough to warrant drawing a gun, given that it is Yale’s school color? That could be 1/2 of the campus.
I am also very aware that the police have a difficult job and that Yale police are working hard to protect students. They do a lot of jobs that I would not want to do, and think they need to be given some level of leeway. However, the better everyone involved can establish clear rules of engagement and carry them out properly, the more bad endings we can avoid.
I’ve seen opinions to this effect stated in recent years–usually justifying why cops shot some innocent person–but I can assure you it wasn’t part of my driver’s ed.
I live in MD, and it wasn’t a part of mine. Trust me though, it is now part of every AA parents informal driving instruction. An yes, before someone answers, I am sure it is part of everyones.
I could be very wrong, but isn’t this something someone should expect in a city like New Haven? In College Park, MD–or even when I’m in DC–I would immediately submit to an officer if he pulled a gun on me and ordered me to stop. The kid did the same. If my hands were in my hoodie pocket, an officer running towards me yelling to stop, I would completely expect him to draw his weapon; I mean, what would happen if I had a gun in my pocket? There is no reason for the officer to not draw his weapon. He’s stopping someone on a report of a burglary, right? That’s B&E with the intent to commit a felony. If I fit the description, I’d hope he stops me. If he stops the real burglar, I’d hope he draws his weapon for his own protection.
Issues of “town and gown” are common to most college towns, in New Haven, they are much more profound. What many might not be aware is that a public housing project (predominantly AA) that borders one side of campus. This has a variety of implications and layers to the historical relationship the university has with its AA community. At the risk of being trite, I can personally attest that short of you wearing a tweed jacket, with a jcrew collared shirt, and a large sign saying " I’m going to acapella practice", most any AA male is considered a suspect, and certainly not part of the academic community.
The hand on wheel is not in my state manual, and I am quite sure it wasn’t in the CT manual back when I got my first license there. Nor were the extensive sections on how to avoid road rage incidents!
Things have changed in that regard.
Are you seriously suggesting that law abiding citizens walking about on the Yale campus, or anywhere else in the city for that matter, should EXPECT to be accosted by a cop with gun drawn and required to lie down on the ground without being asked for ID or anything at all???
I certainly have never experienced that, no matter where I’ve been, nor would I ever think of “expecting” it. But then, I’m a white, middle class woman, not a young black man.
The hand on wheel stuff is not in my state manual. It wasn’t when I got a driver’s license, it still isn’t, and I never heard it until the recent publicizing of unarmed black men being shot by police. The assumption that everyone knows that one should keep hands in sight when stopped by a police officer is way off the mark.
Yes, that is how I felt about it, as the parent of a former Yale student. I believe the area is not safe, that campus police ought to be numerous and carry weapons, that someone breaking and entering dorms and stealing students’ stuff while they sleep should be hunted down with weapon drawn. That is what would make me feel safe, not the campus police holding back, being polite and endangering themselves out of concern over offending someone’s race.
It is not unknown for students to commit crimes against their fellow students, including robbery. At that point he was still a suspect, person of interest, call it what you will. That doesn’t mean I think the officer was right in pulling his gun that quickly. But it does explain why he was still being checked out.
@Hunt
You have used the term “profiling” a couple of times here. Obviously in this case you mean racial profiling. I really don’t see how that applies. The perpetrator had already been described as black and about the same height and dress as Blow, Jr. And in any case, just already knowing the perpetrator was black, would you still stop white and Asian students just to avoid a charge of “profiling”? I truly don’t understand what you are trying to say. It would be silly to stop someone who is black that is a foot shorter or otherwise far off the description, but that would not be profiling. That would be incredibly poor judgement and/or a simple lack of brains.
I have gotten out of the car in the past when I got pulled over and was told to get back in and put my hands on the steering wheel. It is a standard warning because the police are as much afraid of people they are pulling over as us being pulled over.
I do think pulling a gun on anyone who is walking around a bit excessive but the police are equally afraid for themselves in most cases.