4 ms·

I see some comments here along the lines of 'this is standard, nothing to do with race' Even if that is true (And I don't know that it is), doesn't it speak to

• golergka 11y ago
  It's a problem that he's so scared, yes. But this particular incidents paints his fear as baseless paranoia.
  • cinquemb 11y ago
    If someone is afraid for their life, regardless if there are objective measures for it being grounded or not, certainly casting it as baseless paranoia serves to dissuade such fears.
    • golergka 11y ago
      > certainly casting it as baseless paranoia But that's exactly what this blog post does. It's like this is actually propaganda which was created to paint the author as paranoid. He doesn't tell any real reasons for being afraid, he doesn't seem reasonable and rational at all. He comes to the encounter with preconceived notions and doesn't even try to doubt. Police brutality and racism are awful issues, and posts like that do real harm because they paint them as paranoid delusions.
      • brenschluss 11y ago
        > He comes to the encounter with preconceived notions This is the whole point, don't you understand? Consider that your desire to see each encounter as a blank slate, disconnected to each other, is your privilege. If you're black and encountering with the police, your encounter is full of decades and centuries of "preconceived notions" -- of abuses of power.
    • lmm 11y ago
      The appropriate thing for society to do about someone being in fear for their life is quite different in cases where that fear is justified from cases where that fear is baseless paranoia.
  • beat 11y ago
    This reminds me of something I pointed out elsewhere... I don't know any black people who have never had a negative, frightening interaction with police. And I have a lot of black friends, from teenagers up to men in their 60s. I've had friends arrested, had guns pointed at them, on ridiculous things (one that stands out was a friend who got arrested and roughed up for doing his laundry in his dorm). "Baseless paranoia"? Ask any black person you know if they think this is baseless paranoia.
    • golergka 11y ago
      I don't know any people of any race who have never had a negative, frightening interaction with police. This still doesn't make his reaction justified.
      • beat 11y ago
        I know lots of white people who have never had a negative interaction with police. The only times I have were really when I deserved it (like coming down off a rooftop of a building where I didn't live, drunk and high, to the welcoming arms of the police. Who didn't arrest me).
      • esrauch 11y ago
        > I don't know any people of any race who have never had a negative, frightening interaction with police. Eh, I can only speak anecdotally but almost all white people (who aren't active drug dealers) that I know haven't actually had bad experiences, modulo "the TSA at the airport patted me down!". The single time that I've had any sort of negative interaction was when crossing the Canadian border and it was directly because my friend in the car had brown skin.
      • cmiles74 11y ago
        It sure does: people base their emotional reactions largely on anecdotes from those around them, those they know and respect.
      • deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
  • HelloNurse 11y ago
    Many lost lives paint his fear completely well founded: USA police clearly tends to kill black citizens because of race.
  • deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]