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A Sad But Teling Article (merged)

Cranx

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A Sad, But Telling Article.

I was the first one in here trying to defend the actions of some of the cops down in south Florida and will continue to do so as viable facts present themselves, however, this article just upset me and made me wish things were different.

Article

Why people continue to hold on to their racial biases and hatreds will forever confound and sadden me. I wish I could say this article is a bunch of crap, that these things never happen, and that people are just paranoid, however, I can't. I pray things change, but I fear they never will.

To everyone in this forum, try to keep this article, this incident, and the countless others like it in mind the next time you begin to tell a "harmless" racial joke. Also remember, that if you sit around and listen to those jokes and racial comments, laughing it up, you are not much better than the one who's talking.

:(
 
Well I'm not sure...

Originally posted by Expo88
I was the first one in here trying to defend the actions of some of the cops down in south Florida and will continue to do so as viable facts present themselves, however, this article just upset me and made me wish things were different.

Article

Why people continue to hold on to their racial biases and hatreds will forever confound and sadden me. I wish I could say this article is a bunch of crap, that these things never happen, and that people are just paranoid, however, I can't. I pray things change, but I fear they never will.

To everyone in this forum, try to keep this article, this incident, and the countless others like it in mind the next time you begin to tell a "harmless" racial joke. Also remember, that if you sit around and listen to those jokes and racial comments, laughing it up, you are not much better than the one who's talking.

:(

... why the article continues to want to push that Ricky was being racially profiled when he says he wasn't. It's also amazing how they only mention in passing he had an expired tag. If I'm a cop and the person I just pulled over can't find the paper work I'm asking for I'm suppose to assume they are just confused not under the influence?

RIGHT, and when a COP gets killed we all say he should have been more careful!

Sorry Ricky made a mistake, apparently quite a few small ones, I can't understand why some assume he was pulled over because he is black, and handcuffed because he is black. I have personally been pulled and handcuffed for only following every darn thing the Police have asked me to do and I'm white, blonde hair blue eyes. Did they racially profile me? only they know that, maybe I fit a description of someone they were looking for?

Personally I think it is telling the the ppl who assume Ricky was racially profiled. Like Ricky said, it's the small few that have given the Police a BAD name. That's how I see it, I agree with Ricky, he should know!

Oliver...
 
This is so far removed from football but oh well. Everyone is so quick to blame the cops, but do you guys know any cops? They are alot like soldiers, and are just following orders. The city of Ft lauderdale, is despertaly trying to keep their City as clean as possible and have been doing so for years. With Miami so close the city officials well do anything they can(lawfull or not) to keep the rif raf out of their city. The city officials are the ones that make sure latinos and blacks are hassled when entering thei city not the cops. And its not just Ft Lauderdale, it happens all over the east coast out side of Miami, from Ft lauderdale to Boca to Daytona. So when you want to bash the police I would remember who really makes their descions, and take that with you to the voting both.
 
Ricky might not have been profiled for this incident. But there was no reason for all the hub bub. They could have used some discretion in front of his daughter. And you can bet your ass they profiled him for that garage door crap. TWICE!! They're just looking for a reason. If Ricky was white, they would have told him to close the door, MAYBE. Instead, they wake his family up and put them through the ringer. Same with the pullover after the banquet. And what's with the sarcasm?? You can't tell me their not profiling when the cop says, "You guys are all the same. You're like criminals". Get a f*cking life. Or get another doughnut.
 
It is tough being a cop. I know hundreds of police officers. I was a state trooper for four years before going back to law school. Expo and I had a long talk about this issue on another post and we pretty much see eye to eye on the topic. We've traveled that weary path. One thing I got to say is, there are a lot of great cops out there that are trying to make a difference, BUT there are a lot of cops that make very bad decisions that hurts the reps of police officers. And then you have the rotten apple officers that use their authority for their own advantages. Then the media steps in and paints a picture of the situation they want you to see. There's a saying I learned while in college. You should only believe 20% of what's written in the newspapers, the other 80% is entertainment. I've found that to be pretty much accurate while being a trooper. The media is a very powerful tool, because most people believe everything they read. But some cops don't help the situation too.
 
I think cops are underpaid, but there are some loser-power-trip MFs out there that have no business being involved in LE.
 
As long as people keep making excuses for this type of blatant MISUSE of authority, the monster is going to keep rearing its ugly head!

Now, Im a 28 year old black man and I live in the inner city of South Central Los Angeles, never been in a gang, sold dope or had sex with a minor! I work everyday, I drive a '85 chevy Blazer, and I still get pulled over once or twice a month!

I mean, get over it, it happens everyday, and Im not some high profile athlete driving a fancy car! Black people understand that in order to be a part of white America, we have to play by white Americas rules! Its that simple. Dont get me wrong, its not just white cops harrassing people, the black cops are just as bad or worse! So like someone said earlier, its not the police per say being racist, its the system and what it intells!

Reality check..........................I got an expired tags ticket on my truck two hours prior to a young girl being beheaded by some drug filled lunatic around the corner from my house! 2 hours!! Cops need to be more productive with their time in any circumstance if we are ever to have a good law enforcement to community relationship!

Ricky said it right, dont play the race card! Its not about race, its about authority! Someone in a higher capacity needs to keep these GANGSTAS with badges in check! And oh yeah, GO PHINS!
 
What really impresses me is that he doesn't use his fame or the "I'm the dolphins running back"...I remember just before Stoyo was traded that he did that to get out of a ticket..."Don't you know who I am???" That is total BS...


:monkey: racial profiling
 
I'm not making a commentary on this particular incident- as far as I'm concerned the cops were right on. I also am certainly not one to blame cops for anything bad that happens; about 90% of the time what you read is complete BS and the person on the receiving end of whatever the police handed out was in the wrong and deserving of what they got. Unfortunately, it's the other 10% (completely arbitrary figure) that bugs me.

I'm also not just railing on cops here, I'm p/o'd about prevalence of racism in general in what is supposed to be a "tolerant" society. Racial profiling exists and we all do it. When one of you sees a man, who is clearly Muslim, the first thing that pops into our heads, whether we like it or not, is "I wonder if he's a terrorist." When we double check the locks on our cars because some young, perhaps boisterous, black or Hispanic guys are walking towards us we've just racially profiled. It happens to all of us, and it exists.

The problem isn't that it exists- that will never go away- the problem is when we act on it and perpetuate it through our words and actions. All we can do is be cognizant of our own actions, and perhaps subtly remind those we love of theirs, and hope things slowly change.

Po
 
When I see a Muslim, I dont ask myself if he's a terrorist, I just hope he's not going to try and sell me one of them damn pies! When I see men of middle Eastern decent, I do get a little noid! But when I see the cops behind me, I immediately think, damn, I hope this aint one of those disgruntled ex High School gumps gone law enforcement!
 
I clicked the link, but it gave me an article called: Dolphins' Searcy set to re-emerge
 
It seems to me...

Originally posted by PHINFAN4LIFE
As long as people keep making excuses for this type of blatant MISUSE of authority, the monster is going to keep rearing its ugly head!

Now, Im a 28 year old black man and I live in the inner city of South Central Los Angeles, never been in a gang, sold dope or had sex with a minor! I work everyday, I drive a '85 chevy Blazer, and I still get pulled over once or twice a month!

I mean, get over it, it happens everyday, and Im not some high profile athlete driving a fancy car! Black people understand that in order to be a part of white America, we have to play by white Americas rules! Its that simple. Dont get me wrong, its not just white cops harrassing people, the black cops are just as bad or worse! So like someone said earlier, its not the police per say being racist, its the system and what it intells!

Reality check..........................I got an expired tags ticket on my truck two hours prior to a young girl being beheaded by some drug filled lunatic around the corner from my house! 2 hours!! Cops need to be more productive with their time in any circumstance if we are ever to have a good law enforcement to community relationship!

Ricky said it right, dont play the race card! Its not about race, its about authority! Someone in a higher capacity needs to keep these GANGSTAS with badges in check! And oh yeah, GO PHINS!

... this is the way the ppl who live in that area want it and like it. If they didn't they would change things at the voting booth. I have no problem with Ricky being handcuffed and his daughter seeing him hand cuffed. If he was so concerned with that he should of had his sh!it together, meaning his paperwork.

It's Ricky's fault no one elses, he was the one who didn't have his paper work together and he was the one who could not answer the simple questions asked of him in a timely and orginized manor.

Sorry the way Ricky was treated was the same way I have been treated when my paper work was not together while I lived in South Florida. I am white, I don't see why he should be treated any dif than me.

I now live in Orlando and I can honestly tell you I see more ppl being harrased than I ever did in South Florida. These Police in Orlando do not play, period. Black or white they are giving you a very hard time, period. They had my father walk the line because he was out after 10 PM just 2-weeks ago. He wasn't drunk, his tail light was out.

Should he say he was racially profiled, or maybe he should just accept he was wrong and the Police were simply doing their jobs?

Oliver...
 
Wtf?

if any of this is true, they should make those cops individually go to ricky and apologize, or lose their jobs...what a bunch of horsesh1t! the only good thing is how ricky is showing class through the whole thing. that police force might have a whole lot of angry dolphin fans on their hands!

from the herald...

Dolphins' Ricky Williams pays price for being black
RB doesn't blame racism for actions of police -- but others do

Ricky Williams is more hurt than angry. Does this keep happening because he has been irresponsible or because he is black? Four times already in the few months he has been in South Florida, Williams has had incidents with the Fort Lauderdale police even though he has been guilty of nothing more than having insufficient paperwork and driving expensive cars. Well, he's also ''guilty of'' being black, of course.

''I won't play the race card,'' Williams said Wednesday. ``Some friends say I'm being racially profiled, that a black guy in an expensive car is always going to be suspected of being a drug dealer, but I don't want to believe that. I won't believe that. I just want to stop being harassed when I haven't done anything wrong.''

There already have been two after-midnight police visits to Williams' home in an affluent Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, waking him and his infant son. The cops wanted to know why his garage door was open so late, but Williams doesn't understand why they also demanded his license, ran a check on it and asked him what he did for a living and how much he paid for his cars.

There was also the hostility when Williams was pulled over for going 13 miles over the speed limit in his BMW on June 5, while driving home from a Dolphins banquet. Williams says that resulted in a flurry of patrol cars, some officers emerging with hands on their guns, and a battery of drunk-driving tests and sarcasm. Williams' car was towed because he still had Louisiana license plates on it. Because he had taken his dress shoes off for the drive, he had to walk a mile barefoot after midnight to get home.

STOPPED AGAIN

And now there is Tuesday's absurdity, when driving his new Hummer resulted in Williams ending up handcuffed in the back of a police car amid a circus of cops, police cars, a horse, a drug-sniffing dog, TV cameras, a photographer, gawking tourists with video cameras and a newspaper reporter asking him if he was high -- all because he had paper dealer plates that had expired a few days earlier and had lost his driver's license while in New York.

''I know not all cops, or even most cops, are like this, but I've had bad luck with the ones I've gotten,'' Williams says. ``There are three kinds of cops -- extremely nice, normal and jerks. Except for the guy on the horse, who was really nice, all I've gotten is the jerks. And there are five or six patrol cars every time I get pulled over, so I've met a lot of them.''

RELUCTANT TO TALK

Williams discusses this reluctantly, only after being told by friends that speaking out might prevent other young black people who aren't rich and famous from similarly shoddy treatment. Athletes often refer to being pulled over for DWB -- Driving While Black -- but Williams doesn't want to paint all cops with the same incriminating brush. He still feels bad that in college an officer was fired after jailing him erroneously.

''It should never come to that because I know the job they do is hard,'' Williams said. ``But just because you have a badge and a gun doesn't mean you should go around making people feel helpless or disrespected, either. I don't want anyone getting in trouble over this. I'm just disheartened. I can't believe the way these guys talk to me. The police had their minds made up [Tuesday] that I was high and that I stole my own car just because I didn't have the proper paperwork.

``I wasn't being a smart-*** . They say I was acting incoherently. Acting incoherently? I don't know what the Florida paperwork looks like yet, and I was having trouble finding what he was asking for. That's acting incoherently? For that I have to be handcuffed? For that I have to have my daughter see me in a police car in handcuffs?''

Williams is certainly not faultless here. He needs to be more responsible about having his documents in order. And he obviously shouldn't be driving 126 mph, as he was when arrested a few months ago, but that doesn't mean he deserves to be thrown on the hood of his car by an officer with his gun drawn, either, as he says he was.

Jim Wright, public information officer for the Fort Lauderdale police department, said assistant chief Chuck Drago was aware of two of the four Williams incidents and was looking into them. Drago spoke to Dolphins security chief Stu Weinstein, Wright said. Williams said Weinstein told him someone from the Fort Lauderdale police department would be calling to apologize soon, but Wright said, ``We're certainly not above apologizing whenever we've done something wrong, but that hasn't been concluded in this instance yet.''

CHANGING CARS

One Dolphin who requested anonymity said that many black Miami players get rid of expensive cars because they get pulled over so often. Former safety Louis Oliver, for example, sold his Porsche because he was getting pulled over weekly.

''I've been harassed, wherever you go, driving around, in the department store,'' Dolphins receiver Oronde Gadsden said. ``It's one thing to get stopped if they say you don't have your tags right or the proper identification, but the handcuffs were a little excessive. I don't think you can really justify putting him in handcuffs. When you see incidents like that, a lot of people are wondering why.''

Said Dolphins wide receivers coach Robert Ford, ``That was embarrassing. An embarrassment. We're supposed to be Americans. We're supposed innocent until proven guilty. They treated him very poorly over expired tags.''

NO NAME-DROPPING

This latest incident could possibly have been averted if Williams had just told the officer he was a Dolphins running back. But Williams doesn't do that, ever, doesn't use his name to skip through lines at nightclubs, doesn't do it to make reservations in booked restaurants and doesn't do it to get out of trouble with cops.

He once was stuck eight hours in an airport because he didn't have his driver's license and couldn't board the plane without it. Finally, a flight attendant came over and said, um, aren't you the Heisman Trophy winner? This would be considered noble under normal circumstances, but circumstances that involve several police cars, a horse, a drug-sniffing dog and cameras are rarely normal.

The name on the paperwork Williams has identifies him as Errick Lynn Williams, not Ricky, which is what generally leads to the confusion that could be avoided if he just represented himself as a Dolphin or the Ricky Williams. Either that, or he can just start driving around with the Heisman Trophy in his passenger seat.

''I'm not going to throw my name around,'' Williams said. 'I shouldn't have to. I'm not asking to be treated special. I just want to be treated with the same respect you'd give any other citizen. Just don't talk down to me. But sometimes when the cops know who you are it makes things even worse, anyway. When I got pulled over after the banquet, one cop recognized me and said, `You think you have all this money and can do whatever you want. You are all hotheads. You guys are like criminals.' I told him, 'You don't even know me.' He said he knew me, he knew all of us. He said us athletes were were all the same.''

Williams has learned at least one lesson from all this.

Immediately after being let go by police, he drove to Pompano to get his plate renewed.

''A big punishment,'' he said through a laugh, ``for procrastinating.''

dlebatard@herald.com


:fire:
 
Unfortunately a lot of this story rings well with my memories when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale. My brother was coming home for a visit and he had just brought a new Audi...once he exited I95 he was stopped 3 times just for GP..never gave him a ticket..always a routine check.. He kept asking why..He was 21 years old, a 2nd LT in the Army, fresh out of College. This was annoying and I remember getting stopped for resting on the side of the road,,but AL is even worst..Cops would literally turn around and follow me through the City,,and I pass through Mobile about 5 times on my way home when I lived in Oklahoma.
Sometimes it's hard to understand if you're not a miniority, but our society is sooo color aware..It weired but everyone I know from White, Black, Asian, Spanish all want the same thing, a decent life and to be able to make enough money to live comfortably..When I look at people I don't see a color I see a person..That person behavior defines what I think of him. I wish we could get by this color thing by now.
 
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