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“The question that cries out for an answer from Mr. Wright is why — if he is so passionately committed to liberating and empowering blacks — does he seem so insistent on wrecking the campaign of the only African-American ever to have had a legitimate
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“We all use disablist or ableist metaphorical language, and I bet most of us say something that is potentially offensive every day: we might be blind to this, deaf to that, pass disabled vehicles, chat about being paralyzed in a situation, etc., etc.”
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“100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care… is working with a Brooklyn youth group called Project Re-Generation to get out prevention messages to young people…teaches you the dos and donts of a traffic stop.”
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“We don’t need Barack Obama to lead us out of victimhood. What we need is white people to stop listening to a few Al Sharpton speeches and concluding that they’ve peered into the heart of black America.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Aaron wrote:
I see some good advice in the “what to do if stopped by the police” page. I’ve also seen elsewhere advice that conflicts slightly with some of that advice, or that goes more in depth for various situations.
And one thing I find lacking in that piece is an acknowledgment that sometimes there’s a choice to be made: do I fully try to protect my own rights, trusting that the officer will follow the rules, or do I give in a bit for my own safety or convenience, because I do not trust the officer to treat me fairly? And I see some advice on one side of that, and some on the other. For instance, pointing out that you ALWAYS have the right to remain silent is pretty clearly on the trusting side. However, on the other side, they suggest that you ALWAYS carry a form of “legitimate” ID. There is no legal reason anywhere in the United States that you need to carry ID if you are not driving. If you fully trust in law enforcement officers, there is no need to. In some jurisdiction, you may be asked to identify yourself, but stating your name and address satisfies this requirement. The police have no real recourse if they think you might be lying. In other places, you do not have to identify yourself in any way. Even if you are arrested and charged, you may be tried and convicted as John or Jane Doe. If it does come to that, you can just say, okay, this is who I am, I can have someone bring my ID. Because if you refuse to say who you are, you could be waiting downtown for a very long time while they try to identify you.
I think the piece should be rewritten more along the lines of “these are your absolute rights, BUT this is how a prejudiced or just poorly trained cop might respond.”
Posted 01 May 2008 at 12:44 pm ¶