"Heroes?"

There's another standard that keeps sinking lower and lower....

sj

Hector -
Did you even read the link to the man's blog? Your definition of heroes is sadly lacking. The cops in this instance were certainly not heroes. They were intimidating, arbitrary and excessive. I've read your conservative apologisms on other matters before and this is typical.

What???

Are you serious??

I was thinking the same thing. Had it been an older black man with a little white girl, I have doubts he would have been released and sent on his way after a while like this man was. More like tazed or pepper sprayed followed by a trip to central booking and a couple of hours in a cell while the police took their sweet time checking out his story.

The constable could have cleared this up quickly but chose to shift into knee jerk reaction mode.

Exactly! Institutionalized cowardice has been the order of the day for decades now. It has become accepted practice that if a cop feels threatened by a wallet or cell phone he is permitted to empty his Glock's magazine into the "offender". Ever wonder why it has become standard practice to throw arrested persons into the gutter on their stomachs and handcuff their hands behind their backs? What an ugly country we have become.
Tony Vodvarka

They obviously spent the money on 8 extra police cars and maybe 12 extra bumbling , do nothing cops, constantly mouthing over and over their justification for taking up space in your face. One car, two cops, five minutes, no cuffs, be REAL nice to the child, and no bullshit. Mr. Police Officer, you really HAVE to get over yourself. You are roadblocks enough without the Narcissistic attitude.

Thank you for that information onemantribe. As many have said, I too would give a second look if I saw an older white man with a little black girl. I would look at her face to see if she seems OK. The level of response from the police shows that this has nothing to do with protecting a child. How sick.

Ahhhh. OK.
THAT explains it.
They were looking for an excuse to harass this guy.
Now it all makes perfect sense.

sj

This kind of approach towards dealing with people sickens me. A simple phone call to check the identity of the grandfather would have been enough to spare the child from being questioned. But I understand how the thinking itself becomes perverted when one has to continually with violent sickos: one starts to assume that everyone one must be treated the same way, because they deserve it, out of principle, for the protection of oneself, for the benefit of the community. Well, police officers should be part of the community too, not just the big bad watch dogs ready to byte down hard first then check who they bit. Police officers in the USA seem to be always afraid of being shot. The cause of the problem: weapons and the readiness to use them (i have the right to do so, i have nothing to lose, fear of death sentence if caught, lifelong sentences, bad system of justice). In states that have less (automatic) weapons, less poor people, fewer slums than the rich USA, the fear of being shot as an officer is greatly reduced! And people get treated like human being where possible. In this case it was possible. There was no threat.

You are expressing the classic USAn paranoia instilled from watching sensationalist TV news which instills a sense of wildly exaggerated risk.

I assume you live in suburbia or a small town in the sticks, becasue If you had ever lived in a major ethnically. racially, culturally diverse city, (the city, not the suburbs)you would have thought nothing of a child with an adult caretaker of a different race.

Of all the comments here yours has to be the most stupid. EVERY child has an "older man" for a father, and two more for grandfathers. So you think the police should separate all children from their fathers and grandfathers, and not "release" them until the "biological mother" appears? If no "sheet of paper" (such as legal photo ID) would suffice for you, just how would you identify the genuine biological mother?

Someone needs to issue you a medical emergency ID that says "clinically stupid," because you are hazardous to public safety.

WTF???

You know what I'm getting tired of? People not minding their own damn business. When cops stop anyone not doing a crime, and use 9 cars and handcuffs to do it, they are exceeding their authority and acting like bullies. Bashing cops? Brother, where have you been?

Plenty of black children disappear or are murdered every year in the US. The usual police response, unless pushed by the media because there have been multiple disappearances in a short time period, is to take a report and do NOTHING.

Compare the (continuing) over-reaction and fascination with a white child beauty pageant contestant from a politically connected family, Jon Benet Ramsey, with the utter indifference from most of America when an out-of-control Police officer kicks in a front door and executes a ten year old black girl sleeping on her grandmother's couch with a hail of gunfire while serving a search warrant for her father.

Huh???

No; please speak your mind...

This is not really true. There are incidents of excessive police force and fatal shootings of unarmed men and some women all the time here in NYC. Now that everyone has a camera, many incidents are recorded. As with vets, suicide is becoming a problem among police, as those with consciences find themselves in untenable positions and the stress levels are high. The police mission is supposed to be to protect and serve but there are several obstacles to that.

1. The culture of protecting Wall Street and high status people

2. The culture of racism and targetting young black and Hispanic males

3. The fact that there are few repercussions for those that shoot and administer beatings to unarmed and subdued individuals

Some of the videos are painful even to watch, as several police officers surround a downed victim (aka citizen presumed to be innocent) and keep hitting him hard over and over with their billy clubs.

Hey "Peace Czar", as a life long Texan and Austinite, I think you're off base here. Listen, I live in the neighborhood this unfortunate incident occurred. Let me speak on it from that level:

Pretenses and value judgements aside, and in spite of it's current free-thinking reputation, the racial history of Austin is indeed Deep South, and is still apparent generations later through the legacy of old racial zoning laws. Near-East Austin has been historically Latino (esp. below 7th St) and African American (7th to Manor Rd). The lines have blurred a bit since the civil rights movement began opening things up. Also, the near-east side has been gentrifying in earnest for the past 10-15 years, with whites, but also people of all colors moving in who did not previously have roots in these neighborhoods. Still, most white people living on the east side are younger, or like punk-rock or hipster types. Therefore, in all fairness some might indeed find it "strange" to see a middle aged white man walking near that part of 12th St, and especially with a little black girl. Statistically speaking, this is an outlier. I'm sorry if this offends anyone's sensibilities about how it "should be", but its just kind of how it still is in that particular area.

So I think the first inquiry made should perhaps be forgiven as an exercise of the precautionary principle. The next encounter, with 9 squad cars, handcuffs, and a traumatized little psyche, was disgusting, histrionic overkill. (Was it also perhaps in response to this guy's blog that is critical of police? We don't have enough information to make that inference here.) But on the whole, I view this as less of a racial incident, (as it was spun by Abby's headline) and more about general police overkill.

To me, the real takeaway is that this is just another example of the militarization of the police force, due to the mentality many ex-military and war vet police recruits bring with them to their new stateside job. The police are more and more feeling like an occupying force. And APD has its own share of brutality incidents. However, as a local, I must be fair and say that some of the police I know can be friendly, reasonable people when you talk to them one-on-one. It's a mixed bag of course, but I think the overall police culture promotes aggressive overkill to many situations.

Finally, a word to the dismissive "that's the South for you" comments on this thread (and many other times here on CD): Sorry, we can't all be Toronto. We are born into the places we are, and some of these places carry heavier historical (and present) burdens of racism, sexism, rigid class hierarchy, etc. (I would argue that Austin has come a long way, though...) Does it make you feel smug to dwell on the differences that may still exist? To reinforce stereotypes in the popular imagination? Or perhaps you could drop the pretension and realize that every region has its own baggage, and stand in solidarity with those of us down here who seek to perform whatever alchemy we are able with our words, deeds, and lives. Because that would feel like respect to me. You can't insult a region towards progressive change.