2014091601
Whenever anyone says, “It’s one of those days,” or “They said there’d be days like this,” it always seems to carry a negative connotation. When I was younger, I would actually say that the worst thing that could happen is that I would get up tomorrow and do it all over again exactly the same. (Long before “Groundhog Day”! Loved Bill Murray in that, but never cared for Andie McDowell. Never was attracted to her, and never really felt like she had any chemistry with anyone she was onscreen with. Oh, well.)
Today was actually just a pretty blah day. Nothing to mark it in the exception column, good or bad. I worked, Slept about 5 hours after work. Woke up, messed around on Facebook and some of the other ways I spend my time, and now I’m thinking about napping another couple of hours before work, so that I’m not dead tired all night long. (Like usual. *sigh*)
Read a great analysis of the situation around the arrest of Danielle Watts, in LA. This is a case where a black actress was detained and handcuffed for refusing to give her ID to a cop responding to a 911 call about indecent exposure. I’ve seen I don’t know how many armchair lawyers insisting the cop had “probably cause” to detain her because someone called 911 and said someone was exposing themselves or committing a lewd act.
Now, I have no idea why someone thought this was an “emergency” and called 911, to begin with. Be that as it may, I don’t know why a patrol car responded to this call. Common sense says that unless the car was literally on the block where the “crime” was supposedly taking place, by the time they got there, chances were there would be nothing. And unless law enforcement witnesses the lewd act or exposure themselves, all you have is a complainant saying they did and them saying they didn’t and no way is a DA taking that to a jury. There’s no grounds for an arrest here.
In point of fact, a 911 call is not probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. Any fool can call 911 and complain about damned near anything. And many of them do. It’s illegal to make a false 911 call, but they happen every single day in every major urban area. What is especially ridiculous in this case is that the officer rolled up, and without witnessing a crime, proceeded to misinform Ms. Watts that he had the right to demand her ID. Notwithstanding any question of whether or not California law allows him to do so, how would her ID possibly indicate whether or not she had been involved in a lewd exhibition that he did not witness? Cop on a fishing trip, who then got out of control, steeped in his own ignorance of the law, and handcuffed her for not showing him her ID and walking away from him, when he had no cause to detain her.
I hope she sues the shit out of them. I’m sorry for the taxpayers having to foot the bill to pay when it is all said and done, but damn I’m sick of cops that aren’t trained on what they can and cannot legally do. If Sgt. Jim Parker, of LAPD (who incidentally refused to give her his full name when she asked for it so she could make a complaint, which I strongly suspect is against policy), loses his job, I’m sorry. I kind of hope he only gets a suspension without pay for a month or 6 weeks, and has to take about 50 hours of instruction on how to make a stop and what he is allowed to do during that stop. If he takes those lessons properly, I’d rather have a trained, educated cop back on the street who knows better than to do this again, than just to get rid of him.
It seems like lately there has just been an epidemic of these incidents of law enforcement hassling black people mostly for being black while sitting, while walking, while carrying a toy, or while kissing a white person in public. It has GOT TO STOP!
All right. I’m going to try to get that nap in. I have to work tonight.
The Last Nightowl 