Library Visit, Then Held at Gunpoint

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Saturday evening, I got a call that no parent wants to get. It was my son calling from college — he’s a third-year student at Yale. He had been accosted by a campus police officer, at gunpoint!

This is how my son remembers it:

He left for the library around 5:45 p.m. to check the status of a book he had requested. The book hadn’t arrived yet, but since he was there he put in a request for some multimedia equipment for a project he was working on.

Then he left to walk back to his dorm room. He says he saw an officer “jogging” toward the entrance of another building across the grounds from the building he’d just left.

Then this:

“I did not pay him any mind, and continued to walk back towards my room. I looked behind me, and noticed that the police officer was following me. He spoke into his shoulder-mounted radio and said, ‘I got him.’

“I faced forward again, presuming that the officer was not talking to me. I then heard him say, ‘Hey, turn around!’ — which I did.

See More »

“The officer raised his gun at me, and told me to get on the ground.

“At this point, I stopped looking directly at the officer, and looked down towards the pavement. I dropped to my knees first, with my hands raised, then laid down on my stomach.

“The officer asked me what my name was. I gave him my name.

“The officer asked me what school I went to. I told him Yale University.

“At this point, the officer told me to get up.”

The officer gave his name, then asked my son to “give him a call the next day.”

My son continued:

“I got up slowly, and continued to walk back to my room. I was scared. My legs were shaking slightly. After a few more paces, the officer said, ‘Hey, my man. Can you step off to the side?’ I did.”

The officer asked him to turn around so he could see the back of his jacket. He asked his name again, then, finally, asked to see my son’s ID. My son produced his school ID from his wallet.

The officer asked more questions, and my son answered. All the while the officer was relaying this information to someone over his radio.

My son heard someone on the radio say back to the officer “something to the effect of: ‘Keep him there until we get this sorted out.’ ” The officer told my son that an incident report would be filed, and then he walked away.

A female officer approached. My son recalled, “I told her that an officer had just stopped me and pointed his gun at me, and that I wanted to know what this was all about.” She explained students had called about a burglary suspect who fit my son’s description.

That suspect was apparently later arrested in the area.

Continue reading the main story

When I spoke to my son, he was shaken up. I, however, was fuming.

Now, don’t get me wrong: If indeed my son matched the description of a suspect, I would have had no problem with him being questioned appropriately. School is his community, his home away from home, and he would have appreciated reasonable efforts to keep it safe. The stop is not the problem; the method of the stop is the problem.

Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

Why was a gun drawn first? Why was he not immediately told why he was being detained? Why not ask for ID first?

What if my son had panicked under the stress, having never had a gun pointed at him before, and made what the officer considered a “suspicious” movement? Had I come close to losing him? Triggers cannot be unpulled. Bullets cannot be called back.

My son was unarmed, possessed no plunder, obeyed all instructions, answered all questions, did not attempt to flee or resist in any way.

This is the scenario I have always dreaded: my son at the wrong end of a gun barrel, face down on the concrete. I had always dreaded the moment that we would share stories about encounters with the police in which our lives hung in the balance, intergenerational stories of joining the inglorious “club.”

When that moment came, I was exceedingly happy I had talked to him about how to conduct himself if a situation like this ever occurred. Yet I was brewing with sadness and anger that he had to use that advice.

I am reminded of what I have always known, but what some would choose to deny: that there is no way to work your way out — earn your way out — of this sort of crisis. In these moments, what you’ve done matters less than how you look.

There is no amount of respectability that can bend a gun’s barrel. All of our boys are bound together.

The dean of Yale College and the campus police chief have apologized and promised an internal investigation, and I appreciate that. But the scars cannot be unmade. My son will always carry the memory of the day he left his college library and an officer trained a gun on him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/opinion/charles-blow-at-yale-the-police-detained-my-son.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=2

When leaving the Library can almost get you killed, it is time for a change.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I am reminded of what I have always known, but what some would choose to deny: that there is no way to work your way out — earn your way out — of this sort of crisis. In these moments, what you’ve done matters less than how you look.

And the denial runs deep. We see it here on VJ each and every day.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

And the denial runs deep. We see it here on VJ each and every day.

You also hear education is the key, but you can almost get killed leaving the library from studying.

[Sousuke 1,214]

I was stopped by campus police once. No guns were drawn, no face in the pavement, just handed over ID and the interaction ended after a few minutes with me walking to my dorm.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I was stopped by the very same campus police department that stopped the columnist's son. Some friends and I were drinking red wine out of Solo cups in front of the library. The campus cop asked us politely to keep it down, and not make it so obvious what we were doing, chuckled and walked away. We kept drinking. I don't think any of us had to show any ID, but it probably helped that we were all white(-ish). There's a lot of disbelief going on right now in my Facebook feed on this topic, because nobody remembers the cops having guns when we were there.

[Darnell 8,478]

Wait - isn't Yale a liberal school? Why they allow their police force to carry weapons?

[or am I confused with Harvard?]

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Wait - isn't Yale a liberal school? Why they allow their police force to carry weapons?

[or am I confused with Harvard?]

I think you should have stopped at confused.

[luckytxn 2,264]

I know you maybe are not aware of this but one is not allowed to post entire articles even if putting in a link at the bottom. They want a paragraph or two and the link to get their own clicks. You are setting up VJ to get some nasty backlash and possible sued by doing so.

Saturday evening, I got a call that no parent wants to get. It was my son calling from college — he’s a third-year student at Yale. He had been accosted by a campus police officer, at gunpoint!

This is how my son remembers it:

He left for the library around 5:45 p.m. to check the status of a book he had requested. The book hadn’t arrived yet, but since he was there he put in a request for some multimedia equipment for a project he was working on.

Then he left to walk back to his dorm room. He says he saw an officer “jogging” toward the entrance of another building across the grounds from the building he’d just left.

Then this:

“I did not pay him any mind, and continued to walk back towards my room. I looked behind me, and noticed that the police officer was following me. He spoke into his shoulder-mounted radio and said, ‘I got him.’

“I faced forward again, presuming that the officer was not talking to me. I then heard him say, ‘Hey, turn around!’ — which I did.

See More »

“The officer raised his gun at me, and told me to get on the ground.

“At this point, I stopped looking directly at the officer, and looked down towards the pavement. I dropped to my knees first, with my hands raised, then laid down on my stomach.

“The officer asked me what my name was. I gave him my name.

“The officer asked me what school I went to. I told him Yale University.

“At this point, the officer told me to get up.”

The officer gave his name, then asked my son to “give him a call the next day.”

My son continued:

“I got up slowly, and continued to walk back to my room. I was scared. My legs were shaking slightly. After a few more paces, the officer said, ‘Hey, my man. Can you step off to the side?’ I did.”

The officer asked him to turn around so he could see the back of his jacket. He asked his name again, then, finally, asked to see my son’s ID. My son produced his school ID from his wallet.

The officer asked more questions, and my son answered. All the while the officer was relaying this information to someone over his radio.

My son heard someone on the radio say back to the officer “something to the effect of: ‘Keep him there until we get this sorted out.’ ” The officer told my son that an incident report would be filed, and then he walked away.

A female officer approached. My son recalled, “I told her that an officer had just stopped me and pointed his gun at me, and that I wanted to know what this was all about.” She explained students had called about a burglary suspect who fit my son’s description.

That suspect was apparently later arrested in the area.

Continue reading the main story

When I spoke to my son, he was shaken up. I, however, was fuming.

Now, don’t get me wrong: If indeed my son matched the description of a suspect, I would have had no problem with him being questioned appropriately. School is his community, his home away from home, and he would have appreciated reasonable efforts to keep it safe. The stop is not the problem; the method of the stop is the problem.

Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

Why was a gun drawn first? Why was he not immediately told why he was being detained? Why not ask for ID first?

What if my son had panicked under the stress, having never had a gun pointed at him before, and made what the officer considered a “suspicious” movement? Had I come close to losing him? Triggers cannot be unpulled. Bullets cannot be called back.

My son was unarmed, possessed no plunder, obeyed all instructions, answered all questions, did not attempt to flee or resist in any way.

This is the scenario I have always dreaded: my son at the wrong end of a gun barrel, face down on the concrete. I had always dreaded the moment that we would share stories about encounters with the police in which our lives hung in the balance, intergenerational stories of joining the inglorious “club.”

When that moment came, I was exceedingly happy I had talked to him about how to conduct himself if a situation like this ever occurred. Yet I was brewing with sadness and anger that he had to use that advice.

I am reminded of what I have always known, but what some would choose to deny: that there is no way to work your way out — earn your way out — of this sort of crisis. In these moments, what you’ve done matters less than how you look.

There is no amount of respectability that can bend a gun’s barrel. All of our boys are bound together.

The dean of Yale College and the campus police chief have apologized and promised an internal investigation, and I appreciate that. But the scars cannot be unmade. My son will always carry the memory of the day he left his college library and an officer trained a gun on him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/opinion/charles-blow-at-yale-the-police-detained-my-son.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=2

When leaving the Library can almost get you killed, it is time for a change.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

I know you maybe are not aware of this but one is not allowed to post entire articles even if putting in a link at the bottom. They want a paragraph or two and the link to get their own clicks. You are setting up VJ to get some nasty backlash and possible sued by doing so.

Thank you for letting me know.

[luckytxn 2,264]

No prob and maybe the mods need to know is why I thought I would mention it so they see it. I run a couple of sites and got hit hard myself. Some of the writers and their sites get really uptight.

Thank you for letting me know.

[Darnell 8,478]

ya, copyright law and whatnots !!! it's the whatnots that'll bite the backside.

difficult to sue the site owner, though.

[luckytxn 2,264]

BS they came after me and I was a site owner. I had to give that site up. They also demanded I give up the posters info so they could go after them in court.

ya, copyright law and whatnots !!! it's the whatnots that'll bite the backside.

difficult to sue the site owner, though.

[lostinblue 1,989]

The race of the officer who detained Blow’s son is not mentioned in Blow’s column.

"The officer, who himself is African American, was responding to a specific description relayed by individuals who had reported a crime in progress,” said a Monday email to Yale’s campus community. The email was first noticed by The Root, a black-centric news website.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n.y.-times-charles-blow-said-nothing-about-cop-who-arrested-his-son-being-black/article/2559374

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The "official" word from the US Copyright Office is, "If you don't have explicit permission, play it safe and don't post it - any of it." And since this site generates income for the owner, that "no commercial use" thing applies to this site.

There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

Edited January 28, 2015 by I AM NOT THAT GUY

[Janelle2002 3,865]

The race of the officer who detained Blow’s son is not mentioned in Blow’s column.

"The officer, who himself is African American, was responding to a specific description relayed by individuals who had reported a crime in progress,” said a Monday email to Yale’s campus community. The email was first noticed by The Root, a black-centric news website.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n.y.-times-charles-blow-said-nothing-about-cop-who-arrested-his-son-being-black/article/2559374

The dude was leaving the library, not from robbing the neighborhood convenience store.

The "official" word from the US Copyright Office is, "If you don't have explicit permission, play it safe and don't post it - any of it." And since this site generates income for the owner, that "no commercial use" thing applies to this site.

So how do you not post on a site that allows you to post?