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Your phone may save your life - or record another one getting snuffed out.
I had an interesting discussion with someone yesterday about recording certain interactions. He suggested that having a record of any potentially harming interaction can be a life saver and cover your ass if someone makes up things that may ruin your life.
During the Title IX fiascos over the past 9 years, we have read about all kinds of scenarios where videotaping sexual encounters would have solved manny of the sexual misconduct disputes that were taking place on college campuses. If people recorded themselves, maybe there would be fewer cases of false accusations. There will be proof of what happened. One might think it’s excessive, but maybe it’s better to cover your ass while getting some than feeling like an ass for not being careful enough. There are too many cases of he said, she said on college campuses.
Over the Memorial Day Weekend, there was almost another he said, she said case. Thankfully, the “survivor” in this instance was the man.
Amy Cooper, a dog owner in New York City, was walking in and area of Central Park called the Ramble and had her dog unleashed, a clear violation of the law. A black man named Christian Cooper asked her to put a leash on her dog. He was there bird watching. She apparently didn’t appreciate his request. This is what occurred:
From Christian’s Facebook Page:
Central Park this morning: This woman's dog is tearing through the plantings in the Ramble.
ME: Ma'am, dogs in the Ramble have to be on the leash at all times. The sign is right there.
HER: The dog runs are closed. He needs his exercise.
ME: All you have to do is take him to the other side of the drive, outside the Ramble, and you can let him run off leash all you want.
HER: It's too dangerous.
ME: Look, if you're going to do what you want, I'm going to do what I want, but you're not going to like it.
HER: What's that?
ME (to the dog): Come here, puppy!
HER: He won't come to you.
ME: We'll see about that...
I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence. I didn't even get a chance to toss any treats to the pooch before Karen scrambled to grab the dog.
HER: DON'T YOU TOUCH MY DOG!!!!!
That's when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn...
Her use of the phrase, “I’m going to tell them there’s and African American man threatening my life” is pretty revealing. It was clear how she used those exact words. It was a weapon. She knew that the police could whisk this man away, maybe to never be seen again. She could go on with her privileged life and she wouldn’t even think twice about the fate of the man she threatened. I’m sure she knew the power of a threat coming from a white woman against a black man.
Amy insistently stresses the term “African American,” giving viewers the impression that his race is significant in her response to Christian. Perhaps she understood how he can expect to be treated by the police. Incidents of police brutality against Black people are not rare, as Amy Cooper must surely be aware.
She might have known about the 1921 Tulsa massacre where whites destroyed an affluent black neighborhood and killed hundreds of its residents - a riot sparked by an accusation of sexual assault coming from a white woman against a black man.
Amy might have heard about Emmit Till and his 1955 murder that was initiated by a white woman named Carolyn Bryant. While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, was brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with Carolyn four days earlier. His assailants - Carolyn Bryant’s husband and her brother - beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.
His murder was one of the catalysts for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Carolyn Bryant later admitted it wasn’t true.
False accusations occur far too often. It seems as if the highly sensationalized cases receive media attention. Many others don’t.
in 1994 Susan Smith attracted worldwide attention and stirred racial tension after she initially told police that a black man carjacked her and kidnapped her children. She pleaded for her kids to be returned, but nine days later, she admitted she pushed her car down the access ramp of John D. Long Lake with her sons in the back - killing them both.
Tawana Brawley accused four white men of raping her in November 1987. The charges received widespread national attention because of her age (15), the persons accused (including police officers and a prosecuting attorney), and the state in which Brawley was found after the alleged rape. After hearing evidence, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had not been the victim of a forcible sexual assault and that she herself may have created the appearance of such an attack.
Brian Banks was a standout high school football star at Polytechnic High School (Poly) in Long Beach, California. In 2002, his Junior year, Banks verbally committed to USC. while there, he was falsely accused of rape by classmate Wanetta Gibson, a black woman, and he spent close to six years imprisoned and five years on parole. His conviction was overturned in 2012 after Wanetta confessed that she had fabricated the entire story.
There are hundreds, if not thousands more.
False accusations are as real as the actual assaults that occur. I feel there is a lack of effort in prosecution of the illegal act of filing a false claim. Our culture should scrutinize these troubling cases. As we can see from the way the New York Police Department is handling the Amy Cooper case, the hands off approach is in line with most of the previous false claimes.
Christian Cooper compared the incident to the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Black man who was ambushed by white men while out for a jog last February. No charges were laid in the case until video of the killing surfaced earlier this month.
Christian said, “We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make about black men, black people, and He made a great choice. If he didn’t think ahead and recorded this encounter with Amy Cooper, who knows what could have transpired.
Unintended Consequences
Apparently things have gotten so out of control with the social media reaction to the Amy Cooper incident that Christian is pleading with the public:
George Floyd
It’s also a good thing most bystanders have cameras in their pockets nowadays. If someone didn’t get this particular incident on video, the Minneapolis police might have said George Floyd was armed, dangerous and was resisting arrest. From what we know now, none of that is true, thanks to a video of the encounter.
If you haven’t seen the murder, watch this:
For those who want to see what happened that led up to the murder, click here:
Security footage shows events leading up to handcuffing of black man in Minneapolis
This is yet another "I can't breathe" video - just like Eric Garner. Four dispassionate police officers were casually looking on, while a black man pleads for air. One of the mist heartbreaking parts of this latest video is when this grown man calls out for his mother.
The police officers were terminated, a good thing, but there needs to be more done than just the loss of their jobs.
No Video?
Amy Cooper apologized and subsequently lost her job over this incident. Let’s assume there was no video of the Central Park dog incident. What do you think would have happened?
The reason why so many black people lash out violently at each other in our own communities is often due to the feeling of helplessness and powerlessness.
Ironically there was a video in each of these examples. Let’s suppose there weren't any videos. Black people would, once again, have to deal with the burden of proof in these incidents. Who do you think would be believed if there were no videos?
Sometimes even visual evidence is not enough to get convictions. Just remind yourself of the Rodney King fiasco.
Carry around that camera folks. It is a matter of life and death.
Something To Take Your Mind Off Of The Daily Madness:
I watched this with my kids last night. It’s not only a great movie but it is a story that sparks discussion. I spoke to my kids about pregnancy and abortion after we finished.
Interesting articles you might want to read:
Biden’s “You Ain’t Black” Comment Is Symptomatic of Democrats’ Deeper Race Problem - The Democratic Party has long taken Black voters for granted and accepted essentialist thinking that reduces voters of color solely to their racial identity.
“Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data” – Two experts on respiratory protection say masks shouldn’t be recommended for everybody
“The coronavirus cure is now worse than the disease” – Interview on Fox News with Dr Scott Atlas, Senior Fellow of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, on why the cure is worse than the disease
What Could Kill My New York Bookstores? - It won’t be Amazon or the coronavirus. It will be artificially high rents.
“Opposing lockdown is NOT “profits before people”” – Kit Knightly in Off-Guardian reminds us that economic contractions kill people just as surely as deadly viruses
The Pandemic Has Exposed a Need for Better Paid Leave Policies - “When people feel pressure to go to work while ill or when a family member is sick, it is problematic during typical times. During a pandemic, it can be fatal.” But they also caution against using a temporary situation like a pandemic as the basis for permanent policies.
“How apocalyptic is now?” – Oxford political philosopher John Gray compares the coronavirus crisis to the Russian revolution in a cheerfully gloomy piece for UnHerd. “Accelerating a trend that has been underway for decades, the remains of bourgeois life will be swept away,” he says
“One in three small firms may shut for ever, warns FSB” – Report in the Times based on a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses that seems to bear out Gray’s hypothesis
The Presidential Race Florida Is Really Talking About - In the South’s biggest battleground, it’s already 2024, and the backstabbing and money-grabbing have already begun.
“The new battle in libertarian thought” – Peter Franklin in UnHerd thinks a schism has emerged among freedom-loving conservatives during the lockdown, with “visceralists” like Peter Hitchens, Laura Perrins and me on one side, and “rationalists” like Matt Ridley and Tyler Cowan on the other.
“Will Britain end up following the Swedes?” – Yes, says Freddie Sayers, editor of UnHerd
“The economic devastation wrought by the pandemic could ultimately kill more people than the virus itself” – Three journalists for the Los Angeles Times have woken up and smelt the (Brazilian) coffee
“Get a grip, we cannot stay suffocated by the state in lockdown forever” – Great piece by John Longworth
“Come on Boris, tell a frightened nation that its fears are out of proportion” – Another fantastic column from the always-dependable Allison Pearson in the Telegraph
Clayton Craddock is an independent thinker, father of two beautiful children in New York City. He is the drummer of the hit broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University’s School of Business and is a 25 year veteran of the fast paced New York City music scene. He has played drums in a number of hit broadway and off-broadway musicals including “Tick, tick…BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musical and Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill. In addition, Clayton has worked on: Footloose, Motown, The Color Purple, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Cats, and Avenue Q.