This is local to me.
According to sources familiar with their records, Danese has not particularly distinguished himself, but Elliassen had made almost 60 arrests and was even set to be named Cop of the Year -- until this incident.
"They ruined their careers. It's a shame," one source said. "The cops worked so hard to make it safe for everyone. They ruined the whole night."
I do not think this was racially motivated. But I don't think they'd have done it to a white kid.
COPS CHARGED IN HALLOWEEN ABDUCTION
Parents of teen claim incident was racially motivated; officers each face up to a year in jail
Saturday, November 03, 2007
By PETER N. SPENCER
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Two police officers from Great Kills contend they dumped an egg-tossing teen in a deserted marsh in Travis to teach him a lesson.
But the parents and attorney of the 14-year-old Graniteville boy said their son was beaten, stripped of his clothes and his dignity in what they claim is a racially motivated act of vigilante justice.
Now, Officers Thomas Elliassen and Michael Danese of the North Shore's 120th Precinct find themselves on the wrong side of the law, charged yesterday with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors.
They are accused of abducting Reyshawn Moreno from a Mariners Harbor street, taking off his clothes, then leaving him in a swampy area near the Consolidated Edison plant off the West Shore Expressway in Travis.
Scared, lost and wearing only shorts and socks, Moreno ran through a mile of woods to a Burlington Coat Factory store on South Avenue, where he asked a security guard to call his parents, according to his father.
"What kind of person does this to a child? They were gonna teach him a lesson, but the only lesson they taught him was to be terrified of officers," said Moreno's mother, Telisa Hazel, during a brief press conference in her attorney's Bay Street office yesterday.
Elliassen and Danese, both 28, were released earlier in the afternoon after being given desk appearance tickets, and are expected to appear in court sometime later this month, according to a spokesman from the office of District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
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race vs. color-arousal
Above you say,
"I do not think this was racially motivated. But I don't think they'd have done it to a white kid."
This shows the terrific confusion that results from using the terms we use to discuss these matters. I prefer the term "color-aroused." When they saw this Black kid and became aware of his skin color, did they experience color-aroused ideation, emotion and/or behavior that they wouldn't have experienced they perceived white skin instead of Black skin?
Let's look at the ideation: The penalties for doing something like this are typically considerably less for doing them to a Black person than for doing them to a white person. If they behaved this way with respect to a white person, then they would probably lose their jobs, but if the victims is Black they may suffer no penalties at all. Does that ideation play a role in the behavior they manifest? It HAS to, doesn't it?
When these police officers perceived the skin color of the victim, did they feel any emotions toward the victim with Black skin that they wouldn't have felt toward a person with white skin? Although we hear a lot of talk about hate crimes, hate is just one of many possible negative emotions. For example, did they automatically feel anger, contempt, mirth, disgust, fear, or any other negative feelings that they wouldn't have felt in dealing with a white-skinned fourteen year-old?
What about the police officers' behavior. Would they have stripped a white teen naked and left him by himself far from his home?
If color played a role in the ideation and/or emotion that led to this behavior, then the behavior itself is color-aroused.
Frankly, I don't know what they hell you're talking about when you say that you don't know if this is "racially motivated." We all agree that "race" doesn't exist as a biological phenomenon, so you can't be talking about biological race. So, was this crime by the police a part of the "systematic denigration, subjugation and exploitation of Blacks on the basis of skin color"? If you decide that there's insufficient evidence that it's part of something "systematic," does that mean that it's not related to the boy's skin-color? Of course not!
We know intuitively that this act by the police is related to the boy's skin color, but the insistence on using the phrase "racially motivated" actually often encourages us to ignore that which is right before our faces. "I do not think this was racially motivated. But I don't think they'd have done it to a white kid."
If they did it to a Black kid, but they wouldn't have done it to a white kid in the same circumstances, then the differential treatment is color-aroused. I oppose differential punishment based on skin-color and I don't care whether it fits canonical understandings of "racially motivated" or not.
Forget "racially-motivated," whatever that means, and because that's an unncessarily high standard, and just ask yourself whether there is ideation, emotion and/or behavior aroused by skin-color? Police officers should not mete out punishments or change operating rules based in ideation, emotion and behavior aroused by skin color.
Frankly, I don't know what
I know.
You don't think I'm going to argue over something as trivial as word choice, I hope.
This country has some fucked
This country has some fucked up people. There are actually some fools who say the kid deserved what happened and want to question the kid's story. Then there are the fools who claim we would laugh if it was done to a white kid. Funny how we would search for decades and not find a situation where this kind of stuff happens to white kids and laughter is only response.
The terminology -- "racially motivated" vs. "color-aroused" -- is beside the point.
[b]Police officers should not mete out punishments or change operating rules... when dealing with blacks/black kids.[/b]
The act may be conscious or not so conscious. The differential outcome and effect is the point.