Actress Daniele Watts reported for lewd acts, goes nuts at police investigating

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ICKE

Banned
we wouldnt have even had this problem if prostitution was legal.

So you think a system where the state legalizes abuse, weakest members of society selling themselves for a pittance (that's what happens when prostitution is legal and the market becomes competitive, young females are not going to earn a lot of money), is somehow going to remove preconceptions that police harbors towards ethnic minorities?

Then again I wouldn't necessarily blame police for being racist in this incident since they are only responding to a call and have to check out the situation. When the suspect does not provide I.D, the policy is to detain while finding out the identity. This would likely happen regardless if the female was white. The blame lies with the person who called it in the first place, though if I was the officer I would have only asked :

"Hey are you guys a couple? Oh ok, carry on sorry for disturbing"
 

Two Words

Member
So you think a system where the state legalizes abuse, weakest members of society selling themselves for a pittance (that's what happens when prostitution is legal and the market becomes competitive, young females are not going to earn a lot of money), is somehow going to remove preconceptions that police harbors towards ethnic minorities?

Then again I wouldn't necessarily blame police for being racist in this incident since they are only responding to a call and have to check out the situation. When the suspect does not provide I.D, the policy is to detain while finding out the identity. This would likely happen regardless if the female was white. The blame lies with the person who called it in the first place, though if I was the officer I would have only asked :

"Hey are you guys a couple? Oh ok, carry on sorry for disturbing"

Some years ago my ex-girlfriend and I drove out at night to a secluded parking lot at a park. I was about to get a blowjob and some cops roll up. I'm getting worried because I wasn't sure if we were breaking the law. The cop had us roll up the window and just asked if we were 18 or above. We said yes, and he just told us to have a good night. We just left after that since the mood was killed. I am black, my ex is white. I wonder what would have happened if I were white and she were black that night.
 
Funny you say that, because that's how we actually picture your police.

It's as if our police is systemically being used to instill even more fear into the general public to protect the interests of those with the most money and power. If only we knew the kind of people that hold most of the money and power in America.

hmmm...

And if you think it's all just about racism, you're wrong.
 

ICKE

Banned
Btw, thanks for this. Very educational..passing it along to some folks who might need it.

When your starting point is to not co-operate and only look out for yourself then society and your local community as a whole is less well-off. This video probably reflects what the reality is in many American cities though (read poor neighborhoods), it is not exactly a positive sentiment or anything to be proud of.

In most European nations, or many states in USA, you do not have to fear legal ramifications for speaking with police and helping them trying to find a suspect for example, because it is highly unlikely that you would suffer any sort of consequences. Of course socializing with anyone who has authority over you can be risky but always look at the situation at face value.

Officer A : "Hi we are trying to find this person, a young female was raped in the park"
Mr X thinks : *Oh no I have information but remember what the guy said. DONT TALK WITH POLICE DONT TALK WITH POLICE!*"
Mr X : "Haven't seen him, am I detained?"
Officer A: "No you are not under any...erm...have you.."
Mr X : "Am I detained or free to go?"

Welp..in not in Europe. I do understand your point, though.

Besides think about it from your perspective. Do you want to live in a community where fear rules over social cohesion? Should a family member of yours be a victim of physical assault, you would probably hope that most people would be willing to help law enforcement to catch the perp. Of course the situation is completely different if we are only talking about the fifth amendment, when you are personally under investigation then it is better to be quiet but it should not be turned into a blanket "don't talk with police" sentiment.
 

pigeon

Banned
So the police got a call about prostitution activity and described the couple. They drive over and see the couple doing a lot of kissing. So what should they do? I mean, they need to investigate the report, write up the incident, and then go on their way, right? What would you want the police to do?

Nothing.

I feel like this idea keeps coming up in these threads -- that, if the police get a phone call, it's their responsibility to follow up on it, no matter what.

In practice, this is obviously crazy. As anybody who has actually tried to deal with the police can tell you, they are extremely likely to tell you "I can't do anything," and leave without doing anything. Policemen have no obligations, only opportunities.

In this case, I'd expect the police to talk to the caller and say "what makes you think there's prostitution?" Then I'd like them to identify that the caller is a crazy racist and leave.

Instead they made the affirmative choice to take advantage of their opportunity to bust what looked like a poor black girl dating a rich white guy.
 

commedieu

Banned
This is disgusting, and super common for black women that date white men. In vegas with a couple friend of ours...Shes a petite black woman, hes about Six feet eight inches. Every time they were together, they were hassled by security accusing her of being a prostitute. Shes literally a rocket scientist. It didn't matter that she looked like modestly dressed chick, it was just that she was black with a tall attractive white guy, that was enough to have security get to the bottom of it.

Happened in front of the Wallgreens in vegas as well.

Then it happened when we were back home, in los angeles. A homeless woman said "how much are you charging to take all that on?!?" in venice. Sure, a more round about way of saying it. But in vegas, 4-5 times they got prostitute checks.

Its racist bullshit.
 

sangreal

Member
This happened to me once. Once dropping this girl off after dinner and apparently we took too long chatting in front of her house so somebody called the cops. Ended up showing ID for the convenience (or put another way, out of fear of the consequences the police would impose) but I have nothing but respect for people that assert their rights.

They didn't accuse of engaging in prostitution though, just being up to no good in general
 

ICKE

Banned
This is disgusting, and super common for black women that date white men. In vegas with a couple friend of ours...Shes a petite black woman, hes about Six feet eight inches. Every time they were together, they were hassled by security accusing her of being a prostitute. Shes literally a rocket scientist. It didn't matter that she looked like modestly dressed chick, it was just that she was black with a tall attractive white guy, that was enough to have security get to the bottom of it.

Happened in front of the Wallgreens in vegas as well.

Then it happened when we were back home, in los angeles. A homeless woman said "how much are you charging to take all that on?!?" in venice. Sure, a more round about way of saying it. But in vegas, 4-5 times they got prostitute checks.

Its racist bullshit.

The stigma is hard to remove. There is very little respect for men who have Thai wives for example, same applies to women from Russia, Ukraine and so on. The assumption is that they are either A) whores or B) welfare wives. I have no experience as to black women but apparently the same dynamic is at play. It is a mixture of class discrimination and just distaste for relationships that are generally seen as unbalanced financially, With America you have the additional race relations at play.
 
Nothing.

I feel like this idea keeps coming up in these threads -- that, if the police get a phone call, it's their responsibility to follow up on it, no matter what.

In practice, this is obviously crazy. As anybody who has actually tried to deal with the police can tell you, they are extremely likely to tell you "I can't do anything," and leave without doing anything. Policemen have no obligations, only opportunities.

In this case, I'd expect the police to talk to the caller and say "what makes you think there's prostitution?" Then I'd like them to identify that the caller is a crazy racist and leave.

Instead they made the affirmative choice to take advantage of their opportunity to bust what looked like a poor black girl dating a rich white guy.

I don't follow.

You want the police to not respond to calls any more?

That's... Their job as a civil servant, no matter how stupid the call may be.
 
I don't know what those cases are, quick summary?

Hiibel basically ruled that states are allowed to pass laws which require you to identify yourself (verbally) to police if they have reasonable suspicion to believe you're involved in a crime and detain you on the basis of that suspicion. About half the states have passed such "stop and identify" laws. So if you're in one of those states, it would be a good idea to look up what exactly you are required to tell the police if you are detained. In other words, you do not have an absolute right to remain silent if detained. You may be required by law to verbally state your name and maybe some other basic information.

Salinas ruled that merely clamming up and not answering a question is not necessarily sufficient to invoke your 5th amendment right against self-incrimination. You need to somehow make it clear that you are invoking the 5th, for example, by saying out loud "I am going to remain silent; I would like to see a lawyer." Note that in the case of Salinas, the guy was not actually under arrest. It's possible that post-arrest silence is still presumed to invoke the 5th in all cases; I'm not sure.

So my point is, the video of that law professor implies that you can literally say nothing whatsoever to police in all cases, and you won't get in trouble for it. That is not exactly true anymore. At the very least, it's a good idea to comply with your state's stop-and-identify law (if it has one), and to explicitly say "I'm going to remain silent" if you want to be protected by the 5th amendment.
 

pigeon

Banned
I don't follow.

You want the police to not respond to calls any more?

That's... Their job as a civil servant, no matter how stupid the call may be.

I want them to respond to calls the way they currently respond to calls, which is to talk with the person who called, gather details, and then determine how to respond.

Again, that's how interacting with the police works when you're asking them to do something they don't already want to do.

I would like to remove the part of the interaction where they can choose to interpret your calls as license to arrest any people of color in the neighborhood.
 
When your starting point is to not co-operate and only look out for yourself then society and your local community as a whole is less well-off.

Police aren't part of society, and helping them doesn't usually help society. Police are ABOVE society by the very nature of their job. They police us, and as we have seen, are not accountable to us. I know you're not from here, so the key point that needs to be understood is this; The criminal justice system in America is a machine designed to produce convictions. That's all it does, and police are the appendages used to place human bodies into that machine. Guilt, innocence, and the welfare of the victim are completely periphery - if not totally irrelevant to the whole process. Society is not better off if I go to jail for something I didn't do because I said something that made it easier for some dipshit prosecutor to hang me. If police want to talk, they can call my lawyer. If I'm guilty, they'll probably get me. 90% of criminal cases end in a conviction.

Officer A : "Hi we are trying to find this person, a young female was raped in the park"
Mr X thinks : *Oh no I have information but remember what the guy said. DONT TALK WITH POLICE DONT TALK WITH POLICE!*"
Mr X : "Haven't seen him, am I detained?"
Officer A: "No you are not under any...erm...have you.."
Mr X : "Am I detained or free to go?"

Yes, this is exactly how you should behave. If you don't, you're only putting your own freedom, and possibly your life, at risk.
 

Nephtis

Member
Who kisses prostitutes???

First question that came to mind, too.

Anyway, banged up job by the cops. Clearly by showing them blacks who's boss, peace and order will be restored. What with them dehumanizin' lips and all.

Seriously though, this is fucking disgusting. I hope something can be done about this, but somehow I think nothing will be done :\

Maybe get the actor's guild involved..
 
I don't follow.

You want the police to not respond to calls any more?

That's... Their job as a civil servant, no matter how stupid the call may be.

They should obviously respond to calls but there should be a distinction between a call of merit and a call without. A prostitute wandering about isn't an emergency so simply asking, "Why do you believe this person is a prostitute?" would have spared all parties time and shame.
 

ICKE

Banned
is is exactly how you should behave. If you don't, you're only putting your own freedom, and possibly your life, at risk.

I am willing to take that minuscule chance if I have information that might help catch the suspect quickly. And I hope most people on this forum would do the same, I know pretty much everyone in my local community would.

Perhaps in America you are better off hiding from law enforcement if you witness someone doing a hit'n'run or assaulting a female. It's better not to take any chances right?
 

lednerg

Member
When your starting point is to not co-operate and only look out for yourself then society and your local community as a whole is less well-off. This video probably reflects what the reality is in many American cities though (read poor neighborhoods), it is not exactly a positive sentiment or anything to be proud of.

In most European nations, or many states in USA, you do not have to fear legal ramifications for speaking with police and helping them trying to find a suspect for example, because it is highly unlikely that you would suffer any sort of consequences. Of course socializing with anyone who has authority over you can be risky but always look at the situation at face value.

Officer A : "Hi we are trying to find this person, a young female was raped in the park"
Mr X thinks : *Oh no I have information but remember what the guy said. DONT TALK WITH POLICE DONT TALK WITH POLICE!*"
Mr X : "Haven't seen him, am I detained?"
Officer A: "No you are not under any...erm...have you.."
Mr X : "Am I detained or free to go?"

When you say "I haven't seen him", then that's the end of the discussion. It's time for them to move on so they can hopefully find an actual witness. However, if they continue questioning you, or they ask to search you or your property, then there is absolutely no reason you have to (or should) comply. It's of course up to you how important your rights are and how much you trust the police to not fuck you over somehow. You might "fit the description" for some other crime and not even know it.
 

linsivvi

Member
So you think a system where the state legalizes abuse, weakest members of society selling themselves for a pittance (that's what happens when prostitution is legal and the market becomes competitive, young females are not going to earn a lot of money), is somehow going to remove preconceptions that police harbors towards ethnic minorities?

Then again I wouldn't necessarily blame police for being racist in this incident since they are only responding to a call and have to check out the situation. When the suspect does not provide I.D, the policy is to detain while finding out the identity. This would likely happen regardless if the female was white. The blame lies with the person who called it in the first place, though if I was the officer I would have only asked :

"Hey are you guys a couple? Oh ok, carry on sorry for disturbing"

Even if we assume this supposed "call" actually happened, the police are totally being racists and should be blamed for this. What's wrong with you?

What the fuck would providing an ID prove? Even if she was a prostitute they have no legal ground to detain or arrest her, since they did not commit any crime. Unless you think prostitutes are not allowed to have relationships with men.
 

commedieu

Banned
The stigma is hard to remove. There is very little respect for men who have Thai wives for example, same applies to women from Russia, Ukraine and so on. The assumption is that they are either A) whores or B) welfare wives. I have no experience as to black women but apparently the same dynamic is at play. It is a mixture of class discrimination and just distaste for relationships that are generally seen as unbalanced financially, With America you have the additional race relations at play.

Finally Icke, you and I agree on something :)
 
They should obviously respond to calls but there should be a distinction between a call of merit and a call without. A prostitute wandering about isn't an emergency so simply asking, "Why do you believe this person is a prostitute?" would have spared all parties time and shame.

Ideally a dispatcher is the very person who should be asking these questions.

Which begs the question: what did the caller tell the dispatcher and what did dispatch tell Studio City Police?
 

ICKE

Banned
Even if we assume this supposed "call" actually happened, the police are totally being racists and should be blamed for this. What's wrong with you?

What the fuck would providing an ID prove? Even if she was a prostitute they have no legal ground to detain or arrest her, since they did not commit any crime. Unless you think prostitutes are not allowed to have relationships with men.

I did not say police should not be blamed as they handled the situation badly. What I am saying is that it is more likely that the caller had strong racial biases and police might(!) have acted similarly regardless of race. Someone informs them that there is prostitution going on in the vicinity, they arrive and ask for identification in order to check the local records and everything is done without any sort of nuance or discussion.

It is very humiliating to be cuffed in broad daylight, there is no need to do that to a female like her.

Finally Icke, you and I agree on something :)

Yeah, these preconceptions run deep in our society.
 

Protein

Banned
I read the previous pages and saw those "two sides to a story" people. Sometimes I think those people either want to argue for the sake or arguing, or are those "I'm above bias" types that think they have a superior perspective on issues when in reality they look like fucking tools, or people that genuinely believe that the cops did no wrong. Either way, fuck them. If you can't see any wrong doing on this issue then you're willfully ignorant.
 
Hiibel basically ruled that states are allowed to pass laws which require you to identify yourself (verbally) to police if they have reasonable suspicion to believe you're involved in a crime and detain you on the basis of that suspicion. About half the states have passed such "stop and identify" laws. So if you're in one of those states, it would be a good idea to look up what exactly you are required to tell the police if you are detained. In other words, you do not have an absolute right to remain silent if detained. You may be required by law to verbally state your name and maybe some other basic information.

Salinas ruled that merely clamming up and not answering a question is not necessarily sufficient to invoke your 5th amendment right against self-incrimination. You need to somehow make it clear that you are invoking the 5th, for example, by saying out loud "I am going to remain silent; I would like to see a lawyer." Note that in the case of Salinas, the guy was not actually under arrest. It's possible that post-arrest silence is still presumed to invoke the 5th in all cases; I'm not sure.

So my point is, the video of that law professor implies that you can literally say nothing whatsoever to police in all cases, and you won't get in trouble for it. That is not exactly true anymore. At the very least, it's a good idea to comply with your state's stop-and-identify law (if it has one), and to explicitly say "I'm going to remain silent" if you want to be protected by the 5th amendment.
Ah, good to know, thanks.
 

Aiustis

Member
Yeah...not surprised. I've been questioned by cops who thought I was a prostitute. Fortunately the cops I've encountered have always just let me go without asking for more than my name.
 

Volimar

Member
A bit unrelated, but I have to imagine no sentence gives a cop a bigger headache than someone asking "Am I being detained?"
 

commedieu

Banned
A bit unrelated, but I have to imagine no sentence gives a cop a bigger headache than someone asking "Am I being detained?"

There is no bigger headache to a police officer than a citizen that knows their rights and won't allow the officer an opportunity violate them. Yep, no bigger problem for an armed officer there to protect and serve the peace, than a citizen knowing their legal rights.

Such a pain in the ass when they have to do things by the standards of law.
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
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Slammin' Sammy truly was head of the game. I bet ol' Sammy doesn't get detained by cops anymore. Come, bros. It's time we make the jump the the bright side.

Someone pass the bleaching cream and the meatloaf.

lol what the fuck? Why do people do this? It's so damn wrong
 
I love how OP left this out of his post:
Watts refused to show her ID to the cops, and was therefore handcuffed and seated in the back of their car until they could figure out who she was. They let her go quickly afterward.

And also made sure to tell us that her husband is white so we would all understand the implied racism accusation being put forth.

I wish you'd realize that people like you do nothing but fan the race flame and make things worse.
 

Volimar

Member
lol what the fuck? Why do people do this? It's so damn wrong

They're always trying to emulate white culture.

I love how OP left this out of his post:


And also made sure to tell us that her husband is white so we would all understand the implied racism accusation being put forth.

I wish you'd realize that people like you do nothing but fan the race flame and make things worse.

To be fair, it's well known that only good looking black women are allowed to be prostitutes in LA.

Honest answer: I think we all knew why she was believed to be a prostitute, but the OP kind of wanted to drive the point home. It's possible it had nothing to do with a black woman kissing a white man. I mean, I'd like to think that in a city as cosmopolitan as LA people see that every day. But for the life of me I can't imagine any other reason they might suspect she was a prostitute.
 
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