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Ohio Cop Pulls Over Black Man for Making Direct Eye Contact

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G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Link to article.

Video here (1:00 mark initial stop, and 2:09 is when the cop admits to eye contact).

Looks like there's another item that can be added to The Root's ongoing list of things you can't do while black: making direct, uninterrupted eye contact with a police officer.

An Ohio police officer admitted on camera that he stopped John Felton, a black man, "because you made direct eye contact with me, and you held on to it while I was passing you," after initially claiming that he stopped Felton for failing to signal.

The story was brought to the attention of talk show host and Huffington Post blogger David Pakman, who wrote about the incident for the site.

"As suspicious as 'making direct eye contact' may be to a police officer, doing the exact opposite—that is, avoiding eye contact with a police officer—could be considered equally suspicious by an officer," Pakman wrote. "In other words, both making eye contact and not making eye contact with police could, conceivably, be grounds for a traffic stop."

The incident occurred sometime in July as Felton was driving to his mother's house in Dayton. Felton notes that he began recording the video as soon as he saw the officer following him.

"He saw Michigan plates," Felton says. "He just needed a reason. Why would you follow me every step of the way, every turn I make?"

In the video, the officer approaches Felton's car and asks for both Felton's and the passenger's driver's license. Felton asks why the passenger needs to provide identification, to which the officer claims he needs it in order to "identify who's in the car."

The officer claims that the stop is for falling to use a turn signal and later tells Felton he is letting him go with a warning.

"Like I said, it's a violation if you don't turn your turn signal on," the officer says.

"You've been tailing me for how long? You just needed a reason to pull me over," Felton replies. "No disrespect, I don't have nothing against police officers, but all this s--t that's going on now? That's some scary s--t. To have a police officer just tail you, and then you pull me over, 'cause you said I didn't signal—what? Do you know how it looks?"

Felton asks again why he was stopped, and the officer's story changes.

"Because you made direct eye contact with me," the officer says. "And you held on to it while I was passing you."

A perplexed Felton claims that he didn't see the officer before he began following him. The officer tells Felton he isn't going to argue the point.

Felton tells the passenger, "This is bulls--t" as the officer walks back to his car.

See Pakman's broadcast of the incident below.
Click to expand...
 
N

No Love

Banned
Dehumanizing stare has become such an advanced technique that blacks can now do it without actually using their eyes.
 
G

Garlador

Member
bulging-eyes-o.gif


Yeah, this is pretty messed up.
 
S

Slayven

Member
"As suspicious as 'making direct eye contact' may be to a police officer, doing the exact opposite—that is, avoiding eye contact with a police officer—could be considered equally suspicious by an officer," Pakman wrote. "In other words, both making eye contact and not making eye contact with police could, conceivably, be grounds for a traffic stop."
Click to expand...
Can't win for losing
 
Lactose_Intolerant

Lactose_Intolerant

Member
Taken from a reddit post about this from a few days ago:
Ok, so here's what's going on here. I'm a former cop and have had a fair amount of interdiction training, and what the officer is saying is chapter 1, page 1 in the interdiction handbook (also known as "how to find completely bullshit reasons to stop people and look for drugs"). What is abnormal is the fact that the officer verbalized one of his super-secret methods for building articulable reasonable suspicion (Police training includes the word "articulable" to remind cops that they have to build their cases on paper. Everyone else just calls it reasonable suspicion).

Officers who specialize in drug interdiction are taught to look for certain "clues" that might indicate that someone is involved in criminal activity. Two of these clues, and I shit you not, are:

Holding eye contact for too long (driver or passenger), which is supposed to indicate that they are nervous.
The "straight ahead gaze" where NOBODY in the car looks at you, which indicates that they are nervous.

Now, building ARS is supposed to be something the officer can articulate as a process of building suspion: This happened, which made me a little suspicious, then something else happened that made me even more suspicious, etc etc, until I am able to build a story that would cause a reasonable officer to believe that a crime was, is, or is about to be committed. This process is made even easier if I am able to obtain probable cause, which is evidence (facts)that would cause a reasonable person to believe that a crime has, is or is about to be committed. (ie, a bullshit traffic charge like failure to signal 100 feet before a turn).

So what this officer admitted to was that he was out looking for drugs, his attention was first drawn to his victim because he "held eye contact or too long" (even though that's probably bullshit but it "counts" in the report) and that he was too impatient to follow this man and gather enough ARS to make the stop so he will use the "violation" as pretext for his fishing expedition. What he didn't count on was someone who knew what he was up to and wasn't afraid to call him out on it.

Interdiction officers and traffic officers are two completely different kinds of beast. One wants to go out, make it through his shift and generate enough revenue to justify paying him to come back the next day. The other one is an adrenaline junkie that absolutely thrives on the "thrill of the kill", and by "kill" I mean finding dope, not actually killing people. I never met an interdiction officer that didn't know traffic law as well as or better than the traffic guys, and I wasn't far from that myself.
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M

marrec

Banned
thecouncil said:
Ha. I purposefully never make eye contact with a cop. Be it in a car or on the street.
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I always give cops as long a stare as possible if they're stopped beside me at a redlight. It's a fun game I play where I see how long it takes for them to notice. Never did I think that it would be an expression of my white privilege. *lol*
 
E

Effect

Member
Something I've always wondered as a side topic. Are there apps out there that allow to you start recording at a press of a button and then either streams it to a site where it can be archived or automatically uploads the video to youtube when you're done or after a certain amount of time? Just in case say something happens to the phone or you aren't in a position to save or transfer the file right then or ever?
 
M

marrec

Banned
Effect said:
Something I've always wondered. Are there apps out there that allow to you start recording at a press of a button and then either streams it to youtube to be archived or automatically uploads the video to youtube when you're done or after a certain amount of time? Just in case say something happens to the phone or you aren't in a position to save or transfer the file right then or ever?
Click to expand...

We need to make a Twitch.tv but for black people who get pulled over.
 
V

Vicetrailia

Member
Effect said:
Something I've always wondered as a side topic. Are there apps out there that allow to you start recording at a press of a button and then either streams it to a site where it can be archived or automatically uploads the video to youtube when you're done or after a certain amount of time? Just in case say something happens to the phone or you aren't in a position to save or transfer the file right then or ever?
Click to expand...

I may develop this myself, it's absolutely critical. Record at the press of button and bypasses the lock screen.

What's funny is the countless times that piece of shit cop has not used his turning signals.
 
S

SliceSabre

Banned
Emerson said:
Proper approach is to make brief eye contact, give a downward nod and then look at something else.
Click to expand...
Don't even nod, they might say that gesture was you clearly making a gesture to your friend to kill him giving him reason to arrest you on suspicion.
 
M

Mass Effect

Member
Effect said:
Something I've always wondered as a side topic. Are there apps out there that allow to you start recording at a press of a button and then either streams it to a site where it can be archived or automatically uploads the video to youtube when you're done or after a certain amount of time? Just in case say something happens to the phone or you aren't in a position to save or transfer the file right then or ever?
Click to expand...

I think the ACLU Mobile Justice app does this.
 
T

Two Words

Member
ssolitare said:
I may develop this myself, it's absolutely critical. Record at the press of button and bypasses the lock screen.

What's funny is the countless time that piece of shit cop has not used his turning signals.
Click to expand...
"Siri, I'm being pulled over by the police"

BEEP

Siri- "Starting live stream on dwblive.com..."
 
E

Effect

Member
Holding eye contact for too long (driver or passenger), which is supposed to indicate that they are nervous.
The "straight ahead gaze" where NOBODY in the car looks at you, which indicates that they are nervous.
Click to expand...

Here I thought going back and forth from looking at someone and then something else with some concern on your face would indicate nervousness. Not minding your own business or fully acknowledging someone is there. *face palm*. The quoted makes no damn sense.

Mass Effect said:
I think the ACLU Mobile Justice app does this.
Click to expand...

Will have to check that out.
 
Emerson

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
SliceSabre said:
Don't even nod, they might say that gesture was you clearly making a gesture to your friend to kill him giving him reason to arrest you on suspicion.
Click to expand...

It's always worked out for me. Acknowledge their presence in a friendly and non-threatening way. It's usually met by a returned nod and no further contact.

Obviously if a cop is looking for reasons to hassle you they can and will do it anyway.
 
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