[jogiba]

A white grandfather says he wound up in cuffs after being accosted by police, all for walking home with his black granddaughter.

Scott Henson, a former journalist who now researches for and blogs about the criminal justice system, wrote about the experience on his popular blog, "Grits for Breakfast."

Henson, who describes himself as "an almost stereotypical looking white Texas redneck," said he was walking home from a roller skating rink with his 5-year-old granddaughter Ty, who is African-American, on Friday night.

On the blog, Henson explains the relationship. Ty's mother is his goddaughter, and Henson and his wife often find themselves "tasked with unplanned impromptu babysitting duties, like hundreds of other parents and grandparents around Austin."

That night, Henson opted to walk home from the rink instead of having his wife come pick up him and Ty.

"This was a terrible mistake on Grandpa's part," he said.

According to the blog post, which was published Saturday, Henson was stopped by a deputy constable, who told him that there were reports of a white man kidnapping a black girl. He was ordered to step away from Ty, and the officer began to question the girl.

"He's my Grandpa!" Ty said, according to the blog post.

Satisfied, the officer released Henson and Ty, who continued to walk home until they were stopped again -- this time, by five flashing police cars and a crowd of police.

"The officers got out with tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child," Henson said. "I complied, and they roughly cuffed me, jerking my arms up behind me needlessly."

"Meanwhile, Ty edged up the hill away from the officers, crying."

Henson said he provided officers with phone numbers they needed to verify that Ty was his granddaughter, "but for quite a while nobody seemed too interested in verifying my 'story.'"

Police again questioned Ty, and Henson was eventually released.

Corporal Anthony Hipolito of the Austin Police Department verified that Henson was stopped on Feb. 10, as police were searching for a kidnapper who'd allegedly snatched a young black girl nearby.

"Officers verified that the man was her grandfather through a phone call to her mother, and they were released," Hipolito said to the Daily News.

Still, Henson, who has written about a similar experience on his blog before, isn't satisfied.

"How hard would it have been to perform a safety check without running up on me like I'm John Dillinger and scaring the crap out of a five-year-old?"

He also noted that he was released without an apology.

"I hated for a five-year-old to be subjected to such an experience,” Henson said. “I'd like her to view police as people she can trust instead of threats to her and her family, but it's possible I live in the wrong neighborhood for that."

White grandfather stopped and cuffed for walking home with his black granddaughter* - NY Daily News


Henson, shown here with his granddaughter, said Friday's incident isn't the first time they've been stopped by police.

If the police have no common sense they should be paid minimum wage IMHO.

[Wheatfield]

If the police have no common sense they should be paid minimum wage IMHO.

More to the point, they shouldn't have jobs doing police work.

[thazooo]

Happens every where, it just doesn't get reported. A couple of years ago I took the Grandson and a friend to get an ice cream. Cop pulls in behind us at the store, taps on the window where his friend is sitting, and asks if he's OK. The boys answer was ' Yeah, why wouldn't I be ?'. Cop left, yet followed us back to the house.
I got a good chuckle out of his reply. Hopefully their generation will drop all the stereotyping and move on from all this racial game playing.

[Ratmagiclady]

Eh, I dunno. If the cops were actually *looking* for a kidnapper and child fitting that description, I can understand them getting stopped. Even with lots of tasers out. I think it's some *other* stuff some cops will do about bias-related treatment that really undermines my trust in these regards especially in states with all these 'conservative' tensions and stuff. Brutality and ill treatment against protestors, LGBT people, folks that look like 'immigrants,' racial/religious stuff, etc etc...

I think the real questions are why it took so long to clear it up.

[MRRiley]

Most likely the "black girl kidnapped" report was turned in by some nosey Nelly when they saw this man and the little black girl walking on the street. After all, we all know that old white men only walk around with little black girls if they are up to something... right?

Whoever reported this, if they had the guts to leave their name, should get a good talking to.

Mike

[altopiet]

Child slavery has become such a problem in some parts of the world, that I say rather be safe than sorry, although it might have been handled in a much better way. Just think if she was kidnapped and the first officer fooled into believing the "kidnapper", and he got away with her?

[MRRiley]

Child slavery has become such a problem in some parts of the world, that I say rather be safe than sorry, although it might have been handled in a much better way. Just think if she was kidnapped and the first officer fooled into believing the "kidnapper", and he got away with her?

Not really that big a problem here... and a child slavery kidnapper is hardly likely to be leisurely strolling down the street with their slave. This is just another example of the paranoid attitude that permeates this country these days... And a reflection of the police who don't take time to use their brains before overreacting.

Mike

[Wheatfield]

Child slavery has become such a problem in some parts of the world, that I say rather be safe than sorry, although it might have been handled in a much better way. Just think if she was kidnapped and the first officer fooled into believing the "kidnapper", and he got away with her?

Horsecrap. This is buying into the paranoia that has been instilled in us by governments with the help of the media to talk us into accepting as normal police interference with our lives if we are somehow operating outside of some arbitrary normal. Cite that child slavery is such a problem in the USA that scaring the crap out of a young child by assaulting her grandfather should be necessary.
By your logic, anyone walking down the street with a child should be busted, cuffed, taken to the police station and waterboarded since there is always the possibility that they are kidnapping the child.
At some point, people need to take a deep breath and realize just how stupid their paranoia is making them.

[Ratmagiclady]

Most likely the "black girl kidnapped" report was turned in by some nosey Nelly when they saw this man and the little black girl walking on the street. After all, we all know that old white men only walk around with little black girls if they are up to something... right?

Whoever reported this, if they had the guts to leave their name, should get a good talking to.

Mike

That was actually my first thought, though I was taking the article at face value that there actually was a kidnapping... It'd be easy enough to verify, since these kinds of things usually result in immediate like Amber alerts with names and descriptions of who's missing: these kinds of things are all too common and usually are about some kind of family dispute or other situations where the parties involved are actually known and everything.

[normhead]

Reminds me of an incident growing up... my father was a university professor, we lived in the north end of Rosedale , a very wealthy neighbourhood in Toronto.. a friend of mine and I were going to another friends house in my friends convertible, a police car pulls up beside us at a stop light, the officer in the passenger seat leaned over towards my friend and said in a very low voice so I wouldn't hear " you shouldn't let that n****r ride in your car." Now the crazy thing is, this guy was just trying to impart to my friend the wisdom of the world. I'm sure he thought he was just helping my friend out. There is absolutely no reason being a police officer makes you a decent person. It's just not part of the job description. This kind of stuff is still going on all over North America even to this day. And there's not a thing you can do about it. Your only joy is that it doesn't happen as often as it used to. That's the good thing.

[MRRiley]

That was actually my first thought, though I was taking the article at face value that there actually was a kidnapping... It'd be easy enough to verify, since these kinds of things usually result in immediate like Amber alerts with names and descriptions of who's missing: these kinds of things are all too common and usually are about some kind of family dispute or other situations where the parties involved are actually known and everything.

The article does not say there WAS a kidnapping, just that one was "reported." Thus my interpretation...

[MRRiley]

Reminds me of an incident growing up... my father was a university professor, we lived in the north end of Rosedale , a very wealthy neighbourhood in Toronto.. a friend of mine and I were going to another friends house in my friends convertible, a police car pulls up beside us at a stop light, the officer in the passenger seat leaned over towards my friend and said in a very low voice so I wouldn't hear " you shouldn't let that n****r ride in your car." Now the crazy thing is, this guy was just trying to impart to my friend the wisdom of the world. I'm sure he thought he was just helping my friend out. There is absolutely no reason being a police officer makes you a decent person. It's just not part of the job description. This kind of stuff is still going on all over North America even to this day. And there's not a thing you can do about it. Your only joy is that it doesn't happen as often as it used to. That's the good thing.

Actually, we can do something about it. It starts at the dinner table and around our water coolers and even in forums like this. When something like this happens "we the people" need to get good and angry about it and use our powers as citizens to try to curtail it. Police chiefs and sheriffs should be held responsible for the actions of their departments and for the actions of the individual officers or deputies that work for them. When the bosses start getting fired or booted out of office things can, and often do, change. But unless we make them take responsibility for their stupidity and abuses, then they will never stop.

[stevewig]

Child slavery has become such a problem in some parts of the world, that I say rather be safe than sorry, although it might have been handled in a much better way. Just think if she was kidnapped and the first officer fooled into believing the "kidnapper", and he got away with her?

Maybe it was you who "rescued" this child?

[altopiet]

Horsecrap. This is buying into the paranoia that has been instilled in us by governments with the help of the media to talk us into accepting as normal police interference with our lives if we are somehow operating outside of some arbitrary normal. Cite that child slavery is such a problem in the USA that scaring the crap out of a young child by assaulting her grandfather should be necessary.
By your logic, anyone walking down the street with a child should be busted, cuffed, taken to the police station and waterboarded since there is always the possibility that they are kidnapping the child.
At some point, people need to take a deep breath and realize just how stupid their paranoia is making them.

It seems you missed the "in some parts of the world", and "although it might have been handled in a much better way". If it never happens in your part of the world you are lucky, but in Africa and some Far East countries children, kidnapped to be used as sex slaves, is a problem.
Even if not to be used as sex slaves, do you care so little for children that you would not report suspicious (subjective) behaviour, or possible kidnapping to the police, and want the police to investigate?
Police brutality can never be condoned, but I would rather err on the side of caution, than allow a child to go through the trauma of actually being kidnapped.

There is absolutely no reason being a police officer makes you a decent person. It's just not part of the job description

I agree, but do it mean that all cops are bad per se. I am sure that is also not part of the job description.

I believe it is actually more a command and control problem from the top of a political system, ciphering down all layers of government to the cops on the ground, who sometimes have to act quickly and make split second decisions and live with the consequences, while armchair critics who has never done the job can take hours and weeks to work out and decide what the cop should have done.

[stevewig]

It seems you missed the "in some parts of the world", and "although it might have been handled in a much better way". If it never happens in your part of the world you are lucky, but in Africa and some Far East countries children, kidnapped to be used as sex slaves, is a problem.
Even if not to be used as sex slaves, do you care so little for children that you would not report suspicious (subjective) behaviour, or possible kidnapping to the police, and want the police to investigate?
Police brutality can never be condoned, but I would rather err on the side of caution, than allow a child to go through the trauma of actually being kidnapped.



I agree, but do it mean that all cops are bad per se. I am sure that is also not part of the job description.

I believe it is actually more a command and control problem from the top of a political system, ciphering down all layers of government to the cops on the ground, who sometimes have to act quickly and make split second decisions and live with the consequences, while armchair critics who has never done the job can take hours and weeks to work out and decide what the cop should have done.

So you are recommending that anytime somebody sees a black child with a white grandfather we should call the police?