"TV Producer In Beverly Hills For Pre-Emmys Event Arrested For Being Tall, Bald And Black"
Juliet Bennett Rylah posts at LAist:
In yet another case of "walking while black," a film and TV producer recently told his tale of being held for six hours by Beverly Hills police while attending a pre-Emmys event because he looked like a burglary suspect.Charles Belk, 51, writes in a Facebook post that he was on his way to check his parking meter last Friday in Beverly Hills when he was detained. Earlier he had been handling celebrity talent at a Emmy Awards Gifting Suite, and he was planning on heading to a VIP Emmy pre-party later that night. He was walking from a restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard to his car, parked on La Cienega Boulevard at about 5:20 p.m. when it happened. He is grateful that he didn't look even more "suspicious" at the time, "In fact, if it wasn't for a text message that I was responding to, I would have actually been running up LaCienega Blvd when the first Beverly Hills Police Officer approached me. Running!"
He said he was surrounded by six police cars, then made to sit on the curb. He was handcuffed and searched, then transported to the Beverly Hills station. He was booked, accused taking part in the armed robbery at a Citibank location and couldn't leave without $100,000 bail. He said his car was impounded, he was denied a phone call and wasn't given a very good explanation as to why he was being held.
Let's say the guy looked like the bank robber's cousin. There's no justification for holding him without checking to see whether he actually was the guy on the tape -- as soon as possible.
We need to take taking away someone freedom extremely seriously. Police officers often don't. The fact that this is easy for them to do -- just let an innocent man sit, handcuffed on the curb, like a trussed up chicken, and then ignore the man for hours while he sat in jail -- is not reason for it to be allowed.
More from Belk:
I get that the Beverly Hills Police Department didn't know that just hours earlier, I was at one of the finest hotels in their city, handling celebrity talent at a Emmy Awards Gifting Suite, as part of business as usual, and, invited to attend a VIP Emmy pre-party that very night in their city. The guy doing that, just DON"T fit the description.What I don't get.........WHAT I DON"T GET, is, why, during the 45 minutes that they had me on the curb, handcuffed in the sun, before they locked me up and took away my civil rights, that they could not simply review the ATM and bank's HD video footage to clearly see that the "tall, bald headed, black male"... did not fit MY description.
Why, at 11:59pm (approximately 6 hours later), was the video footage reviewed only after my request to the Lead Detective for the Beverly Hills Police Department and an FBI Agent to do so, and, after being directly accused by another FBI Special Agent of "...going in and out of the bank several times complaining about the ATM Machine to cause a distraction..." thereby aiding in the armed robbery attempt of a bank that I never heard of, or ever been to; and within 10 minutes......10 MINUTES, my lawyer was told that I was being release because it was clear that it was not me.
The sad thing is, prior to my freedom being taken from me for an easily proven crime I did not commit, I was walking back to my car, by myself, because I needed to check my parking meter, so that I wouldn't get a ticket and break the law.
...I want to thank GOD, Robin Lola Harrison of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau, Robert Dowdy and Attorney Jaaye Person-Lynn, without whom, I am certain that I would still be locked up in the custody of the Beverly Hills Police Department. Based on comments made by a Beverly Hills Police Officer during my booking, and an FBI Special Agent, it appeared that they had tried and convicted me.
And Jaaye Person-Lynn wrote on Facebook:
My Friday Night: After months of anticipation, Tiffany Townend and Jovan Blacknell's wedding was finally here.As they were reciting their vows, I get a call from William Syms which I responded to via text. He told me he needed my services ASAP for a friend.
During the recessional, I contacted the friend, Robin, who told me, Charles Belk, had just been falsely arrested for bank robbery. Understanding the seriousness of the accusations and after handling the business side, I tell my girl I have to leave, and she agrees to go with me.
We put our drinks from the open bar down,(I had Hennessey Privilege, you know Tiff only serves that good stuff.) and rushed to the Beverly Hills police station. I let the secretary know I was there to see Mr. Belk, and the lieutenant comes out to tell me it will be a second.
After about 10 minutes I ask for the lieutenant again and remind him my client has a right to see his attorney immediately since the lieutenant confirmed my client was in fact arrested for Bank Robbery and Conspiracy to commit a bank robbery, and had a $100k bail. He goes back in.
After another almost 30 minutes I demand the lieutenant let me see Mr. Belk immediately and remind him PC 825(b) makes it a misdemeanor for him to willfully keep me from my client. (Thanks Fred Dorton for hipping me to that).
At this point, my voice is raising and my patience is completely worn. Mind you, my girl is in the car by herself, and we planned on eating dinner at the wedding so we hadn't eaten anything and by this point it's about 10:30pm.
Finally, the jailer comes out, wonds me for any metal objects and takes me to an interview room. Then she gives a bogus reason why my client couldn't come immediately.
The detective walks in and let's me know they're going to review the video. My client walks in the attorney room, the phones aren't working so we're yelling through the glass. I'm in full attorney mode and getting his story from about 3 hours before the arrest on some stationary I borrowed from the secretary.
During the interview, the detectives come back and say they reviewed the tape and the guy they were looking for wasn't my client. Go figure. This is a bit after 11pm.
I assure his release and get back to the car to find my girl sleep and hungry. I apologize to her but she states she understands the life of a Super Hero. Lol.
It was upsetting leaving a Beautiful wedding of two good friends, but they're defense attorneys so they'll understand.
What made it all worth it is that Mr. Belk slept in his bed that night. (If he got any sleep).
Poor service is everywhere...a vibe of our times.
doombuggy at August 25, 2014 7:34 PM
"It's better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission" seems to be the accepted norm these days. You can complain in court about being abused, but you're not allowed to make a stink about it while it's happening.
jefe at August 25, 2014 7:44 PM
And no white person has ever been stopped because they might resemble of suspect, huh?
I was once detained for what seemed to be an inordinate length of time because I shared a last name with a suspect for a crime that I had nothing to do with. (I found this hard to believe. I've never known anyone with my last name who wasn't related to me.)
Yes, it's regrettable to be detained in a case of mistaken identity, but if you're going to suggest that only blacks are subjected to this, then you're full of shit, to be blunt.
Patrick at August 25, 2014 9:36 PM
Dun wanna burst your bubble, Patrick, but the frequency that it happens to blacks is much higher... your anecdote is not data, nor are at least 5 anecdotes of mine, 4 college students at various times and one software engineer doctor from MIT wearing a suit, and driving a B'mer. Interestingly, all were black.
Meanwhile my college indiscretion driving the Ike in Chicago travelling 80+ with a quadruple lane change... netted me looking down the barrel of 2 drawn guns, and my Cadillac illegally searched... they coulda busted me for at least 3 driving infractions, prolly with reckless driving on top...
and they just told me to slow down, and let me go.
Did you have to get bailed out? Didja have to tell a judge why it couldn'a been you? Didja have to prove This is no matter for false equivalents.
swissarmyd at August 25, 2014 10:56 PM
Dun wanna burst your bubble, Patrick, but the frequency that it happens to blacks is much higher... your anecdote is not data
So, what is the data? Are Blacks stopped out of proportion to crimes committed?
In my anecdotes, there is a lower bar for White misbehavior in an effort by authorities to balance the books.
doombuggy at August 26, 2014 4:41 AM
That is why anecdotes are not considered evidence.
The data is in. Its been in for awhile, and it has been repeated ad nauseum, if you're still acting like it doesn't exist, then it is because you choose to pretend it doesn't, or isn't true. But the facts are that out of proportion to their numbers blacks are subjected to more stop and frisk (talk about a basic violation of rights), more wrongful arrests, more police violence, the preponderance of data makes it all but impossible to reasonably dispute.
There has yet to be a single peer reviewed accepted study that shows otherwise.
Robert at August 26, 2014 5:47 AM
Wonder if Jeese or Al would go to some inner city schools (for free) and use the above to promote "acting like a whitey" to pass school, go to law school (they would help w/the extortion/funding), and become a BLACK lawyer who could help BLACKS. (Who you going to call? COP BUSTERS!)
Nothing changes until you become able to request/force proper behavior. Knowledge and backing up wrongful behavior w/legal action is the only way.
Too bad Jeese and Al and the NAACP prefer extortion/funding raising to be more important.
Bob in Texas at August 26, 2014 5:50 AM
I dated a black man -- one who drove a new Aston Martin at the time -- who got stopped a number of times for DWB. (They wanted to see whose car it really was.) Disgusting -- and happens. He told me Miles Davis used to get pulled over a lot for this.
Amy Alkon at August 26, 2014 6:03 AM
But the facts are that out of proportion to their numbers blacks are subjected to more stop and frisk
Well, Blacks commit proportionally more crime, so I'm still interested in knowing if they are stopped out of proportion to actual crimes committed.
Anecdotes ARE data. Maybe not modal data, but it seems hard for people to grasp the distributional nature of life.
doombuggy at August 26, 2014 6:16 AM
Anecdotes ARE data. Maybe not modal data, but it seems hard for people to grasp the distributional nature of life.
Posted by: doombuggy at August 26, 2014 6:16 AM
I bet way more men are stopped than women, even though women make up a slightly higher percentage of the population.
Seriously, is this the same group of people who bitch that the TSA doesn't profile, because they screen kids, and old women in wheelchairs, but they are pissed that the police, and law enforcement, stop big black guys, when the witnesses to a crime, say it was committed by a big black guy?
I think there is a lot wrong with the way police process suspects, but the laws, written by those oh so responsive, and tough on crime, legislators allow them to do this, in fact they encourage it.
Oh, and people? those criminal defense attorneys are part of the scam. Bailing rich guys out of jail is far more lucrative, than representing an indigent bank robber.
Isab at August 26, 2014 8:39 AM
"After another almost 30 minutes I demand the lieutenant let me see Mr. Belk immediately and remind him PC 825(b) makes it a misdemeanor for him to willfully keep me from my client."
This is very useful information and the lieutenant was clearly in violation, but did the attorney ever file those charges? Probably not, because it likely takes more time than its worth. If more attorneys started filing these charges, the police may be more apt to allow attorneys to see their clients in a more efficient manner.
Fayd at August 26, 2014 9:12 AM
I wonder how much of that has to do with facial recognition.
A study was done a few years ago that suggested that race played a role in facial recognition.
The study showed that "you all look alike to us" was not entirely wrong. White babies who were raised mostly among white people looked at hair length, hair color, eye color, etc., things that often differ between two white people. Black babies who were raised mostly among black people instinctively looked at facial shape, nose shape, set of the eyes, etc., things that differ between two black people. As we become a much more diverse and less-segregated society, I wonder how much that will change and if we'll all get better at facial recognition among other races.
Perhaps the fewer differences distinguishable at at distance and transmittable over the radio plays a role in DWB. As a result, when police are given a description of "black male, approximately 6 feet tall, dark hair, and wearing a dark leather jacket," they've got very little to distinguish between the five tall black guys in dark leather jackets they see. On the other hand, a description of "white male, long blonde hair, approximately six feet tall, and wearing a dark leather jacket" gives them more to work with and lets them send the brunettes, short-haired blondes, and redheads home.
Note, I'm not saying there isn't racism and aren't unlawful stops "just to see whose car it is," nor that some folks get the benefit of the doubt where others don't - only that there might be more to it than just a racist police force.
While we need to end DWB, in order to do so we will need to provide better suspect recognition tools to identify actual suspects so innocent people, of any race, can go about unmolested. That may not happen right away.
Conan the Grammarian at August 26, 2014 10:05 AM
the thing is Conan... they had video on the suspect... but they didn't bother with a screencap sent out to all the cruisers.
there is this idea that it's OK to stop anyone with some kind of basic description, and detain them until you get around to reviewing the vid...
I suppose this is a holdover from when there was no vid, only eyewitness... certainly pointing up how weak the search for suspects often is...
OTOH, we see cases everyday where they actually have GOOD vid, but they don't go stopping everyone who is ethnicity/height/wt/maybe-clothes.
There is no simple answer, but they don't seem to be bothering with the tech at their disposal currently, much less with the more intrusive tech that is constantly added.
SwissArmyD at August 26, 2014 10:57 AM
swissarmyd: Dun wanna burst your bubble, Patrick, but the frequency that it happens to blacks is much higher...
Prove it.
I find it ironic that you were insist that my experience is not data, then make a bald assertion with no data whatsoever to support it. Apparently you think that evidence is something that's only required by others.
Patrick at August 26, 2014 2:55 PM
@"And no white person has ever been stopped because they might resemble of suspect, huh?"
The disproportionate targeting of black people is so clearly documented by now that nobody can really honestly deny it with a straight face. These are more than just "anecdotes".
Simple fact: Until we deal with the *root causes*, riots will continue. And I hope they do, because the solution is also simple: Restore civil rights.
As long as we don't give a crap about "due process" for other people because their skin is brown, then we don't deserve to have peace and order.
Lobster at August 26, 2014 6:32 PM
@Patrick .. I know this is NY but this is just one example: http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices
"The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices raise serious concerns over racial profiling, illegal stops and privacy rights. The Department’s own reports on its stop-and-frisk activity confirm what many people in communities of color across the city have long known: The police are stopping hundreds of thousands of law abiding New Yorkers every year, and the vast majority are black and Latino.
An analysis by the NYCLU revealed that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports."
Lobster at August 26, 2014 6:33 PM
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/opinion/oe-ayres23
"Racial profiling in L.A.: the numbers don't lie"
"On monday, the ACLU of Southern California released a report analyzing more than 700,000 cases in which Los Angeles Police Department officers stopped pedestrians and/or drivers of motor vehicles between July 2003 and June 2004.
The study, which I wrote with my research assistant, Jonathan Borowsky, asked not simply whether African Americans and Latinos are stopped and searched by the LAPD more often than whites -- it's clear that they are -- but the more complex question of whether these racial disparities are justified by legitimate policing practices, such as deciding to police more aggressively in high-crime neighborhoods.
We found persistent and statistically significant racial disparities in policing that raise grave concerns that African Americans and Latinos in Los Angeles are, as we put it in the report, "over-stopped, over-frisked, over-searched and over-arrested." After controlling for violent crime rates and property crime rates in specific neighborhoods, as well as a host of other variables, we found the following:
For every 10,000 residents, about 3,400 more black people are stopped than whites, and 360 more Latinos are stopped than whites. Stopped blacks are 127% more likely to be frisked -- and stopped Latinos are 43% more likely to be frisked -- than stopped whites.
Stopped blacks are 76% more likely to be searched, and stopped Latinos are 16% more likely to be searched than stopped whites.
Stopped blacks are 29% more likely to be arrested, and stopped Latinos are 32% more likely to be arrested than stopped whites.
Now consider this: Although stopped blacks were 127% more likely to be frisked than stopped whites, they were 42.3% less likely to be found with a weapon after they were frisked, 25% less likely to be found with drugs and 33% less likely to be found with other contraband"
Lobster at August 26, 2014 6:35 PM
http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/racial-profiling2011/the-reality-of-racial.html
"A study in Arizona shows that during 2006-2007, the state highway patrol was significantly more likely to stop African Americans and Hispanics than Whites on all the highways studied"
"A February 2009 study of traffic stops and searches in West Virginia found a similar pattern of racial profiling. The data reveal that African-American motorists were 1.64 times more likely to be stopped than White drivers. Hispanics were 1.48 times more likely to be stopped"
"In Minnesota, a statewide study of racial profiling during 2002 found that African-American, Hispanic, and Native American drivers were all stopped and searched more often than Whites"
"In Illinois, data collected after the 2003 passage of the Illinois Traffic Stops Statistics Act ... shows similar patterns of racial profiling by law enforcement authorities. The number of consent searches after traffic stops of African-American and Hispanic motorists was more than double that of Whites."
"A 2005 study analyzing data gathered statewide in Texas reveals disproportionate traffic stops and searches of African Americans and Hispanics, even though law enforcement authorities were more likely to find contraband on Whites"
It goes on an on. I hope these riots never end until we finally start dealing with the root causes of this problem.
Lobster at August 26, 2014 6:38 PM
@"There is no simple answer"
I agree that there are crime problems to deal with, but not violating due process is an ethical constraint. It's not a case of, oh, how much due process should we sacrifice in order to feel more safe at night .. it's a case of, oh, we can't violate due process, so let's start thinking of more ethical solutions.
Lobster at August 26, 2014 6:47 PM
Lobster: sometimes, trying too hard hurts your case.
) NYC stop and frisk: blatantly racial, yet blatantly effective.
) 2007 study about LA: they claimed they adjusted for criminality, but I suspect they did it in one of the usual biased ways. And the numbers are kind of weird: "For every 10,000 residents, about 3,400 more black people are stopped than whites..." What does that mean? Is it possible that no White people are stopped, while 3400 Black people are stopped? And the numbers; they toss out things like 127%; 42.3%; 29%; 32%; etc while we see 3x, or 10x, or 40x crime rate differences between races.
) A Leadership Conference on Civil Rights puff piece. Weird numbers again: " African-American motorists were 1.64 times more likely to be stopped than White drivers. Hispanics were 1.48 times more likely to be stopped" Are these numbers that significant? In such a community, with equal numbers of White and Black people, a cop pulls over 10 Whites vs 16 Blacks.
I hope these riots never end until we finally start dealing with the root causes of this problem.
It's kind of fun to posture in such a way on the internet, but to mouth such a piety; and then wander off congratulating yourself that you are holier than the other guy; probably does more harm than good.
doombuggy at August 26, 2014 10:52 PM
NYC stop and frisk: blatantly racial, yet blatantly effective.
Since I have heard exactly the opposite, some citatations would be useful here too.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/03/stop-and-frisk-didnt-make-new-york-safer/359666/
The NYPD did not implement large-scale trials to isolate the effects of stop-and-frisk. nor did they look to any form of multivariate analysis examining the largest cities in the country. The argument is entirely based on people eyeballing statistics and telling stories.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418825.2012.752026#.U_3M3YCwJDI
Astra at August 27, 2014 5:21 AM
From the second link: Most of the decline in these three felonies had other causes.
Most, but not all.
The paper considers static and dynamic fixed effects panel models estimated in various ways, including difference and systems generalized method of moments.
I don't think panel models are the way to evaluate this.
If you just break out stop-and-frisk alone, you can show a small effect. But there was a whole suite of policies implemented. Stop-and-frisk is often a short hand for stating that cops will do what it takes to lower crime, even if it hurts racial sensitivities.
doombuggy at August 27, 2014 7:17 AM
Isab: "Seriously, is this the same group of people who bitch that the TSA doesn't profile, because they screen kids, and old women in wheelchairs, but they are pissed that the police, and law enforcement, stop big black guys, when the witnesses to a crime, say it was committed by a big black guy?"
No, the problem is the police arrested and held a big black guy _for six hours_ before they bothered to look at the evidence _already in their hands_ to see if it was the correct big black guy. And it sounds like they did this only because his lawyer was pressuring them. Someone who had to depend on the public defender might have been in jail for months before anyone looked at the tape.
It's not because the guy was black - they'd do the same thing to a white guy who fit the description. The problem is that the cops just don't give a damn.
markm at August 28, 2014 8:35 PM
@"Lobster: sometimes, trying too hard hurts your case."
Lol ... that has to be the stupidest response I've ever heard. 'Trying too hard hurts your case' - LMFAO
Lobster at September 25, 2014 9:39 AM
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