White woman defends black man from police

[damnedifIknow]

Two Washington Metro Police officers - both black - were responding to a household burglary alarm in a posh District of Columbia neighbourhood and encountered a 64-year-old black man carrying two bags. When they questioned him, they say he became "loud and boisterous". They ordered him to the ground.


Just because he's black, doesn't mean he's here to rob a house”


At that point, a local resident - a middle-aged white woman named Jody Westby - came out from her house and confronted the police.

She instructed her housekeeper to record the events. She said she knew the man - a local worker - and that the police had no right to detain him. She told the officers that she was a lawyer and, upon learning the address of the burglary report, that they weren't even on the right street.

She grabbed the detained man's hand and said she was leaving, telling the police to "please leave our neighbourhood".

The officer reluctantly let Ms Westby and the man go.

As she walked away, Ms Westby said: "Just because he's black doesn't mean he's here to rob a house. He works for us. He's been in this neighbourhood for 30 years."

*As for the original burglary report, the Post says that the alarm was due to a wrong code entered by the home's occupant. "

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-29544145

[Stargazer09]

1. Good for her

Those police officers should be ashamed of themselves.

[kelliekat44]

56. I didn't see this in the Washington Post. Why do we have read this from the BBC? nt

[FlatStanley]

59. The American press doesn't report news.

[monmouth3]

2. I tell ya, piss off an old lady and you will have a torrent of verbal trash coming your way....

[damnedifIknow]

3. This woman is my new hero

Took guts to do what she did.

[silverweb]

5. This old lady will confirm that.

[Helen Borg]

21. Middle-aged does not mean "old". Just saying...

Besides, why even using an adjective here? There is only one woman in the story! Calling her "old" makes no sense...

[Warpy]

24. Yeah? Men consider us old and over the hill at 30

while they hang out in college bars and creep out all the younger women.

[Aristus]

30. Not all of us.

I'm 45. And any women under 30 is way too young for me to find attractive. To me, women are at their most attractive above the age of about 35.

BTW, I haven't determined an upper limit yet...

[In_The_Wind]

38. indeed

[Aristus]

39. ...

[In_The_Wind]

40. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1018&pid=670396

[ancianita]

79. Gratifying. Hope there's a lot more of you around.

[Helen Borg]

31. LOL. I suppose :) Are these middle-aged men? :)

[DFW]

36. Not all of us

My wife is 62 and she looks fabulous with no artificial ingredients.

And I didn't even hang out in college bars when I was in college!!

[fadedrose]

73. I finally got old enough not to care what men

think or want . . . the old and the middle-aged ones are no prizes either....

And the young women only want the rich ones anyway.

When you get old, if you're a woman, you'll find that there are plenty young men who hold doors open, pick up something you dropped, offer help, etc., only because THEY are nice, not that I am a prize package. There are many of them..

[Warpy]

81. I've found the same thing

They get more polite when you look like their grannies.

[fadedrose]

84. ;)

[silverweb]

32. I was referring to *myself.*

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]And I was responding in kind to monmouth3's tongue-in-cheek joke.

Also, I don't find the word "old" offensive at all in the way you apparently do. It's all very subjective.

Personally, I'm getting a huge kick out of being "old" and I'm taking full advantage of the benefits that status brings me. I hope you have as much fun!

[Helen Borg]

34. Sorry about the misunderstanding :) ...

[silverweb]

37. Glad it's all cleared up.

[fadedrose]

72. I love your nick ....

and I think I love you too . . .

[silverweb]

82. Your nick is beautiful, too.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]As for the rest, all we have is the now.

([font face="Arial"]"Shout loud, breathe in, won't you drown in the now?")[font face="Verdana"]

Enjoy yours!

[pennylane100]

6. I consider myself an old lady

and that is occasional true in my case.

[roguevalley]

11. old gals have nothing to lose. I tell you that from my own experience. :D

[blackcrowflies]

14. middle aged is not old

I'm sure it helped that she's a lawyer. They all knew she could hang the police out to dry, assuming they didn't kill her.

[elleng]

27. She's not old, 'a middle-aged white woman.'

I might be considered old, and hope I'd do the same thing. I lived in what might be a similar neighborhood in DC for 20 years.

[Demit]

35. Or maybe more to the point, piss off a lawyer.

That was definitely more relevant to the situation, monmouth3.

[Skittles]

51. true

[SamKnause]

4. Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[malaise]

7. WIth more ladies like Ms. Westby

this LWB shit would cease in no time.

[Warpy]

25. I'm an old bat with an upper class accent

and enough money to back it up, at least by New Mexico standards.

I like to let people fight their own battles unless I see official bullying going on.

Then the bullies get an earful.

[silverweb]

44. Way to go!

[Skittles]

52. I WILL KICK UPPER CRUST OLD BAT WARPY ASS

YES INDEED

[Warpy]

54. I wouldn't advise it.

I bite.

[Skittles]

55. as long as you are not a rabid old bat

[Maynar]

63. Glad to hear

You go, Warpy! Give 'em hell. Better yet, tell the truth and they'll think it's hell.

To paraphrase a Roosevelt somewhere.

[aggiesal]

74. I think that was Harry Truman ...

During the speech a supporter yelled out "Give 'em Hell, Harry!". Truman replied, "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell."

[Maynar]

83. Yep, that was it.

Cheers.

[surrealAmerican]

8. good thing she was there

Being "loud and boisterous" is not a crime, and therefore no reason for the police to order the man to get on the ground.

[Ino]

10. "They say" he became loud and boisterous...

"They" say a lot of things, mostly bullshit to justify their bullying, intimidation and humiliations.

[7962]

22. "you drove over the line" "My dog alerted" "you were acting suspicious"

All 3 of those have been used on either me or my brother. And we're white.

I tell people all the time, it doesnt matter whats legal or not, a cop CAN ruin your night/weekend/life if he really wants to.

[merrily]

29. You know, the way Prof. Gates got loud when they questioned him for being black while in his home

and they refused to explain why they were harassing him and humiliating him. Just flat out got loud for no reason at all.

[logosoco]

9. SO glad she was there for this man and not afraid to step up.

Seems awfully cruel to make a 64 year old person get on the ground under suspicious suspicions!

[Orrex]

12. What does "reluctantly" mean in this context?

The officer reluctantly let Ms Westby and the man go.

Not sure what they're aiming for with that phrasing.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. It's good to know what's really happening in America

Thank heaven for the British press.

[Crabby Appleton]

18. Or you could have read about it in the Washington Post

the day before it appeared on the BBC site

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/police-stops-in-dc-to-be-debated-at-town-hall-meeting/2014/10/07/ff0bc842-4aff-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html

[Jack Rabbit]

19. That's nice

I knew there was a reason not to post that, but I did anyway.

BTW, that's a Terrific user name you've got there.

[MADem]

65. Wow--with a VIDEO too!!!! And that "old lady" looks pretty spiffy, I'd say. nt

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. WooHoo Mrs. Westby

[Lucky Luciano]

17. Good thing a white person was nearby.

Otherwise, her credibility would have been called into doubt and they would both be detained.

[cantbeserious]

20. People Doing The Right Thing - Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands

eom

[7962]

23. I think its becoming more & more obvious to more & more people from EVERY side.

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. k&r

[DontTreadOnMe]

28. Take back your neighborhood!

Know your neighbors.. look out for them and they will look out for you!

[Solomon]

33. LOL. Let's see that work if the cops were white.

.

[valerief]

41. White privilege doing good. nt

[Iggo]

43. That's how it works.

[Dustlawyer]

42. Maybe the cops should spend more time sitting with Firemen learning the streets on their beat!

I have read about a whole lot of bad stuff that happened when the cops go to the wrong address. They cannot afford to be ignorant, especially if the damages came out of their pay!

[IronLionZion]

45. Grateful for people like Ms. Westby

I've been in jams before and received unexpected kindness from similar individuals, and like to think I would pay it forward. Good for her. A lot of other folks would have noticed and not speak up.

[jtuck004]

46. Had to take a black man's hand and lead him like a baby out of danger. Good for her, but fuck this.

Nothing more to say.

[BrotherIvan]

53. +1

It's nice that she spoke up for the man and that her housekeeper was filming. But what would have happened if a white woman had not intervened? I want a country where a black man or woman, hell any person of any race, can walk down the street without fear. We are becoming more afraid of cops than criminals which means there is something very, very wrong.

[Tumbulu]

57. Well said! nt

[tblue37]

61. She was helping him up. I am 64, and I use a cane.

He probably needed help getting up, as I would under similar circumstances. Since she knows him, she is aware of his disability and need for such assistance. My friends give me a hand up, too, when I need one.

And continuing to hold his hand is a way of standing in solidarity with him, saying, "This man is my friend. I stand with him against your abuse of him."

I didn't see her behavior as condescending at all.

[jtuck004]

64. What he NEEDED was to be treated with respect. Then he wouldn't have "needed" a white shield. n/t

[tblue37]

67. Of course, but her behavior toward him was that of a friend. The cop was disrespectful,

but the lawyer was not. She was treating him the way any of us would treat a friend being similarly abused. She was angrily defending him and holding him close to her to demonstrate that he was important to her and she would stand with him.

Of course the whole situation is a perfect demonstration of what white privilege means. Those who insist on believing that it means whites always get extra luxuries (so they can deny it exists since they are scratching to survive themselves) should really look at what happened here. His race was the *only* reason he was considered suspicious and treated disrespectfully.

The lawyer was able to prevent the mistreatment from going further *only* because she was white. A black female lawyer of the same age would not have gotten away with what this woman did. Instead, she would probably have been Tased and arrested, and both of them would have been lucky to escape the encounter relatively intact rather than badly beaten or even killed.

[jtuck004]

75. That's a little like saying a plantation owner is a good guy. If white folks wanted to end

this tomorrow, said we would stop this country until this shit ends, it would stop.

But it would cost white people too much to do that. So until they are ready to pay that price, meh.

So, yeah, she gets some credit, of course. But it was her gender and race that was allowed through that, and the thing that lets her be a lawyer and working person, moving through life without being broken simply for your skin color, not having to teach her kids that no matter whether their behavior is good or bad that tonight they may wind up with a bullet from an out-of-control cop or just the next white person that answers a door.

And white folks ALL get a great advantage out of that, while seeming to be complacent with waiting another day to put it all at risk to prevent the need for white knights.

The problem really is all of us, but only one side has the solution.

[Tommymac]

76. Extremism is a major issue in our world...no matter what spin you see reality through.

We all have our filters of perception - we are human and that is our nature.

Emotionally preaching or shouting out gospel through one's own filters, even while expressing an intellectual understanding of the other colors reflected through the prism of experience that others may see, is one path that can lead to extremism on any side of the political or social landscape. And extremism is the root of the problem this OP is blogging about.

[jtuck004]

78. Using expressions that people are familiar with is just good communication.

There are some people who see fire in every little breeze, however.

Not worth the time though, just haters.

[tblue37]

85. jtuck, I am not disagreeing with you about white privilege or about the fact that white people

in this country have to step up against the abuse and murder of black people, because until we do so widely and forcefully enough, it isn't going to stop. White people have the power in this country, so only white people can make it stop.

But I don't think the lawyer in the video can properly be compared to a "good" plantation owner, because they participated fully in the evil of slavery and benefited from it. She would be more like the white people who joined in the Civil Rights movement, or the abolitionists in the 19th century. Obviously, when they stood beside black people, they did not risk anywhere near as much as the black people risked, but they did step up to defy the authorities because they hated the injustice, whereas the so-called "benevolent" plantation owners still owned slaves (and still sold them to even more abusive plantation owners whenever they felt the need for extra cash or to curry favor), and they still built their wealth on the backs of those slaves.

In a sense white people all "benefit" from the way black people are abused and denied their rights in this country, just as men in general derive certain powers and privileges from the patriarchal power structure. But that doesn't mean that there are no men who are on our side or who try to step up when needed to prevent women from being deprived of their rights. Similarly, there are also white people who try to help overcome the pervasive racism that oppresses black people in our society. I know that lawyer speaks out at city council meetings against the type of policing that is based on constantly harassing black people, especially young black men, as though they are automatically suspects the minute a cop lays eyes on them.

Although white people are not usually attacked, arrested, or murdered when they step up to the authorities or to LEOs in defense of the rights of black people, some white people have been attacked and even killed for their involvement in both the 19th century abolitionist movement and the 20th century Civil Rights movement. After the Civil War, some white women, usually from the north, went to the south to teach the freed slaves to read and write, and that really, really infuriated the people in the south who wanted to keep them from learning anything that would free them from depending on their former owners for work. Those women were also attacked, sometimes brutally, for their efforts.

Because she does have white privilege, that lawyer was able to step in and do so without real risk, and because of white privilege, she was listened to and treated respectfully instead of Tased and arrested, as a black woman would have been, even if she had been the same age and also a lawyer. But even with white privilege, a person who faces down the authorities might not be listened to--and might even be assaulted, as happened during Ferguson protests, because the authorities and their enforcement arm, the LEOs, do not like to have their power challenged in any meaningful way.

I am furious that an innocent man was treated the way he was for no reason except that he was black. The woman in the video was also furious about it. But since he was being treated that way, she had to step in, because if she didn't, it would have gone very badly for him. I don't think she was being condescending when she took his hand to help him up (he was disabled, so getting up would have been difficult without such assistance), nor do I think she was being condescending when she kept hold of his hand as they left. I think she was being aggressively protective, to show the cops that she would not let them mess with him any more. She was probably doing the same thing she would have done if she had seen anyone she cared about being treated that way. It's just that no white person she cares about is likely ever to be treated that way, so she will not have to take their hands and hold them to shield her white friends from abuse by LEOs. And she is obviously angry that he was treated that way simply because he is black.

No doubt the man was equally angry, but he knew perfectly well that if he showed his anger, he would be assaulted, arrested, possibly killed. Henry Louis Gates, a world famous (and elderly) scholar and Harvard professor, was harassed and arrested in his own home by a young white cop because he dared to let his voice show his frustration when he was challenged as a suspect in his own home simply because the nosy white neighbor who called the cops and the racist cop who showed up could not imagine that a black man belonged in that fancy house. When the cop tricked Gates into coming onto his porch to show his ID, the cop immediately cuffed and arrested him. The only reason for arresting him was because the cop was pissed that Gates's tone was not submissive and conciliatory, the way all cops seem to believe a black person's tone must be when they dare to speak to a cop.

And then when President Obama commented that the arrest was "stupid," the right wing media went nuts, which is why he was forced to hold that ridiculous "beer summit" with Gates and the cop to smooth things over and quiet the right wing noise.

[Marrah_G]

47. It's good that she did, but sucks that she had to

Our system is so screwed up.

[raven mad]

48. Way to go, Jody!

It all boils down to "he has a right to be here, PERIOD".

[noiretextatique]

49. he's been living there for 30+ years!

i might get loud and angry if the cops harassed me for no reason, in fact i have done that. just because the cops are "suspicious" doesn't mean you have to act like a suspect. thank good for Jody Westby!

[DirkGently]

50. Hell. Yes. n/t

[JEB]

58. Cut the fucking cop budget in half, at least, and

spend the savings on Public education. That would be a good way of reducing crime.

[stage left]

60. Bravo, Ms. Westby.

I hope that in a similar situation, I would do the same.

[Number23]

62. So conflicted. Beyond glad that she intervened. Saddened that she had to be a white woman to even

be fucking listened to in the first place.

Ms. Westby is The Woman. Patronizing as hell, but sometimes that's what's required. God bless her.

[whistler162]

66. Or correctly white woman provides police

with ID and reference point of a possible burglary suspect. Good for her for assisting the police in their job and bad on the homeowner/alarm company/dispatcher for not letting the officers know sooner that it was a false alarm.

[tblue37]

68. A black female lawyer of the same age would have been Tased and arrested

rather than listened to, and both she and the man she was defending would have been lucky to survive without bruises or even without being killed.

Look at how Henry Louis Gates was harassed and arrested for being a black man in his own upscale home. He is a world famous scholar and Harvard professor, but the cop was furious that he spoke "disrespectfully" about being hassled just because the cop and the neighbor who called 911 on him assumed he must be a burglar since he was a black man in a nice home (i.e., the cop found him "uppity&quot .

The white lawyer was quite angry about the whole situation. Her tone toward the cops was far from submissive or conciliatory. When a black person, even one as wealthy and distinguished as Henry Louis Gates, dares to speak that firmly to a cop, even if the cop has clearly screwed up, the cop Tases him or her and breaks out the handcuffs. And that is a best case scenario. All too often the cop beats the black person half to death--or else pulls out a gun and kills him or her outright!

[Fumesucker]

69. Since the report of a burglary was entirely accidental then there was no description of any burglar

Why was the man a "suspect" in the first place?

Also why wasn't the woman also a "suspect"?

[Recursion]

70. Is that the Palisades? I can't make it out from the video. Glad it didn't get worse. (nt)

[Sheldon Cooper]

71. If anyone is confused over what they can do about their white privilege, this is a good example to

follow. When you see a person of color being unfairly accused, stand up for them. Use your whiteness to help them. It totally sucks that in this day and age white people still have to vouch for those who aren't white, but that's the reality in post-racial America.

[savalez]

77. How do you think this would have played out

If the cops were white and the lady was black?

I posted a similar video where a black lady was tazered by a white cop for doing the same thing.

[ancianita]

80. If citizens demanded beat patrols of neighborhoods, this guy wouldn't have been an "unknown." nt