cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/57909957
“I’m serious as a heart attack,” he tells Gamble when the audio begins to play on the 14-minute body camera video. “I’m not gonna sit here and argue with you.”
He demands to know how she could possibly justify such an obscene display: “I would like to hear how you would explain to my children what you’re supposed to be.”
Talking to a colleague over his two-way radio after the encounter, Babb described what happened. Gamble was dressed “like a freakin’ weiner,” he says on the tape, so he ordered her to remove the costume. She refused, invoking her First Amendment rights.
“Am I being detained?” Gamble repeatedly asks Babb, who ignores the question and continues to scold her. “If I’m not being detained, I’m gonna go ahead and leave.”
When she turns to walk away, Babb steps forward and grabs her costume from behind, throwing her on her back. Angry protesters shout at Babb as he forces her to turn over. Two more cops help him pin Gamble on the grass and handcuff her.
“By the time I got there, the cops were stuffing an inflatable penis in the back of their car,” Rae said.
It was, on one hand, hilarious — a slapstick comedy bit brought to life. In the body camera footage, Babb tries and fails to fit Gamble into his own backseat, then hands her off to another officer, who escorts her to a different vehicle. Police wrestle with the oversized costume, ultimately failing to fit the unwieldy polyester penis into the car.
It was also disturbing. Gamble screams in pain in the video as the cops try to push her into the backseat, the handcuffs digging into her wrists. Babb asks where the zipper is and, as he peels off the penis suit, asks Gamble for her name.
She replies, “Aunt Tifa.”
Is that what normally happens with kids? Not my experience
I think it statistically is accurate that groups of demographically and geographically similar kids often grow up to have similar worldviews to their parents, but for humans, you can only condemn the individual, not the statistic. Plenty of them will see their 'Bama pawpaw and run in the opposite direction, sure. (Social media may help that trend or hurt it, as algorithmic feeds start to become so customized they replicate local prejudices.)
At least I think they are innocent until proven 18, at which time they can be judged.
But then you leave your home and co-mingle with other demographics and your worldview changes.
Or you don’t leave home and never get exposed to or accept other races and cultures.
Yeah, absolutely. That’s how it happens for a lot of people, and it’s super important not to assume we know what’ll happen for any individual. I’d say statistically, there’s likely a bias to generational ignorance, but that environment can individually create the opposite effect.
The reason why I’m not sure that statistical bias will be removed in the social-media era is that gen-alpha is extremely algorithmic-feed-influenced, and feeds are now very efficient in taking users down right-wing rabbit-holes. So 'Bama pawpaw’s racist/xenophobic views may end up influencing them by a circuitous route just the same.