We were embarrassed

I came across this interesting blog post about a white grandfather who was repeatedly harassed by Austin Police officers for no apparent reason other than he is white, and was walking his black granddaughter down the street.  Scott Henson, the blog author, did several things right in his encounters with the police.  The police, unfortunately, did little to calm the fears of community activists who believe the Austin Police Department is running amok in trampling the Constitution, and the rights of Austin citizens as they seemingly did in this video.

While walking his five year old granddaughter down street Mr. Henson was stopped by the police and questioned.  Before the encounter was over, he was handcuffed, and his granddaughter was removed from him and questioned.  All because the police were investigating "a possible kidnapping." 

During the encounter Mr. Henson apparently refused to answer questions about where he was going, or coming from - something that is his right to do.  He did provide the officers with a phone number to verify that he was the child's grandfather.  In total, according to Mr. Henson's count, there were nine police officers and one deputy constable that showed up on the scene.  The constable apparently recognized him from an eerily similar encounter a couple of years before. 

The police are trusted with a gun and a lot of power because we need people who will keep the bad guys in check.  We give them their guns and power with the understanding that they will use them with care and caution.  Police are given a lot of discretion in how to accomplish their jobs.  For some the power of the job can become an ego trip when the ends justify the means.  Still others buy into the governments brainwashing through the academy and at the station that tells them that we citizens want them to stop every person they find and see if they can catch them violating a law - any law will do. 

Policing is hard work.  To do it right means you have to check your biases at the door and you have to be willing to allow a citizen to vent just a little without charging him with a crime for doing so. 

I don't think I have the full story here from Mr. Henson - not that I think he is lying or misinterpreting one iota of what he says.  I suspect - I hope - that the officers had some reason other than they saw a white man walking down the road holding the hand of a black child.  Even if they did, they need to be trained on the difference between a Terry stop and an arrest. 

They arrested Mr. Henson when they placed him in cuffs.  They took away his freedom when they took away his ability to move freely.  You cannot "unarrest" someone.  There is no such thing.  You can release them, but you can't unarrest them.  Mr. Henson obviously knows his rights, and stood on them.  More of us need to follow his example, and maybe the police will learn that the police state they are creating will not be tolerated.

This situation is more than just the embarrassment to a grandfather and his granddaughter.  It's an embarrassment of the Austin Police Department, and by proxy, of all of us who give them their power.