Black TV Producer Arrested By Beverly Hills Cops Who Thought He Robbed A Bank
While Americans are discussing police discrimination, another incident has surfaced with a black male being arrested in Beverly Hills. On August 22nd during Emmy Award weekend, television producer Charles Belk said police arrested him as he was walking from a restaurant where they reportedly accused him of “armed bank robbery and accessory to robbery of a Citibank.”
Belk wrote a post on Facebook describing the “life altering experience,” saying his only crime was fitting the description of a “tall, bald head, black male, according to the Huffington Post.
His post is titled, “WHEN YOU “FIT THE DESCRIPTION!”
It’s one of those things that you hear about, but never think it would happen to you.
On Friday afternoon, August 22nd around 5:20pm, while innocently walking by myself from a restaurant on Wilshire Blvd, to my car up LaCienega Blvd my freedom was taken from me by the Beverly Hills Police Department.Within seconds, I was detained and told to sit on the curb of the very busy street, during rush hour traffic.
Within minutes, I was surrounded by 6 police cars, handcuffed very tightly, fully searched for weapons, and placed back on the curb.
Within an hour, I was transported to the Beverly Hills Police Headquarters, photographed, finger printed and put under a $100,000 bail and accused of armed bank robbery and accessory to robbery of a Citibank.
Within an evening, I was wrongly arrested, locked up, denied a phone call, denied explanation of charges against me, denied ever being read my rights, denied being able to speak to my lawyer for a lengthy time, and denied being told that my car had been impounded…..All because I was mis-indentified as the wrong “tall, bald head, black male,” … “fitting the description.”
I get that the Beverly Hills Police Department didn’t know at the time that I was a law abiding citizen of the community and that in my 51 years of existence, had never been handcuffed or arrested for any reason. All they saw, was someone fitting the description. Doesn’t matter if he’s a “Taye Diggs BLACK”, a “LL Cool J BLACK”, or “a Drake BLACK”
Beverly Hills Police on Friday arrested 47-year-old Brianna Clemons Kloutse of Los Angeles immediately following an armed robbery at a bank in the 8400 block of Wilshire Boulevard. Police believe that Kloutse is the “Purse Packing Bandit,” responsible for nine recent bank robberies and two attempted bank robberies in Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. She will be arraigned today at the criminal court building in downtown Los Angeles.
Witnesses to the robbery said the female robber was most likely working with a man who was distracting the other bank employees while the robbery was carried out. Within minutes of the robbery call being broadcast, police detained a subject less than a block away from the robbery who closely matched the clothing and physical characteristics of the male suspect. After an eye witness positively identified the subject in a field show-up, police arrested Charles Belk for suspicion of robbery. A follow-up investigation by detectives ultimately determined that Mr. Belk was not involved in the robbery and he was released from custody without charges.
The Beverly Hills Police Department deeply regrets the inconvenience to Mr. Belk and has reached out to him to express those regrets and further explain the circumstances. However, based on witness accounts, and his location close to the bank, officers properly detained and arrested him based on the totality of the circumstances known at the time of the field investigation.
The Police Department protocol requires that they go through the process of thoroughly verifying that Mr. Belk was not the suspect before releasing him. That process included taking witness statements, coordination with the FBI and Los Angeles Police detectives who were investigating the earlier bank robberies, and examination of the surveillance video from the bank. Police are still searching for the second suspect.
The police did not address why Mr. Belk was denied a phone call, or why they did not read him his Miranda rights.
H/T: My BFF @ComgenKDT with thanks.
Click here for reuse options!Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Anomaly100
241 responses to Black TV Producer Arrested By Beverly Hills Cops Who Thought He Robbed A Bank
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Suzanne McFly August 27th, 2014 at 14:10
“tall, bald head, black male”, the tall and bald head descriptions would not mean shit if it wasn’t for the black male part.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 15:35
Well, let’s just cut through the chase. What they meant was a tall, bald head, black male that had the nerves to be in Beverly Hills.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 14:20
Now, working while black, is against the law? I guess the cops, truly, are above the law. They do not have to read you your rights. They can prevent you from seeking legal counsel. I would be filing a law-suit against them.
greenfloyd August 28th, 2014 at 06:49
Originally it was called “walking while black”
There you go. Mr. Belk appears to be a man of some means who already has a lawyer. I’m surprised he has not already filed an intent. Unless that wasn’t advised by his counsel? But we’ll see.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 17:27
His lawyer may encourage him to file, lawyers like to get paid. A good lawyer would tell him to get over it and move on. Most lawyers like making money more than giving good advice.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 14:20
Now, working while black, is against the law? I guess the cops, truly, are above the law. They do not have to read you your rights. They can prevent you from seeking legal counsel. I would be filing a law-suit against them.
floyd[@]greenfloyd.org August 28th, 2014 at 06:49
Originally it was called “walking while black”
There you go. Mr. Belk appears to be a man of some means who already has a lawyer. I’m surprised he has not already filed an intent. Unless that wasn’t advised by his counsel? But we’ll see.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 17:27
His lawyer may encourage him to file, lawyers like to get paid. A good lawyer would tell him to get over it and move on. Most lawyers like making money more than giving good advice.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:00
“…who closely matched the clothing and physical characteristics of the male suspect” —
“…an eye witness positively identified the subject” —
So they weren’t supposed to check him out? Sounds like the police were just doing their job… Leave it to the liberals to bring his race into it just to try and stir things up…
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 15:16
Geezus Bob, they denied him a phone call, set his bail high, didn’t’ read him his Miranda rights, but all of that is OK by you.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:37
Don’t you think bail SHOULD be high for an armed robbery suspect? As far as reading him his rights and denying him a phone call, perhaps he has a civil case against the police…
The point is, you guys would have zero interest in this story if Belk was white… It’s just another attempt to stir up false outrage by focusing on the skin color of the subject instead of the facts of the case…
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 16:05
You see how you’re stereotyping me, Bob? I was against it when the police shot a rubber bullet into one of a vet’s face during Occupy. Scott Olson was as white as I am (which is really really white) and I did not think about race. It was the injustice, which most Republicans applauded at the time.
jasperjava August 27th, 2014 at 17:00
Since when are right-wing white supremacists interested in justice? They don’t care how many Black people are falsely accused, or subject to humiliating treatment. Heck, if they were there they’d be ready with a rope at the nearest tree.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 17:38
I don’t see the injustice here… It was a simple case of mistaken identity and he was released after a brief investigation… Big deal… Probably happens every day…
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:44
They didn’t deny him his phone call, as he had a lawyer, called his lawyer, and was released within 6 hours of being picked up. His bail was high, cause guess what? Suspicion of armed robbery. You see, suspects of this kind of thing get high bail amounts assigned to them. Nobody said, “look at this guy, he’s black, set the bail through the roof, I don’t want this black guy making bail”.
Further, suspects in armed bank robberies are checked out by who?
A) The Beverly Hills PD
B) The California Highway Patrol
C) The FBI
And as far as reading the Miranda, we don’t really know for sure about that, as we weren’t there, which could be easily solved by recording the event. Suspects should be read the Miranda on camera, and acknowledge they heard it. Whether they understand what it means, who knows, I’m sure ignorance will be a defense used by some…
“Belk said he has a hunch as to why it took the Beverly Hills police department six hours to release him. “They had pretty much convinced themselves I was guilty.”
Belk himself admits the officers detained him because they suspected they had the right guy……as he fit the description of the suspect.
After he’s interviewed by an FBI agent, he’s released.
Not seeing the racism here…..
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:54
Of course there’s racism here… He’s black… Don’t you get it? Anytime a white police officer interacts with a black suspect it’s racist… The facts don’t matter to liberals, only skin color…
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:15
Allow me to address the painfully obvious. Your condescending tone does you no favors here. Trying to pretend that racism doesn’t exist in this country marks you as an idiot, not as a witty poster.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 17:45
Who said racism doesn’t exist? It certainly doesn’t exist every single time a white officer arrests a black suspect though…
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 18:09
Then try to keep your snide, ugly condescension in check.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:38
Well, thanks for the advice deck, but I’ll exercise my first amendment rights any way I want just like you do…
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:58
The facts are that he was an innocent man who was denied his rights. This is not a liberal issue. This is a race issue.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:51
Actually, this is a law enforcement issue that liberals are trying to turn into a race issue…
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 19:07
Actually, this is a race issue that conservatives PRETEND is a law enforcement issue.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 23:22
Actually, it’s only a race issue to those who see racism in every interaction between blacks and whites…
OldLefty August 28th, 2014 at 06:20
Actually, it’s only a race issue to those who see racism in every interaction between blacks and whites.
________
Exactly.
Like too many cops in white neighborhoods.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:02
So, you apparently accept the word of the BHPD that this man was ID’ed by an eyewitness and his clothes were identical to the ones worn by the actual perp? So how do you explain the fact that the eyewitness was 100% wrong? Because Belk had a twin brother in the vicinity? A clone perhaps? Or maybe that the suspect was tall, black and bald, and the rest was filled in after the fact to justify the detention of a fully innocent man without reading or delivering his Miranda rights. A man can be brought into the precinct on suspicion of being involved and interviewed by detectives without charging him first. A phone call to any one of Belk’s lunch companions would have quickly disproved the possibility of his involvement in the bank caper. But did he receive any of those common procedural niceties? Not a chance. Know why?
Take a freaking guess.
Your attempts to bend over backward to excuse this police misconduct is pathetic.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:17
He matched the description. He matched the description closely enough to be a suspect in a crime. Do you honestly think that only people who match a description exactly, as in wearing the exact same articles of clothing, (as if you couldn’t change your shirt), are detained?
No idea what you’re talking about. Is it your assertion that the eyewitness is prejudiced, and that the eyewitness wanted the wrong person arrested?
Apparently you think nobody black should have been detained and checked out, cause we all know that it would be impossible for a black suspect to be guilty.
Yes. A suspect can be held for 48 hours without being charged.
This may surprise you, but detectives are interested in getting the actual criminal, not just somebody who they think they can frame.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:26
You have no idea what I’m talking about when I say the eyewitness was 100% wrong? Did Belk commit the crime? No, he did not, as stated by the BHPD. Therefore, someone who claims to have seen him do it is lying. Yes? I’m making no claim about racism in that sentence — the claim is that I don’t believe this eyewitness ever existed.
Your attempts to read discrimination into every sentence I’ve written is not only annoyingly incorrect but it speaks loudly regarding your state of mind. You are so eager to justify police misconduct — which happens to blacks and whites alike, but in this case happened to a black man — that you cannot even read the words as written.
You say the police have the right to hold someone for 48 hours. The purpose of this is not to let innocent people remain pointlessly locked up when their innocence can be determined in 10 minutes. The 48-hour hold is for getting an ID in difficult cases or compiling evidence or interviewing suspects that the police fully believe to be guilty, based on whatever other evidence they may have compiled, before having to set someone free. The purpose IS NOT TO DETAIN INNOCENT MEN WHOSE INNOCENCE CAN BE DETERMINED IN MERE MINUTES.
Btw, your last paragraph makes absolutely no sense. If “detectives are interested in getting the actual criminal, not just somebody who they think they can frame,” they should have been eager to discover who this Belk was and whether he was involved, rather than letting him languish in a cell. You’re actually making my point for me.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:34
The officers who detained and brought the suspect in were not the authorities charged with investigating and clearing, or charging, the suspect
The authorities charged with the responsibility of investigating were, who?
A) The Santa Monica PD
B) The Ferguson MO PD
C) The District of Columbia’s Medical Examiner’s office
D) The FBI
E) The California Highway Patrol
F) The Beverly Hills PD
G) The detaining officer’s mom
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:42
You are not addressing the point, sir. It does not matter to whom this responsibility falls — it could be accomplished in short order. But it wasn’t. It was dragged out. Are you suggesting that the BH detectives could only be reached by Pony Express?
A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney, if the BHPD detective squad hadn’t already done it for him. Belk was not read his rights. Belk was denied a phone call for hours. This is not the treatment afforded white men. I’ve been arrested — several times, in fact — and I have been given the right to a phone call within an hour every single time. Know why? Guess what color my skin is? I’ve had cops let me walk away guilty because I’m a well-dressed, well-spoken white man.
Let me emphasize one highly salient point here:
YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:53
And, if this is the case, the cops failed to their job then, didn’t they?
Claiming that the Beverly Hills PD acted in a racially motivated fashion, because they picked up a suspect who matched the description of the suspect that they were looking for, and by asserting that you escaped detection by a different set of investigators, and that this argument proves that the Beverly Hills PD acted in a way that you’ve determined to be true, is known as straw-manning.
strawman
You misrepresented someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone’s argument, it’s much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate.
Example: After Will said that we should put more money into health and education, Warren responded by saying that he was surprised that Will hates our country so much that he wants to leave it defenceless by cutting military spending.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:57
I don’t have a clue what you’re babbling about. I made my point and you evaded it. Try to focus: “A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney, if the BHPD detective squad hadn’t already done it for him. Belk was not read his rights. Belk was denied a phone call for hours. This is not the treatment afforded white men in that police precinct.”
That is all that matters here. I was using personal experience to back up my claims while you use fairy dust and obfuscation. You clearly have no idea what a strawman is. I’m sorry, but this discussion is no longer productive. Good day.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:24
I don’t have a clue what you’re babbling about. I made my point and you evaded it. Try to focus: “A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney, if the BHPD detective squad hadn’t already done it for him. Belk was not read his rights. Belk was denied a phone call for hours. This is not the treatment afforded white men in that police precinct.”
You mashed it up in your head, just as I suggested you were doing earlier, when you misread every one of my statements as an accusation of racism.
????
Dude, seriously, you need to figure out what it is that you’re trying to say here….
Was the detainment of Mr Belk a racist action on the part of the Beverly Hills PD or not?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:25
I don’t have a clue
Clearly
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:37
Ooh, stabbed me to the heart with virtual anagrams. You’re quite a guy.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:41
Well, start making sense then, mmkay?
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:54
“mmkay?” Y’know, the last person who wrote “mmkay” to me was my 12-year-old niece who was discussing an afternoon get-together at the Aquarium. Your inability to understand the inequity that characterized the treatment Charles Belk was handed by the BHPD is a very sad commentary on America in general and you in specific. You are a desperately insufficient example of American manhood, if indeed you’re a man at all. (I would not be shocked if you were a teenager or a young girl, based on the insipidly adolescent nature of your commentary.) Let me make this clear once and for all. YOU ARE NOT WORTH ANOTHER NANOSECOND OF MY TIME.
Good night.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:05
Your inability to understand the inequity that characterized the treatment Charles Belk was handed by the BHPD is a very sad commentary on America in general and you in specific.
The inequity of treatment? A lack of fairness or justice? Because an armed robbery suspect was apprehended and held for 6 hours before being cleared and released?
Wow….
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 01:09
You are truly just too stupid for words. You’re gonna make someone a wonderful prison bitch someday.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:22
You’re gonna make someone a wonderful prison bitch someday.
I guess we all know what fantasy you’ll be having later…..
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:09
“I truly wish, with all my heart, I could see you caught up in this kind of police mistreatment.”
That’s hatred. That’s a kind of hatred that is ugly. You can hate all you want, I don’t have any use for it…..
Oh, and the person who’s responsible for Mr Belk’s 6 hours of incarceration is the guy who robbed the bank. You know, the one who matches the description of Mr Belk.
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:12
The police are not responsible for Belk’s mistreatment. The bank robber is.
Another in a seemingly endless line of unintelligible comments.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:17
Mr Belk would have never spent 6 hours in police custody if someone else who looked a lot like Belk hadn’t robbed the bank….
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:22
It is great the way you’re able to ignore every comment that’s already been made and act as though you just walked into this discussion. Is that a clinical problem? Short-term memory loss? Amnesia? Or are you just too dense for words?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:18
How did the police “mistreat” Belk?
Oh, they thought he might be the guy they were looking for….
Got it.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 04:03
Belk was not mistreated. That’s false assertion # 1
And yes, the bank robber who committed the crime is, and here you might want to sit down and wait for it…..
Guilty of committing the crime which generated the BOLO which led to the apprehension of a suspect who fit the description….
A tall, bald, black, male.
Who was also identified by an eyewitness, and yes sometimes people make mistakes.
And I’m sorry if this doesn’t square with your narrative that the only reason Belk was picked up was because he was black.
We both know that Belk’s being black was only relevant in that he fit the description of the suspect who was wanted in connection with the bank robbery.
Or is it your contention that the BHPD were just out looking to screw with the first black guy they found that day?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:14
Your inability to empathize with this marks you as an inhuman kind of person.
Empathy gets lost when dealing with knuckleheads who can’t assign responsibility to the proper party. The issue isn’t the cops. The issue is the dude who robbed the bank and looked a lot like Mr Belk, you want to scream about something, scream about that….
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:20
You have a remarkable ability to speed right past your established stupidity into a new realm of uncharted lunacy. I’ve spoken with hundreds of people online, many of whom held opinions contrary to my own, but I don’t think I’ve ever met a person of quite your clownish proportions. You seem to have absolutely no recognition of the depths of fatuousness you routinely reach. You move right past one idiot notion after another with no concern for your own humiliation. That is truly a gift.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:45
I’m going to say goodnight, deckbose. I will state, for the last time tonight, that I don’t see any evidence of police misconduct in this matter. Is it unfortunate that Mr Belk was detained and held in suspicion of armed robbery? Yes. Do I wish this on another innocent man/woman? No. Do I understand that sometimes someone matches the description of a criminal suspect? Yes. Do I think that the criminal at large should be apprehended? Yes. Do I think that a suspect in an armed bank robbery can be cleared by regular patrolmen at the curbside in a couple minutes? No. Would I like to see you falsely charged and detained? No. If you had committed a crime would I like to see you apprehended and prosecuted? Yes. Would it matter to me what color you are? No.
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 01:17
You’re “pretty certain that 6 hours is just about light speed in these matters…..”
And that expert appraisal is based on what exactly? Your extensive experience with the criminal justice system? Or your box set of Murder, She Wrote DVDs?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:40
Why don’t you tell me how long a time period Mr Belk should have been detained? What’s an acceptable period of time for someone who’s suspected of committing an armed bank robbery to be in police custody? 5 min? 10 min? an Hour? Should the FBI have rushed an agent over to the police station so they could hurry and clear the suspect?
BHPD call to the FBI….”Hey, hi, yeah this is Dave, over at BHPD, hey listen, we got this guy we picked up and he says he’s innocent, and well, we’d like to release him asap and not a minute longer.
FBI…. “Are you serious?”
I know, I know, you’re busy, but listen, this guy, well, I think he should be released as quickly as possible, can you send someone over right now?? I know it’s not how it’s usually done, but I’m thinking we can get him cleared right away, please?
FBI….. “hold on, let me check…yeah, ok, agent so and so is the agent in charge, he’s busy right now interviewing a suspect over in Fontana, that the Fontana cops think is innocent too, but as soon as he’s finished I’ll send him your way”
BHPD…..”Oh, that would be fantastic, thanks a bunch!”
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 01:44
OK, wait, now you’re making up conversations between law enforcement officials? That’s good. At least we’re staying within the bounds of reality. Because your experience with law enforcement is already established as completely naught, why not make up some dialogue. Good work!
“Why don’t you tell me how long a time period Mr Belk should have been detained?”
Zero. He should never have been detained at all. He should have been interviewed on the spot and eliminated as a suspect.
That’s what would have happened with any well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills.
Bet your dumbass life on it.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:51
“Zero. He should never have been detained at all. He should have been interviewed on the spot and eliminated as a suspect.”
I know this is going to come as a shock, but when someone is suspected of being involved in an armed bank robbery they are brought in and interviewed by the FBI. The cops at the scene lack the authority to make the call.
Through the process, through the process, here, we’ll say it together, through the process…..
6 hours is not a very long time
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:08
Allow me to inquire again, given that you evaded the question when originally posed: What experience are you drawing on when making these pronouncements?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:23
For someone who claims to have intimate knowledge of how things work, you are amazingly ignorant. There is a procedure that has to be followed when the cops pick up a suspect in an armed bank robbery They have to thoroughly investigate the suspect, and this is not a 5 minute curbside conversation.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 17:02
This is not a straw man at all.
It’s an observation of a long, well established pattern.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 17:12
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 17:13
Now that was a strawman argument because you completely misrepresented what I said. I made my point about how whites are treated in police detention, which is based on very personal observation. I combined that with quotes from Belk’s own posting. You mashed it up in your head, just as I suggested you were doing earlier, when you misread every one of my statements as an accusation of racism. You clearly have trouble separating the words on the page from the words in your head, and I’ve got to tell you, the words in your head make no sense at all and have no relation to the discussion at hand.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:20
You mashed it up in your head, just as I suggested you were doing earlier, when you misread every one of my statements as an accusation of racism.
Ok, so you’re saying that there’s no racism by the Beverly Hills PD in the arrest of the suspect, Mr Belk??
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 17:22
strawman; You misrepresented someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.
_______
No one is doing that.
You are ignoring the facts that don’t fit your version.
trees has not established that his opinion is in keeping with the facts.
That does not make a “straw man”.
Your opponent of accusing you of wanting to detain and arrest all black men would be a straw man.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 19:08
trees has not established that his opinion is in keeping with the facts.
My opinion is entirely in keeping with the facts.
Fact 1) Mr Belk is a black man fitting the description of a suspect in an armed bank robbery in Beverly Hills, CA
Fact 2) Mr Belk was detained by the Beverly Hills PD
Fact 3) Mr Belk was interviewed by the FBI and released within 6 hours of his initial detainment
Not seeing the racism here, can you point it out for me?
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 20:40
You leave out;
1) It was unnecessary.
They had video.
2) They do not treat white people like that, (they would have spoken to him in private, and asked him to come with them (at worst).
“As he said;
Within an evening, I was wrongly arrested, locked up, denied a phone call, denied explanation of charges against me, denied ever being read my rights, denied being able to speak to my lawyer for a lengthy time, and denied being told that my car had been impounded…..All because I was mis-indentified as the wrong “tall, bald head, black male,” … “fitting the 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.
3) He was arrested and bail was set at $100,000 .
trees August 27th, 2014 at 22:41
You fail to acknowledge that it was the FBI who had authority in the matter, not the arresting officer. The arresting officer is always going to leave the decision to the department with the authority in the matter. We’re not talking about a shoplifting charge.
You’re wrong. Suspected bank robbers are not treated like traffic ticket scofflaws, color notwithstanding. If you’re white and suspected of armed bank robbery you’re not going to be given a lot of latitude in how you’re treated.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:55
“A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney,”
He would not have been arrested.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:58
Mr Belk was not arrested either
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:59
“Within an hour, I was transported to the Beverly Hills Police Headquarters, photographed, finger printed and put under a $100,000 bail and accused of armed bank robbery and accessory to robbery of a Citibank.”
No one gets bail without an arraignment. And no one goes to arraignment without being arrested. Try to keep up.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 17:11
He was arrested, and bail was set at $100,000.
“The Beverly Hills Police Department deeply regrets the inconvenience to Mr. Belk and has reached out to him to express those regrets and further explain the circumstances,” the statement read.
“However, based on witness accounts, and his location close to the bank, officers properly detained and arrested him based on the totality of the circumstances known at the time of the field investigation.
“The Police Department protocol requires that they go through the process of thoroughly verifying that Mr. Belk was not the suspect before releasing him. That process included taking witness statements, coordination with the FBI and Los Angeles Police detectives who were investigating the earlier bank robberies, and examination of the surveillance video from the bank. Police are still searching for the second suspect.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/stargazing/article1308218.html#storylink=cpy
trees August 27th, 2014 at 22:35
I’ve been arrested — several times, in fact — and I have been given the right to a phone call within an hour every single time. Know why? Guess what color my skin is? I’ve had cops let me walk away guilty because I’m a well-dressed, well-spoken white man.
How many times have you been the suspect in an armed bank robbery??
I’ve had cops let me walk away guilty because I’m a well-dressed, well-spoken white man.
And if you walked away guilty it’s because the cops failed to do their job, hardly an argument for the situation which this OP refers to. You see, he was a suspect who fit the description, and they checked him out, determined he wasn’t the suspect they were looking for, and then released him. You were a suspect, who was in fact guilty, and then released. This would be an example of police incompetence. It would seem you are arguing that because you were set free by incompetent cops, that everyone should be set by incompetent cops….
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 22:51
What prompts an idiot like you to argue points you don’t have the first clue about?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 22:52
“How many times have you been the suspect in an armed bank robbery??”
Twice. Now you want to explain why that matters when you’re depriving someone of a phone call?
Just what exactly is your glitch that you’re so freaking horny to absolve these cops of any wrongdoing? Everything they did in this case was wrong. Everything they did was exacerbated by Belk’s skin color. If you can’t see that, then you should really just shut the hell up, because your attempts to argue the point are wildly inadequate.
You clearly have no experience with cops and you argue like a 12-year-old. You make things up, you miss the point over and over, and you don’t even understand the procedure. Jesus, you thought Belk could be assigned bail WITHOUT BEING ARRESTED. You don’t have a freaking clue what you’re talking about. Just go away already.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 23:28
They held him for all of six hours. Not for days, weeks, months, and years.
6 hours is not an unreasonable amount of time to hold a suspect in an armed bank robbery
Evidence, please. He was a suspect matching the description. Until you can prove otherwise.
It would seem that your argument, up to now, has been that the police acted improperly because they detained a suspect for 6 hours. Your logic is this, I’ve broken the law, been apprehended and let go, even though I was in fact guilty, and for this reason the cops in this case are clearly racially prejudiced because they apprehended a black suspect and released him within 6 hours after the FBI interviewed him and reviewed the video tape.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 23:30
Get back to me after you spend 6 hours in a cage, you freaking poseur.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:16
Why don’t you tell us all what crime you committed, you know, the crime you were/are guilty of, the one where the cops let you go because you’re a white guy, and because of this they thought you were innocent?
Are you a badass?
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:35
What purpose would that serve? Suffice it to say I know what it feels like to be locked in a cage and you don’t. That’s the only issue here, no matter how hard you try to change the subject. You trivialize Belk’s experience without ever having gone through it yourself. It’s time you man up and accept that you don’t know sh!t.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:40
I have not trivialized Belk’s experience, I’ve stated that I don’t see any evidence of racism committed by the Beverly Hills PD.
It sucks to be in custody. I can understand that Belk was unhappy. I don’t see any racism practiced by the Beverly Hills PD. All three of these are true statements.
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:43
“I have not trivialized Belk’s experience . . . I can understand that Belk was unhappy.”
You’re “unhappy” when someone bumps into you and knocks the top scoop of your ice cream cone onto the ground, you monstrously ignorant toad.
When you’re locked up with no promise of release, “unhappy” is not the word a sane human being would use.
Thanks for that self-fulfilling evidence. I think we’re done now.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:53
How did Ferguson, MO PD get involved in this case?
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 16:06
Of course you don’t.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:24
Stereotype much?
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 18:17
Nope.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:21
You have RWNJ written all over you.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 15:20
“After an eye witness positively identified the subject in a field
show-up, police arrested Charles Belk for suspicion of robbery.”
This is the scary part. if he didn’t have a good attorney. He would have been tried and convicted. An innocent man would have been sent to jail. And be damn if they violated his rights.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:41
There is a lot of money in the incarceration business.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:43
How do you know “He would have been tried and convicted”? The fact is, if a police officer violates your civil rights you can sue him personally in civil court and if you win, you could end up with his house and everything else he owns…
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:58
Blacks are more likely to be sentenced to prison for the same crime than Whites. One third of people of color sentenced to prison would have received a shorter or non-incarcerative
sentence if they had been treated in court the same way as White defendants facing similar charges.
Racial Inequalities in our criminal justice system
Although Black Americans make up only 12.7% of the U.S. population, they make up 48.2% of adults in federal, state, or local prisons and jails. According to the 1998 federal National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), 72% of users were
White and 15% were Blacks.
Latinos represent just 11.1% of the U.S. population and only 10% of U.S. drug users, yet are 18.6% of the U.S. prison population and 22.5% of those convicted for drug offenses.
On average, 1 in 25 adult American Indians is under the jurisdiction of the nation’s criminal justice system – more than twice the number of White adults in the system.
42.5% of prisoners on Death Row are Black, more than three times the percentage of Black Americans in the national population.
In 2003, in the United States, White people were imprisoned at a rate of 376 per every 100,000 in the population, compared to 709 per 100,000 American Indians, 997 per 100,000 Latinos and 2,526 per 100,000 Blacks in the population.
Black males have a 32% chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives;
Hispanic males have a 17% chance; White males have a 6% chance. If current rates of incarceration continue, about 1 in 3 Black males, 1 in 6 Hispanic males and 1 in 17 White males are expected to go to prison at some point during their lives.
Black youth are more likely to be detained than White
youth. Moreover, Black youth with no prior admissions were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a juvenile facility than a White youth with a similar history. Latino youth were three times more likely to be imprisoned.
Among persons over age 24, Blacks (11.2%) were significantly more likely to be pulled over while driving than Whites (8.9%).
Among drivers stopped for speeding, Blacks (75.7%) and Hispanics (79.4%) were more likely than Whites (66.6%) to be ticketed
Police were more likely to conduct a search of the vehicle and/or driver in traffic stops involving Black male drivers (15.9%) or Hispanic male drivers (14.2%), compared to White male drivers (7.9%).
http://sites.duke.edu/nchumanrights/incarceration-and-criminal-justice/
Bob Cronos August 28th, 2014 at 03:13
Guess what? People in low income areas are more likely to commit crimes than people in higher income areas… Funny how that translates into higher incarceration rates for the poor and dependent…
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:19
Sue the officer in civil court? “And if you win”. You don’t violate their rights. Period!
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 17:47
That should certainly be the goal…
neworleans878 August 27th, 2014 at 16:23
Nope. No problem. My problem is the way they did it.
Honest question…ever been harassed by the cops for no reason?
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:32
“My problem is the way they did it.” — How did they do it?
When I was younger I was stopped and questioned a few times for no apparent reason… I certainly didn’t consider the police doing their job harassment though…
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:00
“…who closely matched the clothing and physical characteristics of the male suspect” —
“…an eye witness positively identified the subject” —
So they weren’t supposed to check him out? Sounds like the police were just doing their job… Leave it to the liberals to bring his race into it just to try and stir things up…
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 15:16
Geezus Bob, they denied him a phone call, set his bail high, didn’t’ read him his Miranda rights, but all of that is OK by you.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:37
Don’t you think bail SHOULD be high for an armed robbery suspect? As far as reading him his rights and denying him a phone call, perhaps he has a civil case against the police…
The point is, you guys would have zero interest in this story if Belk was white… It’s just another attempt to stir up false outrage by focusing on the skin color of the subject instead of the facts of the case…
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 16:05
You see how you’re stereotyping me, Bob? I was against it when the police shot a rubber bullet into one of a vet’s face during Occupy. Scott Olson was as white as I am (which is really really white) and I did not think about race. It was the injustice, which most Republicans applauded at the time.
jasperjava August 27th, 2014 at 17:00
Since when are right-wing white supremacists interested in justice? They don’t care how many Black people are falsely accused, or subject to humiliating treatment. Heck, if they were there they’d be ready with a rope at the nearest tree.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 17:38
I don’t see the injustice here… It was a simple case of mistaken identity and he was released after a brief investigation… Big deal… Probably happens every day…
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:44
They didn’t deny him his phone call, as he had a lawyer, called his lawyer, and was released within 6 hours of being picked up. His bail was high, cause guess what? Suspicion of armed robbery. You see, suspects of this kind of thing get high bail amounts assigned to them. Nobody said, “look at this guy, he’s black, set the bail through the roof, I don’t want this black guy making bail”.
Further, suspects in armed bank robberies are checked out by who?
A) The Beverly Hills PD
B) The California Highway Patrol
C) The FBI
And as far as reading the Miranda, we don’t really know for sure about that, as we weren’t there, which could be easily solved by recording the event. Suspects should be read the Miranda on camera, and acknowledge they heard it. Whether they understand what it means, who knows, I’m sure ignorance will be a defense used by some…
“Belk said he has a hunch as to why it took the Beverly Hills police department six hours to release him. “They had pretty much convinced themselves I was guilty.”
Belk himself admits the officers detained him because they suspected they had the right guy……as he fit the description of the suspect.
After he’s interviewed by an FBI agent, he’s released.
Not seeing the racism here…..
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:54
Of course there’s racism here… He’s black… Don’t you get it? Anytime a white police officer interacts with a black suspect it’s racist… The facts don’t matter to liberals, only skin color…
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:15
Allow me to address the painfully obvious. Your condescending tone does you no favors here. Trying to pretend that racism doesn’t exist in this country marks you as an idiot, not as a witty poster.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 17:45
Who said racism doesn’t exist? It certainly doesn’t exist every single time a white officer arrests a black suspect though…
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 18:09
Then try to keep your snide, ugly condescension in check.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:38
Well, thanks for the advice deck, but I’ll exercise my first amendment rights any way I want just like you do…
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:58
The facts are that he was an innocent man who was denied his rights. This is not a liberal issue. This is a race issue.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:51
Actually, this is a law enforcement issue that liberals are trying to turn into a race issue…
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 19:07
Actually, this is a race issue that conservatives PRETEND is a law enforcement issue.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 23:22
Actually, it’s only a race issue to those who see racism in every interaction between blacks and whites…
OldLefty August 28th, 2014 at 06:20
Actually, it’s only a race issue to those who see racism in every interaction between blacks and whites.
________
Exactly.
Like too many cops in white neighborhoods.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:02
So, you apparently accept the word of the BHPD that this man was ID’ed by an eyewitness and his clothes were identical to the ones worn by the actual perp? So how do you explain the fact that the eyewitness was 100% wrong? Because Belk had a twin brother in the vicinity? A clone perhaps? Or maybe that the suspect was described as tall, black and bald, and the rest was filled in after the fact to justify the detention of a fully innocent man without reading or delivering his Miranda rights. A man can be brought into the precinct on suspicion of being involved and interviewed by detectives without charging him first. A phone call to any one of Belk’s lunch companions would have quickly disproved the possibility of his involvement in the bank caper. But did he receive any of those common procedural niceties? Not a chance. Know why?
Take a freaking guess.
Your attempts to bend over backward to excuse this police misconduct is pathetic.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:17
He matched the description. He matched the description closely enough to be a suspect in a crime. Do you honestly think that only people who match a description exactly, as in wearing the exact same articles of clothing, (as if you couldn’t change your shirt), are detained?
No idea what you’re talking about. Is it your assertion that the eyewitness is prejudiced, and that the eyewitness wanted the wrong person arrested?
Apparently you think nobody black should have been detained and checked out, cause we all know that it would be impossible for a black suspect to be guilty.
Yes. A suspect can be held for 48 hours without being charged.
This may surprise you, but detectives are interested in getting the actual criminal, not just somebody who they think they can frame.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:26
You have no idea what I’m talking about when I say the eyewitness was 100% wrong? Did Belk commit the crime? No, he did not, as stated by the BHPD. Therefore, someone who claims to have seen him do it is lying. Yes? I’m making no claim about racism in that sentence — the claim is that I don’t believe this eyewitness ever existed.
Your attempts to read discrimination into every sentence I’ve written is not only annoyingly incorrect but it speaks loudly regarding your state of mind. You are so eager to justify police misconduct — which happens to blacks and whites alike, but in this case happened to a black man — that you cannot even read the words as written.
You say the police have the right to hold someone for 48 hours. The purpose of this is not to let innocent people remain pointlessly locked up when their innocence can be determined in 10 minutes. The 48-hour hold is for getting an ID in difficult cases or compiling evidence or interviewing suspects that the police fully believe to be guilty, based on whatever other evidence they may have compiled, before having to set someone free. THE PURPOSE IS NOT TO HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO DETAIN INNOCENT MEN WHOSE INNOCENCE CAN BE DETERMINED IN MERE MINUTES.
Btw, your last paragraph makes absolutely no sense. If “detectives are interested in getting the actual criminal, not just somebody who they think they can frame,” they should have been eager to discover who this Belk was and whether he was involved, rather than letting him languish in a cell. You’re actually making my point for me.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:34
The officers who detained and brought the suspect in were not the authorities charged with investigating and clearing, or charging, the suspect
The authorities charged with the responsibility of investigating were, who?
A) The Santa Monica PD
B) The Ferguson MO PD
C) The District of Columbia’s Medical Examiner’s office
D) The FBI
E) The California Highway Patrol
F) The Beverly Hills PD
G) The detaining officer’s mom
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:42
You are not addressing the point, sir. It does not matter to whom this responsibility falls — it could be accomplished in short order. But it wasn’t. It was dragged out. Are you suggesting that the BH detectives could only be reached by Pony Express? I have no ideas what point you’re trying to make with that list. It has no bearing on this discussion.
A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney, if the BHPD detective squad hadn’t already done it for him. Belk was not read his rights. Belk was denied a phone call for hours. This is not the treatment afforded white men. I’ve been arrested — several times, in fact — and I have been given the right to a phone call within an hour every single time. Know why? Guess what color my skin is? I’ve had cops let me walk away guilty because I’m a well-dressed, well-spoken white man.
Let me emphasize one highly salient point here:
YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:53
And, if this is the case, the cops failed to their job then, didn’t they?
Claiming that the Beverly Hills PD acted in a racially motivated fashion, because they picked up a suspect who matched the description of the suspect that they were looking for, and by asserting that you escaped detection by a different set of investigators, in a completely different set of circumstances, because of your race, and claiming that this argument proves that the Beverly Hills PD acted in a way that you’ve determined to be true, absent of any first hand experience of the events which transpired in the Beverly Hills case, is known as straw-manning.
strawman
You misrepresented someone’s argument to make it easier to attack. By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone’s argument, it’s much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate.
Example: After Will said that we should put more money into health and education, Warren responded by saying that he was surprised that Will hates our country so much that he wants to leave it defenceless by cutting military spending.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:57
I don’t have a clue what you’re babbling about. I made my point and you evaded it. Try to focus: “A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney, if the BHPD detective squad hadn’t already done it for him. Belk was not read his rights. Belk was denied a phone call for hours. This is not the treatment afforded white men in that police precinct.”
That is all that matters here. I was using personal experience to back up my claims while you use fairy dust and obfuscation. You clearly have no idea what a strawman is. I’m sorry, but this discussion is no longer productive. Good day.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:24
I don’t have a clue what you’re babbling about. I made my point and you evaded it. Try to focus: “A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney, if the BHPD detective squad hadn’t already done it for him. Belk was not read his rights. Belk was denied a phone call for hours. This is not the treatment afforded white men in that police precinct.”
You mashed it up in your head, just as I suggested you were doing earlier, when you misread every one of my statements as an accusation of racism.
????
Dude, seriously, you need to figure out what it is that you’re trying to say here….
Was the detainment of Mr Belk a racist action on the part of the Beverly Hills PD or not?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:25
I don’t have a clue
Clearly
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:37
Ooh, stabbed me to the heart with virtual anagrams. You’re quite a guy.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:41
Well, start making sense then, mmkay?
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:54
“mmkay?” Y’know, the last person who wrote “mmkay” to me was my 12-year-old niece who was discussing an afternoon get-together at the Aquarium. Your inability to understand the inequity that characterized the treatment Charles Belk was handed by the BHPD is a very sad commentary on America in general and you in specific. You are a desperately insufficient example of American manhood, if indeed you’re a man at all. (I would not be shocked if you were a teenager or a young girl, based on the insipidly adolescent nature of your commentary.) Let me make this clear once and for all. YOU ARE NOT WORTH ANOTHER NANOSECOND OF MY TIME.
Good night.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:05
Your inability to understand the inequity that characterized the treatment Charles Belk was handed by the BHPD is a very sad commentary on America in general and you in specific.
The inequity of treatment? A lack of fairness or justice? Because an armed robbery suspect was apprehended and held for 6 hours before being cleared and released?
Wow….
Please tell me, in your honest opinion, how long should Mr Belk have been detained? Cause I’m pretty certain that 6 hours is just about light speed in these matters…..
Or, is it your contention that white males suspected of armed bank robbery are never brought in and held longer than an hour?
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 01:09
You are truly just too stupid for words. It’s not as though someone says, “It will be about 6 hours and then you can go home.” You are sitting there with no communication, no rights, and hour after hour passes, convincing you, an entirely innocent man, that you will never be free again. It might not be a reasonable conclusion, but these are not reasonable circumstances. You act like this whole thing is tantamount to a trip to the DMV. There will be lots of long lines, and it will take a while, but eventually you’ll be done and going home. It’s not like that, dumbass. You have been grabbed off the street, having done nothing at all, and humiliated and caged in a cell. Hours pass and you have no idea if it will ever end. Your inability to empathize with this marks you as an inhuman kind of person. Person, hell. Kind of thing. I truly wish, with all my heart, I could see you caught up in this kind of police mistreatment. You would be bawling so quickly, and looking for anyone to help you. You have the perfect constitution to make someone a wonderful prison bitch someday.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:22
You’re gonna make someone a wonderful prison bitch someday.
I guess we all know what fantasy you’ll be having later…..
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:09
“I truly wish, with all my heart, I could see you caught up in this kind of police mistreatment.”
That’s hatred. That’s a kind of hatred that is ugly. You can hate all you want, I don’t have any use for it…..
Oh, and the person who’s responsible for Mr Belk’s 6 hours of incarceration is the guy who robbed the bank. You know, the one who matches the description of Mr Belk.
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:12
How could it be hatred when you don’t accept that any mistreatment existed in this case? By your reckoning, I am asking that you share a pleasant afternoon in a police precinct, assisting the authorities in their righteous search for truth and justice.
So let me see if I have this right. The police are not responsible for Belk’s mistreatment. The bank robber is.
Another in a seemingly endless line of unintelligible comments.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:17
Mr Belk would have never spent 6 hours in police custody if someone else who looked a lot like Belk hadn’t robbed the bank….
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:22
It is great the way you’re able to ignore every comment that’s already been made and act as though you just walked into this discussion. Is that a clinical problem? Short-term memory loss? Amnesia? Or are you just too dense for words?
I have to commend you for the new levels of stupidity you have reached in this exchange. You have managed to ignore every comment made in response to your questions while repeating the exact same useless points over and over, ad nauseum. You truly are an unusually stupid person, and in some respects that represents an achievement. I suggest you print out this comment and frame it for your wall so all your pals in junior high will be able to see the level of accomplishment you managed here today.
Here, why not take a look at what some other people — people a lot smarter than you — are saying about this case.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/walking-while-black-beverly-hills-arrests
http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/08/26/46301/beverly-hills-police-defend-arrest-of-black-film-p/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/26/charles-belk-beverly-hills
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/08/26/3475685/police-detain-film-producer-because-he-fit-profile-of-tall-black-and-bald/
Be sure to read the comment sections. You will find there are very few idiots out there siding with your take on the case.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:18
How did the police “mistreat” Belk?
Oh, they thought he might be the guy they were looking for….
Got it.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 04:03
Belk was not mistreated. That’s false assertion # 1
And yes, the bank robber who committed the crime is, and here you might want to sit down and wait for it…..
Guilty of committing the crime which generated the BOLO which led to the apprehension of a suspect who fit the description….
A tall, bald, black, male.
Who was also identified by an eyewitness, and yes sometimes people make mistakes.
And I’m sorry if this doesn’t square with your narrative that the only reason Belk was picked up was because he was black.
We both know that Belk’s being black was only relevant in that he fit the description of the suspect who was wanted in connection with the bank robbery.
Or is it your contention that the BHPD were just out looking to screw with the first black guy they found that day?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:14
Your inability to empathize with this marks you as an inhuman kind of person.
Empathy gets lost when dealing with knuckleheads who can’t assign responsibility to the proper party. The issue isn’t the cops. The issue is the dude who robbed the bank and looked a lot like Mr Belk, you want to scream about something, scream about that….
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:20
You have a remarkable ability to speed right past your established stupidity into a new realm of uncharted lunacy. I’ve spoken with hundreds of people online, many of whom held opinions contrary to my own, but I don’t think I’ve ever met a person of quite your clownish proportions. You seem to have absolutely no recognition of the depths of fatuousness you routinely reach. You move right past one idiot notion after another with no concern for your own humiliation. That is truly a gift.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:45
I’m going to say goodnight, deckbose. I will state, for the last time tonight, that I don’t see any evidence of police misconduct in this matter. Is it unfortunate that Mr Belk was detained and held in suspicion of armed robbery? Yes. Do I wish this on another innocent man/woman? No. Do I understand that sometimes someone matches the description of a criminal suspect? Yes. Do I think that the criminal at large should be apprehended? Yes. Do I think that a suspect in an armed bank robbery can be cleared by regular patrolmen at the curbside in a couple minutes? No. Would I like to see you falsely charged and detained? No. If you had committed a crime would I like to see you apprehended and prosecuted? Yes. Would it matter to me what color you are? No.
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 01:17
You’re “pretty certain that 6 hours is just about light speed in these matters…..”
And that expert appraisal is based on what exactly? Your extensive experience with the criminal justice system? Or your box set of Murder, She Wrote DVDs?
Well, at least we can all see that you’re not trivializing Belk’s experience. According to you, the Beverly Hills PD processed Belk in “light speed.” What’s six hours when you’re locked in a cage with no rights, no phone call, no attorney . . . I mean, how bad can it be when the police are working at “light speed”?
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:40
Why don’t you tell me how long a time period Mr Belk should have been detained? What’s an acceptable period of time for someone who’s suspected of committing an armed bank robbery to be in police custody? 5 min? 10 min? an Hour? Should the FBI have rushed an agent over to the police station so they could hurry and clear the suspect?
BHPD call to the FBI….”Hey, hi, yeah this is Dave, over at BHPD, hey listen, we got this guy we picked up and he says he’s innocent, and well, we’d like to release him asap and not a minute longer.
FBI…. “Are you serious?”
I know, I know, you’re busy, but listen, this guy, well, I think he should be released as quickly as possible, can you send someone over right now?? I know it’s not how it’s usually done, but I’m thinking we can get him cleared right away, please?
FBI….. “hold on, let me check…yeah, ok, agent so and so is the agent in charge, he’s busy right now interviewing a suspect over in Fontana, that the Fontana cops think is innocent too, but as soon as he’s finished I’ll send him your way”
BHPD…..”Oh, that would be fantastic, thanks a bunch!”
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 01:44
OK, wait, now you’re making up conversations between law enforcement officials? That’s good. At least we’re staying within the bounds of reality. Because your experience with law enforcement is already established as completely naught, why not make up some dialogue. Good work!
“Why don’t you tell me how long a time period Mr Belk should have been detained?”
Zero. He should never have been detained at all. He should have been interviewed on the spot and eliminated as a suspect.
That’s what would have happened with any well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills.
Bet your empty, useless, dumbass life on it.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 01:51
“Zero. He should never have been detained at all. He should have been interviewed on the spot and eliminated as a suspect.”
I know this is going to come as a shock, but when someone is suspected of being involved in an armed bank robbery they are brought in and interviewed by the FBI. The cops at the scene lack the authority to make the call.
Through the process, through the process, here, we’ll say it together, through the process…..
6 hours is not a very long time
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 02:08
Allow me to inquire again, given that you evaded the question when originally posed: What experience are you drawing on when making these pronouncements? The police department press release?
Please. Just stop. I don’t know if you could possibly humiliate yourself any more than you already have, but quoting a press release as evidence of police procedure is just a tad too pathetic for words.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 02:23
For someone who claims to have intimate knowledge of how things work, you are amazingly ignorant. There is a procedure that has to be followed when the cops pick up a suspect in an armed bank robbery They have to thoroughly investigate the suspect, and this is not a 5 minute curbside conversation.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 17:02
This is not a straw man at all.
It’s an observation of a long, well established pattern.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 17:12
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 17:13
Now that was a strawman argument because you completely misrepresented what I said. I made my point about how whites are treated in police detention, which is based on very personal observation. I combined that with quotes from Belk’s own posting. You mashed it up in your head, just as I suggested you were doing earlier, when you misread every one of my statements as an accusation of racism. You clearly have trouble separating the words on the page from the words in your head, and I’ve got to tell you, the words in your head make no sense at all and have no relation to the discussion at hand.
This is a very unpleasant side effect of arguing with stupid people. They are unable to keep the discussion on the page separated from the voices in their heads, and end up dragging other posters down into some vortex of insanity that is so far off the point that screaming at them is the only recourse.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:20
You mashed it up in your head, just as I suggested you were doing earlier, when you misread every one of my statements as an accusation of racism.
Ok, so you’re saying that there’s no racism by the Beverly Hills PD in the arrest of the suspect, Mr Belk??
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 17:22
strawman; You misrepresented someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.
_______
No one is doing that.
You are ignoring the facts that don’t fit your version.
trees has not established that his opinion is in keeping with the facts.
That does not make a “straw man”.
Your opponent of accusing you of wanting to detain and arrest all black men would be a straw man.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 19:08
trees has not established that his opinion is in keeping with the facts.
My opinion is entirely in keeping with the facts.
Fact 1) Mr Belk is a black man fitting the description of a suspect in an armed bank robbery in Beverly Hills, CA
Fact 2) Mr Belk was detained by the Beverly Hills PD
Fact 3) Mr Belk was interviewed by the FBI and released within 6 hours of his initial detainment
Not seeing the racism here, can you point it out for me?
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 20:40
You leave out;
1) It was unnecessary.
They had video.
2) They do not treat white people like that, (they would have spoken to him in private, and asked him to come with them (at worst).
“As he said;
Within an evening, I was wrongly arrested, locked up, denied a phone call, denied explanation of charges against me, denied ever being read my rights, denied being able to speak to my lawyer for a lengthy time, and denied being told that my car had been impounded…..All because I was mis-indentified as the wrong “tall, bald head, black male,” … “fitting the 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.
3) He was arrested and bail was set at $100,000 .
trees August 27th, 2014 at 22:41
You fail to acknowledge that it was the FBI who had authority in the matter, not the arresting officer. The arresting officer is always going to leave the decision to the department with the authority in the matter. We’re not talking about a shoplifting charge.
If you think the FBI is going to drop everything and rush an agent out to the location for the purposes of watching the video, so they can expedite the release of a suspect, you’re just plain goofy. Six hours, start to finish, that’s how long it took. Not an unreasonable amount of time.
You’re wrong. Suspected bank robbers are not treated like traffic ticket scofflaws, color notwithstanding. If you’re white and suspected of armed bank robbery you’re not going to be given a lot of latitude in how you’re treated.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:55
“A well-dressed white man in Beverly Hills would have been afforded the luxury of a phone call to his attorney,”
He would not have been arrested.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:58
Mr Belk was not arrested either
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:59
“Within an hour, I was transported to the Beverly Hills Police Headquarters, photographed, finger printed and put under a $100,000 bail and accused of armed bank robbery and accessory to robbery of a Citibank.”
No one gets bail without an arraignment. And no one goes to arraignment without being arrested. Try to keep up.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 17:11
He was arrested, and bail was set at $100,000.
“The Beverly Hills Police Department deeply regrets the inconvenience to Mr. Belk and has reached out to him to express those regrets and further explain the circumstances,” the statement read.
“However, based on witness accounts, and his location close to the bank, officers properly detained and arrested him based on the totality of the circumstances known at the time of the field investigation.
“The Police Department protocol requires that they go through the process of thoroughly verifying that Mr. Belk was not the suspect before releasing him. That process included taking witness statements, coordination with the FBI and Los Angeles Police detectives who were investigating the earlier bank robberies, and examination of the surveillance video from the bank. Police are still searching for the second suspect.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/stargazing/article1308218.html#storylink=cpy
trees August 27th, 2014 at 22:35
I’ve been arrested — several times, in fact — and I have been given the right to a phone call within an hour every single time. Know why? Guess what color my skin is? I’ve had cops let me walk away guilty because I’m a well-dressed, well-spoken white man.
How many times have you been the suspect in an armed bank robbery??
I’ve had cops let me walk away guilty because I’m a well-dressed, well-spoken white man.
And if you walked away guilty it’s because the cops failed to do their job, hardly an argument for the situation which this OP refers to. You see, he was a suspect who fit the description, and they checked him out, determined he wasn’t the suspect they were looking for, and then released him. You were a suspect, who was in fact guilty, and then released. This would be an example of police incompetence. It would seem you are arguing that because you were set free by incompetent cops, that everyone should be set free by incompetent cops….
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 22:51
What prompts an idiot like you to argue points you don’t have the first clue about?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 22:52
“How many times have you been the suspect in an armed bank robbery??”
Twice. Now you want to explain why that matters when you’re depriving someone of a phone call?
“And if you walked away guilty it’s because the cops failed to do their job, hardly an argument for the situation which this OP refers to. You see, he was a suspect who fit the description, and they checked him out, determined he wasn’t the suspect they were looking for, and then released him.”
Why does it seem you would say the same thing if they held the man for two weeks, or for two months? They released him, didn’t they? What’s all the hubbub, bub? He was eventually let go. Why quibble over hours or days or weeks or months?
Just what exactly is your glitch that you’re so freaking horny to absolve these cops of any wrongdoing? Everything they did in this case was wrong. Everything they did was exacerbated by Belk’s skin color. If you can’t see that, then you should really just shut the hell up, because your attempts to argue the point are wildly inadequate.
You clearly have no experience with cops and you argue like a 12-year-old. You make things up, you miss the point over and over, and you don’t even understand the procedure. Jesus, you thought Belk could be assigned bail WITHOUT BEING ARRESTED. You don’t have a freaking clue what you’re talking about. Just go away already.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 23:28
They held him for all of six hours. Not for days, weeks, months, and years.
6 hours is not an unreasonable amount of time to hold a suspect in an armed bank robbery
Evidence, please. He was a suspect matching the description. Until you can prove otherwise.
It would seem that your argument, up to now, has been that the police acted improperly because they detained a suspect for 6 hours. Your logic is this, I’ve broken the law, been apprehended and let go, even though I was in fact guilty, and for this reason the cops in this case are clearly racially prejudiced because they apprehended a black suspect and released him within 6 hours after the FBI interviewed him and reviewed the video tape.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 23:30
“Oh, it’s only 6 hours,” you say. I’d love to be there when they lock you down, with no guarantee of ever getting out. You would be wetting your pants in 30 minutes. No, make it 20 minutes. Please, tell me how tough you are, how much lockdown time you could handle, and why Belk shouldn’t be upset about 6 hours. Please. Please. Put it in words.
Here’s the juice, little tree. Stop talking about things you do not understand. You’re making a fool of yourself. When you know what it’s like to be locked up, with everyone ignoring you, acting like you’re nothing, like you’re an animal in a cage, like you don’t even exist, ignoring all your Constitutional rights, letting you think you will never see daylight again, then — and only then — can you talk about “It’s only 6 hours.”
You have attempted to minimize the one thing you know nothing about — being put in a cage. Your entire premise is that it’s no big deal to be grabbed off the street, having done absolutely nothing wrong, to be humiliated in public while cops cuff you and surround you like a common criminal, right on the street, mind you, in the place you do business everyday, and then to be whisked away to jail where you are caged without any recognition of your rights, for a period of time that you have no idea will ever end. You know the stipulations of the Patriot Act, dude? You can be grabbed and disappeared without ever getting the opportunity to talk to a lawyer or your family or your congressman or ANYONE. When you’re innocent and you’ve been swept up by the police, are you suffering the delusion that the cops keep you informed of what’s happening? Why you’re there, how long it will take, when you’re likely to see the sky again? NONE OF THAT HAPPENS. As far as you know, you’re about to be renditioned to Yemen, where you can be tortured by the CIA. Sound wild? You simply have no idea what you’re talking about, how awful it is, how dehumanizing it is. You keep minimizing so you come here and act like it’s nothing. Get back to me after you spend 6 hours in a cage, you freaking poseur, just like this innocent man Belk did, and then you can pontificate like a priss about how trivial it was.
Until then, STFU.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:16
Why don’t you tell us all what crime you committed, you know, the crime you were/are guilty of, the one where the cops let you go because you’re a white guy, and because of this they thought you were innocent?
Are you a badass?
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:35
What purpose would that serve? Suffice it to say I know what it feels like to be locked in a cage and you don’t. That’s the only issue here, no matter how hard you try to change the subject. You trivialize Belk’s experience without ever having gone through it yourself. It’s time you man up and accept that you don’t know sh!t. You’re so eager to bend over for the police, this is turning man-on-man porn. Why don’t quit while you’re ahead, which is to say quit now before you embarrass yourself so thoroughly that you’ll never be able to post here again without eliciting gales of laughter.
trees August 28th, 2014 at 00:40
I have not trivialized Belk’s experience, I’ve stated that I don’t see any evidence of racism committed by the Beverly Hills PD.
It sucks to be in custody. I can understand that Belk was unhappy. I don’t see any racism practiced by the Beverly Hills PD. All three of these are true statements.
deckbose August 28th, 2014 at 00:43
“I have not trivialized Belk’s experience . . . I can understand that Belk was unhappy.”
You’re “unhappy” when someone bumps into you and knocks the top scoop of your ice cream cone onto the ground, you monstrously ignorant toad.
When you’re locked up with no promise of release, “unhappy” is not the word a sane human being would use.
Thanks for that self-fulfilling evidence. I think we’re done now.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:53
How did Ferguson, MO PD get involved in this case?
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 16:06
Of course you don’t.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:24
Stereotype much?
Anomaly 100 August 27th, 2014 at 18:17
Nope.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:21
You have RWNJ written all over you.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 15:20
“After an eye witness positively identified the subject in a field
show-up, police arrested Charles Belk for suspicion of robbery.”
This is the scary part. if he didn’t have a good attorney. He would have been tried and convicted. An innocent man would have been sent to jail. And be damn if they violated his rights.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:41
There is a lot of money in the incarceration business.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:43
How do you know “He would have been tried and convicted”? The fact is, if a police officer violates your civil rights you can sue him personally in civil court and if you win, you could end up with his house and everything else he owns…
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:58
Blacks are more likely to be sentenced to prison for the same crime than Whites. One third of people of color sentenced to prison would have received a shorter or non-incarcerative
sentence if they had been treated in court the same way as White defendants facing similar charges.
Racial Inequalities in our criminal justice system
Although Black Americans make up only 12.7% of the U.S. population, they make up 48.2% of adults in federal, state, or local prisons and jails. According to the 1998 federal National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), 72% of users were
White and 15% were Blacks.
Latinos represent just 11.1% of the U.S. population and only 10% of U.S. drug users, yet are 18.6% of the U.S. prison population and 22.5% of those convicted for drug offenses.
On average, 1 in 25 adult American Indians is under the jurisdiction of the nation’s criminal justice system – more than twice the number of White adults in the system.
42.5% of prisoners on Death Row are Black, more than three times the percentage of Black Americans in the national population.
In 2003, in the United States, White people were imprisoned at a rate of 376 per every 100,000 in the population, compared to 709 per 100,000 American Indians, 997 per 100,000 Latinos and 2,526 per 100,000 Blacks in the population.
Black males have a 32% chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives;
Hispanic males have a 17% chance; White males have a 6% chance. If current rates of incarceration continue, about 1 in 3 Black males, 1 in 6 Hispanic males and 1 in 17 White males are expected to go to prison at some point during their lives.
Black youth are more likely to be detained than White
youth. Moreover, Black youth with no prior admissions were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a juvenile facility than a White youth with a similar history. Latino youth were three times more likely to be imprisoned.
Among persons over age 24, Blacks (11.2%) were significantly more likely to be pulled over while driving than Whites (8.9%).
Among drivers stopped for speeding, Blacks (75.7%) and Hispanics (79.4%) were more likely than Whites (66.6%) to be ticketed
Police were more likely to conduct a search of the vehicle and/or driver in traffic stops involving Black male drivers (15.9%) or Hispanic male drivers (14.2%), compared to White male drivers (7.9%).
http://sites.duke.edu/nchumanrights/incarceration-and-criminal-justice/
Bob Cronos August 28th, 2014 at 03:13
Guess what? People in low income areas are more likely to commit crimes than people in higher income areas… Funny how that translates into higher incarceration rates for the poor and dependent…
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:19
Sue the officer in civil court? “And if you win”. You don’t violate their rights. Period!
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 17:47
That should certainly be the goal…
nola878 August 27th, 2014 at 16:23
Nope. No problem. My problem is the way they did it.
Honest question…ever been harassed by the cops for no reason?
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:32
“My problem is the way they did it.” — How did they do it?
When I was younger I was stopped and questioned a few times for no apparent reason… I certainly didn’t consider the police doing their job harassment though…
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:22
Really? You’re gonna try and make a big deal out of a suspect being investigated? Again? We’ve been all through this…..
http://www.alan.com/2014/08/25/innocent-man-arrested-for-walking-while-black-in-beverly-hills/#disqus_thread
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 15:39
Investigate? They were about ready to look the door permanently and throw away the key!
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:53
I know this comes as quite a shock to you, but that’s not how it works.
The suspect is interviewed.
The detectives assemble the evidence and build their case based upon their findings.
Charges are brought.
The case is tried in court.
A jury hears the evidence. (12 impartial civilians listen to the arguments for and against the suspect, the suspect is given a presumption of innocence throughout the trial)
A verdict is rendered.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:04
Stop right there at Number 3, pal. Any simple detective work would have sprung this man in an instant.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:15
He could have stopped at #1
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:16
It may come to a shock to you. That you system doesn’t work in this order for ALL citizens!
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:22
Really? You’re gonna try and make a big deal out of a suspect being investigated? Again? We’ve been all through this…..
http://www.alan.com/2014/08/25/innocent-man-arrested-for-walking-while-black-in-beverly-hills/#disqus_thread
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 15:39
Investigate? They were about ready to look the door permanently and throw away the key!
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:53
I know this comes as quite a shock to you, but that’s not how it works.
The suspect is interviewed.
The detectives assemble the evidence and build their case based upon their findings.
Charges are brought.
The case is tried in court.
A jury hears the evidence. (12 impartial civilians listen to the arguments for and against the suspect, the suspect is given a presumption of innocence throughout the trial)
A verdict is rendered.
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:04
Stop right there at Number 3, pal. Any simple detective work would have sprung this man in an instant.
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:15
He could have stopped at #1
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 16:16
It may come to a shock to you. That you system doesn’t work in this order for ALL citizens!
juicyfruityyy August 27th, 2014 at 15:35
Well, let’s just cut through the chase. What they meant was a tall, bald head, black male that had the nerves to be in Beverly Hills.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:40
As he said;
“Hey, I was ‘tall,’ ‘bald,’ a ‘male’ and ‘black,’ so I fit the description …
“All they saw, was someone fitting the description. Doesn’t matter if he’s a ‘Taye Diggs BLACK,’ a ‘LL Cool J BLACK,’ or ‘Drake BLACK …
“I get that the Beverly Hills Police Department didn’t know that I was a well educated American citizen that had received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, an MBA from Indiana University … and an executive leadership certificate from Harvard Business School.
“Hey, I was ‘tall,’ ‘bald,’ a ‘male’ and ‘black,’ so I fit the description …
“What I don’t get………WHAT I DONT 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.”
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:44
“…an eye witness positively identified the subject” —
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:12
An eyewitness who was 100% wrong. Let’s not forget that part. Which leads me to believe that no such eyewitness ever existed at all. The eyewitness gag has been used by cops for eons to justify rousting people. This one was a phantom. conjured up to explain why the BHPD held a fully innocent man for hours without making the slightest effort to find the truth about him.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:20
So we should ignore eyewitnesses because some are mistaken? Here, the police conducted a brief investigation, found that the eyewitness was wrong, and released the suspect after a few hours… So, what’s the big deal again?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 18:29
I didn’t say we should ignore an actual eyewitness. I’m suggesting this eyewitness doesn’t exist at all. Much in the same manner you suggested that Belk just doesn’t recall getting read his Miranda rights.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:47
I have no idea if Belk was read his rights and neither do you, just like you have no idea if there was a witness or not.. What’s the point of trying to make up “facts”?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 18:53
This is a time-honored police routine, claiming an eyewitness picked you out. The eyewitness, by law, cannot be identified, except in court, and by then all the charges have been dropped. The police get a convenient excuse to roust people and never have to prove a thing. If there had really been an eyewitness, the BHPD would never have offered such a servile apology. The whole thing stinks of bullshit. Can I prove it? Of course not. I’m just not one of those people who bend over backwards to justify police misconduct. Seen way too much of it in my lifetime. If you enjoy being a dupe, you have every right to it.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 22:55
You understand that the police could have held him for 72 hours without charging him with anything, right? Instead he was released in a few hours…
” who bend over backwards to justify police misconduct.” — And yet you have absolutley no evidence that there was any police misconduct… You just claim there was because that fits your agenda… Not much of an agenda if you have to back it up with fantasy instead of facts…
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 23:01
Oh, so he should be grateful the cops didn’t hold an easily determined innocent man for three days??? Are you for real? I answered this idiot point already. You’re suggesting he should be grateful he got out by that night? Yeah, throw innocent men in jail for a couple days — why should they complain if they get out within a day or two? Give cops their due — it’s not easy to make a phone call to determine a man’s innocence. There’s the dialing, and the asking a question — that can be very trying.
Go back to Breitbart, you right-wing freak. Your idiot ideas are not valid here.
Judgeforyourself37 August 27th, 2014 at 16:21
Eye witnesses are notoriously wrong. The shock of the moment when an event occurs distorts what people see.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:11
So we should ignore eyewitnesses?
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:47
Cops apprehend suspects.
Suspects are interviewed by detectives.
Patrolmen do not clear armed bank robbery suspects, they bring them in for further investigation.
See how that works?
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:59
We DO see how it works.
That’s the problem.
See how many times it happens to white suspects.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:02
So, your claim is that just as many crimes occur in white communities as black communities, but that the police only enforce the law in black communities?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:10
That’s not his claim, and your attempt to change the subject is transparent.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 16:11
No.
My claim is that, as I posted below;
Blacks are more likely to be sentenced to prison for the same crime than Whites. One third of people of color sentenced to prison would have received a shorter or non-incarcerative
sentence if they had been treated in court the same way as White defendants facing similar charges.
Black youth are more likely to be detained than White
youth. Moreover, Black youth with no prior admissions were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a juvenile facility than a White youth with a similar history. Latino youth were three times more likely to be imprisoned.
Among persons over age 24, Blacks (11.2%) were significantly more likely to be pulled over while driving than Whites (8.9%).
Among drivers stopped for speeding, Blacks (75.7%) and Hispanics (79.4%) were more likely than Whites (66.6%) to be ticketed
Police were more likely to conduct a search of the vehicle and/or driver in traffic stops involving Black male drivers (15.9%) or Hispanic male drivers (14.2%), compared to White male drivers (7.9%).
http://sites.duke.edu/nchumanr…
whatthe46 August 27th, 2014 at 20:37
murder happens all the time in white communities, a lot of them with more evil than in black communities.
whatthe46 August 27th, 2014 at 20:36
i wonder what the cops would have done if it were a white male, blonde hair and carrying a briefcase, would they have stopped all that they saw, handcuffed them, sit them on the side walk, wait for the paddy wagon and hall them all down to the jail and sort it out there?
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:40
As he said;
“Hey, I was ‘tall,’ ‘bald,’ a ‘male’ and ‘black,’ so I fit the description …
“All they saw, was someone fitting the description. Doesn’t matter if he’s a ‘Taye Diggs BLACK,’ a ‘LL Cool J BLACK,’ or ‘Drake BLACK …
“I get that the Beverly Hills Police Department didn’t know that I was a well educated American citizen that had received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, an MBA from Indiana University … and an executive leadership certificate from Harvard Business School.
“Hey, I was ‘tall,’ ‘bald,’ a ‘male’ and ‘black,’ so I fit the description …
“What I don’t get………WHAT I DONT 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.”
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 15:44
“…an eye witness positively identified the subject” —
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:12
An eyewitness who was 100% wrong. Let’s not forget that part. Which leads me to believe that no such eyewitness ever existed at all. The eyewitness gag has been used by cops for eons to justify rousting people. This one was a phantom. conjured up to explain why the BHPD held a fully innocent man for hours without making the slightest effort to find the truth about him.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:20
So we should ignore eyewitnesses because some are mistaken? Here, the police conducted a brief investigation, found that the eyewitness was wrong, and released the suspect after a few hours… So, what’s the big deal again?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 18:29
I didn’t say we should ignore an actual eyewitness. I’m suggesting this eyewitness doesn’t exist at all. Much in the same manner you suggested that Belk just doesn’t recall getting read his Miranda rights.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:47
I have no idea if Belk was read his rights and neither do you, just like you have no idea if there was a witness or not.. What’s the point of trying to make up “facts”?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 18:53
This is a time-honored police routine, claiming an eyewitness picked you out. The eyewitness, by law, cannot be identified, except in court, and by then all the charges have been dropped. The police get a convenient excuse to roust people and never have to prove a thing. If there had really been an eyewitness, the BHPD would never have offered such a servile apology. The whole thing stinks of bullshit. Can I prove it? Of course not. I’m just not one of those people who bend over backwards to justify police misconduct. Seen way too much of it in my lifetime. If you enjoy being a dupe, you have every right to it.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 22:55
You understand that the police could have held him for 72 hours without charging him with anything, right? Instead he was released in a few hours…
” who bend over backwards to justify police misconduct.” — And yet you have absolutley no evidence that there was any police misconduct… You just claim there was because that fits your agenda… Not much of an agenda if you have to back it up with fantasy instead of facts…
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 23:01
Oh, so he should be grateful the cops didn’t hold an easily determined innocent man for several days??? Are you for real? I answered this idiot point already. Scroll back.
You’re suggesting Belk should be grateful he got out by that night? Yeah, what the hell, throw innocent men in jail for a couple days — why should they complain if they get out within a day or two? Gotta give cops their due — it’s not easy to make a phone call to determine a man’s innocence, even if they’re given the phone number. It can still be very trying. There’s the dialing, after all, and then asking a question — that can be very hard. It could take several days.
Is that your agenda, Bob? Letting cops hold innocent men in jail for days on end because they can? You’re quite the champion of civil rights, aren’t you, Bob?
By the way, I just checked your facts and, not surprisingly, they are incorrect. “If you committed an offense that requires you to remain in “custody” (that is, in jail), you must be arraigned within 48 hours of your arrest, not including weekends and holidays. This timeframe establishes the maximum amount of time the police and prosecutors have to place you before a judge.” http://www.shouselaw.com/arraignment-hearing.html
48 hours, Bob. Not 72. So where do you get your facts? Just pull them out of your butt?
Judgeforyourself37 August 27th, 2014 at 16:21
Eye witnesses are notoriously wrong. The shock of the moment when an event occurs distorts what people see.
Bob Cronos August 27th, 2014 at 18:11
So we should ignore eyewitnesses?
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:47
Cops apprehend suspects.
Suspects are interviewed by detectives.
Patrolmen do not clear armed bank robbery suspects, they bring them in for further investigation.
See how that works?
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 15:59
We DO see how it works.
That’s the problem.
See how many times it happens to white suspects.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:02
So, your claim is that just as many crimes occur in white communities as black communities, but that the police only enforce the law in black communities?
deckbose August 27th, 2014 at 16:10
That’s not his claim, and your attempt to change the subject is transparent.
OldLefty August 27th, 2014 at 16:11
No.
My claim is that, as I posted below;
Blacks are more likely to be sentenced to prison for the same crime than Whites. One third of people of color sentenced to prison would have received a shorter or non-incarcerative
sentence if they had been treated in court the same way as White defendants facing similar charges.
Black youth are more likely to be detained than White
youth. Moreover, Black youth with no prior admissions were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a juvenile facility than a White youth with a similar history. Latino youth were three times more likely to be imprisoned.
Among persons over age 24, Blacks (11.2%) were significantly more likely to be pulled over while driving than Whites (8.9%).
Among drivers stopped for speeding, Blacks (75.7%) and Hispanics (79.4%) were more likely than Whites (66.6%) to be ticketed
Police were more likely to conduct a search of the vehicle and/or driver in traffic stops involving Black male drivers (15.9%) or Hispanic male drivers (14.2%), compared to White male drivers (7.9%).
http://sites.duke.edu/nchumanr…
MY claim is that if it happened at all to a white person, they would have been more careful and more respectful. ( He would not have been cuffed on the street and they would have been looking at the video while handling in a more respectful manner.
whatthe46 August 27th, 2014 at 20:37
murder happens all the time in white communities, a lot of them with more evil than in black communities.
whatthe46 August 27th, 2014 at 20:36
i wonder what the cops would have done if it were a white male, blonde hair and carrying a briefcase, would they have stopped all that they saw, handcuffed them, sit them on the side walk, wait for the paddy wagon and hall them all down to the jail and sort it out there?
pmbalele August 27th, 2014 at 15:52
TPs and Repubs are responsible for all these racial problems in this Country now. These two parties want Blacks back to the 50s and 60s when they were 2nd class people. I am telling them – it is too late now. Blacks are advanced as Whites now and we will never go back as slaves. I encourage this young man to sue these morons to the fullest of the law.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:55
Interesting. Sue them for what, exactly?
Judgeforyourself37 August 27th, 2014 at 16:18
For false arrest and harassment!
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:22
You’d have to prove that the only reason he was picked up was cause he was black, and that the cops actually harassed him, which is pretty unrealistic seeing as how he was picked up for matching the description of an actual suspect, and then released after being investigated by an FBI agent within 6 hours.
pmbalele August 27th, 2014 at 16:45
Oh No. We are told these Cops were KKK and TP operatives. They should have asked him for his ID before stopping and using deadly force. The city has to pay him a bundle.
whatthe46 August 27th, 2014 at 20:33
did they check to see if he had any money from a robbery on him? no. did they even ask the teller what was the money placed in? likely not. a bald black male just robbed a bank and he’s going to casually walk down the street amoung all white people, the sore thumb in the crowd, and expect not to be noticed? nope. he was not lingering around waiting he was long gone. no common sense played out by the cops in this scenario at all.
pmbalele August 27th, 2014 at 15:52
TPs and Repubs are responsible for all these racial problems in this Country now. These two parties want Blacks back to the 50s and 60s when they were 2nd class people. I am telling them – it is too late now. Blacks are advanced as Whites now and we will never go back as slaves. I encourage this young man to sue these morons to the fullest of the law.
trees August 27th, 2014 at 15:55
Interesting. Sue them for what, exactly?
Judgeforyourself37 August 27th, 2014 at 16:18
For false arrest and harassment!
trees August 27th, 2014 at 16:22
You’d have to prove that the only reason he was picked up was cause he was black, and that the cops actually harassed him, which is pretty unrealistic seeing as how he was picked up for matching the description of an actual suspect, and then released after being investigated by an FBI agent within 6 hours.
pmbalele August 27th, 2014 at 16:45
Oh No. We are told these Cops were KKK and TP operatives. They should have asked him for his ID before stopping and using deadly force. The city has to pay him a bundle.
whatthe46 August 27th, 2014 at 20:33
did they check to see if he had any money from a robbery on him? no. did they even ask the teller what was the money placed in? likely not. a bald black male just robbed a bank and he’s going to casually walk down the street amoung all white people, the sore thumb in the crowd, and expect not to be noticed? nope. he was not lingering around waiting he was long gone. no common sense played out by the cops in this scenario at all.
neworleans878 August 27th, 2014 at 16:22
“Within an evening, I was wrongly arrested, locked up, denied a phone call, denied explanation of charges against me, denied ever being read my rights, denied being able to speak to my lawyer for a lengthy time, and denied being told that my car had been impounded…”
Been there. It ain’t pretty. No matter what color you are. Cops have a God complex wayyyy too often. That’s my take away from this article.
ps…never got an apology either. just told the hit the f*cking door…and believe me, I could have outraced the Road Runner doing so.
nola878 August 27th, 2014 at 16:22
“Within an evening, I was wrongly arrested, locked up, denied a phone call, denied explanation of charges against me, denied ever being read my rights, denied being able to speak to my lawyer for a lengthy time, and denied being told that my car had been impounded…”
Been there. It ain’t pretty. No matter what color you are. Cops have a God complex wayyyy too often. That’s my take away from this article.
ps…never got an apology either. just told the hit the f*cking door…and believe me, I could have outraced the Road Runner doing so.
greenfloyd August 27th, 2014 at 22:59
…Attention LL shoppers we have a special on Race Bait today, so be sure to Chum-up and Save Bigs.
jasperjava August 28th, 2014 at 00:00
“Race bait” is the lazy term used by white supremacists to cover up racism.
greenfloyd August 28th, 2014 at 00:11
According to the Urban Dictionary:
floyd[@]greenfloyd.org August 27th, 2014 at 22:59
…Attention LL shoppers we have a special on Race Bait today, so be sure to Chum-up and Save Bigs.
jasperjava August 28th, 2014 at 00:00
“Race bait” is the lazy term used by white supremacists to cover up racism.
floyd[@]greenfloyd.org August 28th, 2014 at 00:11
According to the Urban Dictionary: