Working while being black

November 22, 2013 2:32 AM

Earl Sampson has been stopped and questioned by Miami Gardens police 258 times in four years. He’s been searched more than 100 times. And arrested and jailed 56 times. Almost every citation was issued at the same place: the 207 Quickstop, a convenience store on 207th Street in Miami Gardens. But Sampson isn’t loitering. He works as a clerk at the Quickstop.
posted by PenDevil (59 comments total)

To be fair to the police, he was wearing a loud shirt in a buildup area, but yeez, it's disturbing to see satire being made obsolete by reality this extreme.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:42 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

Is this another one of those 1963 memorial things?
posted by fullerine at 3:14 AM on November 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

I'm trying to figure out the motivation of those Miami Gardens cops. That town must be full of black people for racist cops to hate on, so why select people who are just trying to do what those cops presumably would them to do? Are they targeting that store on purpose? Or do they stop and arrest every black person they see everywhere in town?
posted by pracowity at 3:27 AM on November 22, 2013

Saleh is being a pretty good guy standing by his employee and standing up for himself like this. It seems to me like the cops just hate him and Sampson for some reason and are just trying to intimidate them into closing the store.
posted by NoraReed at 3:33 AM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

Or do they stop and arrest every black person they see everywhere in town?

Four years is 48 months or 210 weeks. On average, this guy was stopped and questioned at least once a week, EVERY WEEK, for four years. He was arrested and jailed at least once a month EVERY MONTH for four years. That's a lot of Groundhog Day. It seems unlikely that such an effort could be implemented as a general policy against all black people living in that area. And it doesn't seem likely that one or two racist cops would keep targeting the same person again and again for being black when there are so many more black people to harass.

And then you have to think, that if this is on the up and up regular police work, that some reasonable person, somewhere along the line, like say after two years, would have the thought "What this guy again?" and either prosecuted him for whatever or told the cops to stop wasting time arresting him.

Cause otherwise it looks like a targeted harassment of this business and the owner's maybe not so much standing by his employee as he is trying to protect himself.
posted by three blind mice at 3:44 AM on November 22, 2013 [11 favorites]

I don't know what's going on here, but I do worry about the inevitable destructive hurricane that hits the area and how the police will deal with the desperate people trapped there. Because *shudder* this is some scary cop shit.
posted by angrycat at 3:55 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

I literally cannot understand what is going on here. I feel like there must be some crucial piece of information that I am missing that would make this possible. How is this happening? How have we not heard about this in the previous 4 years? What's going on?
posted by Literaryhero at 4:03 AM on November 22, 2013 [5 favorites]

How is this happening?

Policy makers believe in certain theories and devise procedures for the police to enforce them. No one does a follow up whether those procedures are working in a humane fashion.

I think the broken window theory has been discredited or seriously questioned, yet few politicians question the procedures put in place to because of it.

How have we not heard about this in the previous 4 years?

Because it's poor people, which means little social standing or means to fight this. Note that you're only hearing about it now because the guy installed video cameras to back up his complaints.

What's going on?

Sounds like stat juicing, where the police arrest people whether they're criminals or not, so it looks like they're busy doing something.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:09 AM on November 22, 2013 [26 favorites]

It's not about anything more than cops who want to dominate instead of serve and protect. I think a lot of people who haven't been jacked up by the police at least once will have a hard time believing things like this or the insane scope of NYC's stop-and-frisk, but it's daily reality for a lot of people.
posted by daveliepmann at 4:12 AM on November 22, 2013 [12 favorites]

Ah. I missed the rest of the article (damned click-throughs). Lots of interesting stuff.

About three years ago, Saleh said police asked him to participate in what they called a “zero-tolerance” program to reduce crime. He gladly signed up, not realizing at the time how much it would impact his business and customers. Under the program, Miami Gardens police are given broad powers to stop and arrest people who appear to be loitering or trespassing at the participating business. [...]

Almost immediately after Saleh put the “zero-tolerance” sign in his window, he regretted it.

Miami Gardens police officers, he said, began stopping his patrons regularly, citing them for minor infractions such as trespassing, or having an open container of alcohol. The officers, he said, would then pat them down or stick their hands in citizens’ pockets. But what bothered Saleh the most was the emboldened behavior of the officers who came into his store unannounced, searched his store without his permission and then hauled his employees away in the middle of their shifts. He finally told them he no longer wanted to participate in the program and removed the sign.

The officers, however, continued their surveillance of his store over his objections. The officers even put the sign back on his store against his wishes, he said.

posted by pracowity at 4:13 AM on November 22, 2013 [30 favorites]

Brandon Blatcher that stat juicing seems to be the idea that makes this understandable. Not that it is justifiable or cool in any way, but at least now I can see why the police would be doing this.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:25 AM on November 22, 2013

Wouldn't it be bad for their stats to be making so many arrests and stops that don't lead to prosecutions?
posted by MsDaniB at 4:36 AM on November 22, 2013

It's not just the stat juicing (although I love the term), it's that the "broken windows" policy allows police to spend their time enforcing petty violations instead of going after the serious crimes, on the theory that one will eventually prevent the other, even when that has obviously not worked, as it has here. The high crime stats are used to justify more cops, more equipment, and more punitive tactics and behavior by law enforcement personnel, but don't necessarily result in more effective crime-fighting behavior.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:56 AM on November 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

The high crime stats are used to justify more cops, more equipment,

As usual, just follow the money ...
posted by aryma at 4:59 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

Wouldn't it be bad for their stats to be making so many arrests and stops that don't lead to prosecutions?

Only if anybody is looking at them and even then there are always minor infractions you can cite somebody for.

What I keep expecting to happen is that some clever politician will start campaigning on a tough on crime, tough on police wasting time and money harassing innocent people rather than catching the real criminals platform.
posted by MartinWisse at 5:10 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wouldn't it be bad for their stats to be making so many arrests and stops that don't lead to prosecutions?

Bad to who?

Your questions implies that someone is looking at the stats closely and might not approve of what's going on. I don't think that's the case at all.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:37 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

If fiddling with the stats, wouldn't it make more sense to spread it around randomly rather than concentrating heavily on one group who can corroborate each other and file suits about it?

In the first video in the article, Sampson walks back in the store, is followed and casually grabbed by a police officer, and they both walk out instantly without any further discussion. It was such an obviously well-practised manoeuvre that it made me very sad.
posted by forgetful snow at 5:51 AM on November 22, 2013

If fiddling with the stats, wouldn't it make more sense to spread it around randomly rather than concentrating heavily on one group who can corroborate each other and file suits about it?

Randomly arresting white people causes politicians to pay attention, so none of that.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:54 AM on November 22, 2013 [7 favorites]

Wouldn't it be bad for their stats to be making so many arrests and stops that don't lead to prosecutions?

You see it is good for their stats, because part of the job of police is to hassle Black people. This is explicit in NYPD wanting sufficient stop & frisk numbers from officers. So if a Black guy is conspicuous or loud you hassle him for suspicious behavior, and if he is quiet and unobtrusive you hassle him for furtive movements. So I as a White man would be rather surprised if a police ever hassled me and made me late for work, but Black people are getting hassled. Arrests are not the point.

Something like this is also done with protests. NYPD will make a bunch of arrests that don't go anywhere. People spend some hours in The Tombs and then are let go. Still ends protests. Ray Kelly doesn't care that the prosecution statistics are low there.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 5:57 AM on November 22, 2013 [9 favorites]

Just appalling. I hope Saleh's lawsuit puts an end to this crap in that town - no illusion that it will bring an end to it overall. Boggles the mind to have the police repeatedly arrest someone for trespassing at their place of work with their boss standing there saying he works for me.
posted by leslies at 6:08 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

Just a week ago here in SF, the SFPD's Violence Reduction Team decided it was *really* important to....arrest a guy who was riding his bike on the sidewalk. He was at a public housing complex where he was going to visit his cousin. The cops claim he resisted arrest and assaulted an officer, which is why he was held for three days and then released with no charges pending. Is the guy black? Why yes, yes he is! There's a ton of video (though none of it is of the takedown and arrest itself) and there have been demos and marches, and in all likelihood the Violence Reduction Team will keep on keepin' on, arresting dudes on bicycles to keep us all safe.
posted by rtha at 6:19 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Miami Gardens cops probably do like at least one recent murder: it happened just outside the store in question a couple of months ago. Cops can use it to say that's why they have to crack down on people near the place, and of course they can be happy that one of the store customers is permanently out of the way.
posted by pracowity at 6:25 AM on November 22, 2013

So, when crime statistics are generally reported, what are those statistics representing? Arrests? Prosecutions? Charges Pressed? Reports?

I guess I'm with pracowity and I'm looking for motivation, but I don't get how the record of these actions can look any which way but bad, even assuming some racism/classism. (Which I'm sure has a lot to do with many cop-civilian interactions and I'm not trying to diminish it in this case. I just don't get how ignoring a "gang problem" and arresting the same innocent black guy 1000 times would help prevent other crimes from occurring and being reported and making the city seem unsafe.)
So then what else could it be? Is the store blocking some condo development? Are there no other public spaces in the community?

On preview: uh, wouldn't the recent murder make the cops who hang out there arresting innocent people all the time look even worse?
posted by MsDaniB at 6:32 AM on November 22, 2013

Mod note: A couple of comments deleted. Sorry but, while I understand the sentiment, inarticulate-howls-of-rage sorts of comments aren't great here. Also, please don't go out looking for the worst stories you can find about the police just to post here when it doesn't really have anything to do with this article. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:41 AM on November 22, 2013

I guess I'm with pracowity and I'm looking for motivation, but I don't get how the record of these actions can look any which way but bad, even assuming some racism/classism.

I think it's a matter of politicians and administrators simply not caring. Whether that's due to racism, classism or some other ism is almost besides the larger point: This neighborhood and the people who live there, all 109,000 of them, have been written off and classified as less than human. This allows police to behave in all sorts of ways that would normally would not be tolerated.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:46 AM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

Y'know, that's a reason why Fark has a "Florida" tag for an entire category of crap.
posted by happyroach at 7:00 AM on November 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

I guess I'm with pracowity and I'm looking for motivation, but I don't get how the record of these actions can look any which way but bad, even assuming some racism/classism.

It's pretty apparent that the police had targeted the general area, and started that "Zero Tolerance" campaign. Things started going downhill right after the owner of the Quickstop opted to participate in the program. It's also apparent that the Quickstop's real problems started after the owner decided to pull his participation in the program. Cops don't handle rejection well. But, they do hold grudges, and see no reason not to act on them. What they're doing at the Quickstop probably sends a message to other businesses to play along.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:07 AM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

Three blind mice, given that it's one questioning per week, and one arrest per month, it could be a case of a couple cos who found an easy target to build up their arrest numbers. It wouldn't take all that much work for them. They probably also have some other "regulars" they find it easy to arrest.

Note that I'm definitely not doing the "one bad apple" defense; the police probably have a culture of "build up your arrest record, here's how, and here's the people you target".
posted by happyroach at 7:26 AM on November 22, 2013

Don't ignore the rest of the article. The cops as an organization are definitely out to intimidate the store owner:

Last year, Saleh, armed with a cache of videos, filed an internal affairs complaint about the arrests at his store. From that point, he said, police officers became even more aggressive.

One evening, shortly after he had complained a second time, a squadron of six uniformed Miami Gardens police officers marched into the store, he says. They lined up, shoulder to shoulder, their arms crossed in front of them, blocking two grocery aisles.

“Can I help you?” Saleh recalls asking. It was an entire police detail, known as the department’s Rapid Action Deployment (RAD) squad, whom he had come to know from their frequent arrest sweeps. One went to use the restroom, and five of them stood silently for a full 10 minutes. Then they all marched out.

Five cops to guard one cop taking a dump?
posted by pracowity at 7:43 AM on November 22, 2013 [7 favorites]

Good lord:

One video, recorded on June 26, 2012, shows Sampson, clearly stocking coolers, being interrupted by MGPD Sgt. William Dunaske, who orders him to put his hands behind his back, and then handcuffs him, leads him out of the store and takes him to jail for trespassing. More than once, Saleh has told police that Sampson is an employee and is not trespassing.

On that June arrest report, obtained by The Herald, police explained the trespass arrest, saying that Sampson was arrested for loitering outside the store when in fact the video, which has a date and time stamp, clearly shows him being handcuffed and arrested inside the store

The risk the storeowner is taking in going forward with the lawsuit is enormous, and he deserves so much credit for his bravery in the face of injustice.
posted by mediareport at 7:43 AM on November 22, 2013 [10 favorites]

Five cops to guard one cop taking a dump?

They know they aren't in safe territory, so overwhelming force is a "rational" decision.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:45 AM on November 22, 2013

Not all local American police departments are like the one in the article. Different departments are run by different people and develop different internal cultures over time in response to wildly divergent variables, even in the same state and the same metro area.

For instance, in the Twin Cities, we have two wildly different Police Departments (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) who are hugely different in size and in the nature of the areas they police. These two distinctions are not enough to explain the huge discrepancy that exists in the reputation each department has earned.

MPD has for years had a reputation of callous thuggery and unrestrained racism, which the current chief and Democratic mayor are working hard to change. They had several recent embarrassing and tragic incidents of MPD officers engaging in openly racist or excessively brutal behavior outside the city, which really brought the issue to light. Again. MPD officers are broadly held in contempt by the communities they patrol. This is not to say that MPD is not capable of excellent acts of law enforcement and crime prevention. It's just harder to get traction for those stories than for the regrettably frequent "MPD cops pick fight with minorities in Hudson" type incidents.

SPPD on the other hand has worked to build a reputation for engagement and a more social-work type approach to crime prevention. The chief has had to push back on community demands to "thump heads" during a recent rash of gang-related violence and declared "we can't arrest our way out of a gang problem." They hold numerous crime-awareness meetings and open houses, and I often see officers on foot and chatting with folks in my neighborhood.

My point is, please do not use horrid stories like this Miami crap as a justification to say things like "...part of the job of Police is to hassle black people" and other crass anti-cop generalizations. I have met and spent a lot of time speaking with various people in my hometown's department and I found all of them to be concerned intelligent commited professionals who really wanted to understand how to make things safer, not just find excuses to screw with poor people.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 7:53 AM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

My point is, please do not use horrid stories like this Miami crap as a justification to say things like "...part of the job of Police is to hassle black people" and other crass anti-cop generalizations

Uh, the person who said that specifically cited the NYPD's stop and frisk policy. The NYPD isn't some small town police organization, and the stop and frisk policy wasn't a one off thing or a few rogue cops.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 7:58 AM on November 22, 2013 [5 favorites]

Yes, MP, he cited the abusive NYPD policies in support of a broad generalization. That does not make the generalization any less broad or any more broadly true.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 8:04 AM on November 22, 2013

My point is, please do not use horrid stories like this Miami crap as a justification to say things like "...part of the job of Police is to hassle black people" and other crass anti-cop generalizations

That's the Bad Apple defence all over again, only now on the level of police departments rather than individual pigs. The truth is though that yes, there are good cops, but the system they work in is through and through racist, homophobic and classist and largely consists of keeping the underclasses in fear.

It's the reason why, even though police departments are getting more racially mixed, the old racist behaviour is still there: one you're blue, even black officers see black men as criminals, because that's what they're taught.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:18 AM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

It also takes some chutpaz to say that you shouldn't talk badly about the police when you yourself are going, well Minneapolis does good things, but it's not well known because the press always focuses on those unfortunate racist incidents that the force keeps finding itself in...
posted by MartinWisse at 8:21 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]

That does not make the generalization any less broad or any more broadly true.

It actually does make it more broadly true. When the largest municipal police force in the country has its central policy of harassing black males, then yes, that does support the generalization, much more so than whatever the fuck St. Paul's police force is doing supports your generalization.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:31 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

Just to clarify, it sounded to me like BigLankyBastard is objecting to people making universal generalizations, not to people saying bad things about police.

If you read what BLB said, he isn't even making a generalization. His lead statement was "Different departments are run by different people and develop different internal cultures over time in response to wildly divergent variables, even in the same state and the same metro area."

I'm no big fan of police in general, but I'd like it if we didn't spend all our time and energy misrepresenting other people's positions.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:37 AM on November 22, 2013

My point is being missed, I guess I stated it poorly.

In the conversation about the role of Law Enforcement in our neighborhoods, and their policies and practices, spouting pseudomarxist platitudes about "..keeping the underclasses in fear" and using the misdeeds of one (or two, or many) police departments to condemn the entire concept of policing as inherently racist and classist is really unhelpful. It's also a good way to get yourself tuned out by those in a position to listen.

Police are necessary for safety. Until that theoretical Star Trek future in which there is no criminality, we're going to need people to catch thieves and violent people and keep them from victimizing the rest of us. You know who needs cops most of all? Poor people, because they do not have the resources to hire lawyers and mercenaries to do that work for them.

Yes, there are and historically have been problems. There will be more stories like the Miami article next month and next year. But the people who are going to make things better are not the ones standing around saying "ooo, bad apple defense again" to anyone suggesting we need to take a nuanced view. Its the guy who just got elected mayor of NYC by making his opposition to stop and frisk a central tenet of his campaign. Yes, many NYPD cops may still be racist and may still treat innocent bystanders poorly. But hopefully next year that will happen a lot less often than this year.

Suggesting that we please not paint everyone and every organization engaged in what is, at bottom, a critical role of civilization with the same brush is not the same as saying "a few bad apples, nothing really needs to change." We need to identify specific problems and work with leaders to fix them, not issue useless blanket statements.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 8:51 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

taz: " Also, please don't go out looking for the worst stories you can find about the police just to post here when it doesn't really have anything to do with this article. Thanks."

But feel good stories about other departments are A-OK!
posted by Big_B at 9:01 AM on November 22, 2013

using the misdeeds of one (or two, or many) police departments to condemn the entire concept of policing as inherently racist and classist is really unhelpful.

You'll see that no one is condemning the 'entire concept of policing'. People are condemning police department institutions as they actually exist in the United States.

And 'stop and frisk' wasn't a misdeed--it was the explicitly stated policy of the NYPD.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:04 AM on November 22, 2013 [9 favorites]

Suggesting that we please not paint everyone and every organization engaged in what is, at bottom, a critical role of civilization with the same brush is not the same as saying "a few bad apples, nothing really needs to change."

It's those few bad apples that generate the very human reaction not to trust any apples. Pleading that we remember the good ones does nothing to change to absolute horrible behavior of misbehaving policeman and making that your hill to stand is odd, IMO.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:20 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

I hope, probably in vain, that most of those cops eventually see jail time.
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:33 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's those few bad apples that generate the very human reaction not to trust any apples.

This, especially when we see the supposedly not-bad apples standing behind the thin blue line rather than speak out and risk the violence and harassment perpetrated upon the public by those bad apples. When the entire system not only allows but encourages the protection of bad apples because hey, they're *our* apples, it's not surprising that most people (especially people in heavily policed neighborhoods) are going to regard the whole as rotten.
posted by rtha at 9:43 AM on November 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

that stat juicing seems to be the idea that makes this understandable

I really have to think that a simpler explanation is that the Miami Gardens police are also a criminal protection racket to one degree or another and that he didn't pay up.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:47 AM on November 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

I find the "bad apples" saying pretty funny. It's often used to say "There's only a few who are bad, the rest are good", while the saying is explicitly "One bad apple spoils the bunch".
posted by ymgve at 10:19 AM on November 22, 2013 [16 favorites]

But clearly the system is working, since Saleh says he's never been robbed.

Nevermind that he's owned the place for 17 years and the cops have been doing for 3 years.
posted by ckape at 10:28 AM on November 22, 2013

I don't think anyone here is condemning the entire concept of policing. Professional, impartial, publicly responsible, and well-managed policing is essential to modern society.


It would be nice to see some.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:34 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]

At least now we know where Constable Savage is working these days.
posted by w0mbat at 10:35 AM on November 22, 2013

When cops are have more (enforced) laws governing their behavior than the average citizen (not less), then I will be disinclined to paint them with a broad brush. But the reality is that law enforcement is broken by design right now. Not only is it set up to corrupt an ordinary person by relieving controls on their behavior, but the profession attracts bullies and white knights, and both personality types need adult supervision to work effectively. Joining the police should not be like joining a special rules-optional club, and right now, it really is.
posted by smidgen at 11:01 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

Jesus, y'all, the phrase is, "A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch." You don't excuse actions by saying they're because of a few bad apples!

END CLICHE ABUSE!
posted by klangklangston at 11:23 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]

daveliepmann: It's not about anything more than cops who want to dominate instead of serve and protect. I think a lot of people who haven't been jacked up by the police at least once will have a hard time believing things like this or the insane scope of NYC's stop-and-frisk, but it's daily reality for a lot of people.

That second video is so ridiculous it's almost parody.
posted by gucci mane at 11:25 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Heh. I guess I have had this tab open for an hour without commenting. Ymgve got it first.
posted by klangklangston at 11:29 AM on November 22, 2013

I've seen this kind of thing happen to my neighbours in my (mostly black) neighbourhood in Baltimore. I get really upset, they just shrug.

Then again, BPD is known for things like juicing stats and ignoring property crime and rapes. It is a lot easier to frisk and harass a 50 year old black man walking from his house 4 doors down to the corner to get his breakfast to get that vital arrest stat.
posted by QIbHom at 1:17 PM on November 22, 2013

I'm worried about what happens to Earl Sampson the 57th time he's arrested. It's not clear whether the cops are crooked or incompetent, but either way you have to believe they're now pissed off.
posted by Nelson at 1:17 PM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

If good cops don't want to be tainted by the actions of bad cops, then they should do something about the bad cops. Until they do, they're complicit.
posted by empath at 2:47 PM on November 22, 2013 [6 favorites]

Sounds like stat juicing

That's an odd way to spell 'shakedown'.

police are also a criminal protection racket to one degree or another and that he didn't pay up.

Yeah, except I would assume if he had that to say he would have said it, so I'm left with a weird sense that something doesn't add up. I mean, four years?! How hasn't some enterprising young Kunstler taken this on as a civil rights payday for himself?

I mean, I get that there are bad cops, and I get that things are endemic (and hey, I'm finally watching The Shield), but this story seems to be missing something somewhere. If the store owner has completely clean hands, somehow I don't think he would have waited this long, and conversely you have to both wonder how the PD has been getting away with this and Saleh unable to raise a stink locally. What has happened with these 60 trespassing citations? Did Sampson fail to dispute them in court (is it municipal court)? Isn't being employed an essentially solid defense against such a citation? If 'zero tolerance' is the policy, how can it be defensible if such disproportionate police resources are being expended in one location against one man? Who's watching the store here?

I wish this didn't just raise so many questions, but I'm really baffled -- not by the racism, not by the unethical behavior, but by the failure of the system here including the political system in a majority-black city.
posted by dhartung at 4:52 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

The behavior here by the police is pretty appalling, and if the facts are as the reporter describes them, I certainly think firings and/or jail time for the police are in order.

Also, there very well may be a strong racist subtext to all this. I've never even been to Florida -- I wouldn't presume to know. But if there is, the reporter does a pretty poor job of establishing it.

"Alex Saleh ... watched Sampson, his other employees and his customers, day after day, being stopped and frisked by Miami Gardens police. Most of them, like Sampson, are poor and black."

Er, well, OK. What about the other ones?

And then:

"Its citizens have voiced their distrust of the police department over the years on a number of fronts, noting that officers — many of them white and Hispanic — seldom leave their patrol cars except to make an arrest."

Again... ok. So "many" of the police officers are "white and Hispanic," whatever that means. I'm not sure this is the clincher the reporter thinks it is.

And that's it. Are Saleh's white or asian employees given a pass? The reporter doesn't say.

There are a ton of opinions upthread saying how racist the Florida cops are. I'll take their word for it. I'm just observing that neither the reporter nor the Metafilter headline writer make a very rigorous case for it.
posted by Alaska Jack at 6:50 PM on November 22, 2013

dhartung - great questions. As a sometime editor, if one of my reporters brought this story to me, these are exactly the kind of things I'd ask her.
posted by Alaska Jack at 6:54 PM on November 22, 2013