Comments on: Ryan Moats video is hard to watch

By: Blacks

Blacks — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:46:16 +0000

I completely disagree with your last statement Jay Original. You can go on youtube right now and see tons of videos of cops doing stupid things to people whose names you’ll never ever know. Every once in awhile I’m sure you’ll be watching the news and they’ll play a video from a cop doing something wrong or someone doing something wrong to a cop. This was a news story if it was Ryan Moats, football player or Cyd Original Jr.

By: Cyd Zeigler jr.

Cyd Zeigler jr. — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:16:02 +0000

Jay, I think people would care because the mother-in-law died while Ryan was being detained.

99.5% of America didn’t know the name Ryan Moats until a few days ago. I think it is a bigger story because he was an athlete (not just a news story, but also a sports story). But I do think people would have cared because of the loss.

By: Jay Original

Jay Original — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:50:50 +0000

Wes, we live in a race based society going back to when Irish and Italians were not considered white and Africans were considered property like a car or a cat. It wasn’t invented during the OJ Simpson trial with the flippant use of “race card”. People can’t put a card back into their pocket and not get profiled or judged by others. While bad things happen to white people at the hands of state institutions, the fact that they often disproportionately happen to blacks is what freaks people out/bothers people.

I also think this video is a sad commentary on class in America in that if it wasn’t a member of the Dallas Cowboys would anybody care?

By: Carlie

Carlie — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:48:30 +0000

A youth flaunting his authority or good ole American racism?

Well, the former does not rule out the latter. Making it an either or question, as some seem to want, has the effect of denying racism’s existence in our culture. Or, to put another way, I wonder why racism shouldn’t be “generally stated,” it does, sort of, “generally” exist.

Of note, the same officer also arrested, jailed ex-Cowboys/Dolphins Zach Thomas’ Hispanic wife, essentially, over an illegal U-turn.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/cowboys/stories/032909dnspo1athomas.3ecf949.html

By: Cyd Zeigler jr.

Cyd Zeigler jr. — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:01:20 +0000

Wes, I didn’t generally state it. I said it was, and I quote, “my own personal take.”

By: mudhen

mudhen — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:59:19 +0000

Wes, be careful of your use of the term “race card.” It implies the intentional use of a person’s race to distract from the merits of a case against that person. Maybe that’s what you meant to imply, but I don’t think that it is.

Just keep in mind that, when the entirety of someone’s experience is shaped by people’s perceptions of them based on their race, it’s hard *not* to see every experience through the prism of race.

By: Wes

Wes — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:02:32 +0000

We had a caller to our local radio station this week state that he has been in an exact similar situation in the past. He was not a minority.

While it is difficult to state whether racism may or may not have occurred in this particular case, it shouldn’t be generally stated.

The caller felt in his particular incident, and possibly in Moat’s as well, that some younger police officers occasionally feel the “need” to flaunt their authority and enjoy the feel of dominating over other individuals. I think his theory is probably just as likely as the race card.