The Greensboro City Council held a work session on Thursday, June 18, narrowly focused on one aspect of Greensboro Police Department stops.
Councilmember Justin Outling had not only requested the work session, he made a motion at the June 2 meeting to hold the work session within two weeks, which passed unanimously
The City Council missed the deadline by a couple of days, but Outling frequently requests work sessions on topics but they are never held.
Outling requested the work session in response to an incident on the Bicentennial Greenway in May where a teenaged African-American male was stopped, detained and searched by Greensboro police officers when the young man in fact only met the description of the person the police were looking for in one category – his skin color.
Assistant City Manager Trey Davis made a few introductory remarks about how Guilford Metro 911 was working on a request to ask for more complete descriptions from callers and then tried to turn the meeting over to Police Chief Brian James to talk about other changes in police policy.
Outling was not going to have the meeting he requested on this one specific topic turned into a general discussion of police policies and stopped that attempt in its tracks. Throughout the meeting Outling kept bringing the discussion back to the topic that by unanimous vote the City Council had agreed to discuss.
This in itself was a major accomplishment.
Outling had one issue and worked throughout the hour-and-a-half meeting to stay on topic. As Outling said, it doesn’t matter how complete a description the 911 dispatcher receives, if the policy for police officers is such that they can ignore the description except for one factor – race. Outling also repeatedly said that based on the description being used by the police officers on the scene, they were well within their rights to stop any black male on the Greenway, whether they were 10 years old or 80 years old.
Outling said, “Five or six descriptors were provided, but the child that was stopped only fit one of those descriptors.”
Outling asked, “What is the policy about what is acceptable and what is unacceptable.”
Police Chief Brian James said, “What we have to make sure of is that the contact is professional and respectful.”
Outling said that his concern was not how contact that was made, but the fact that a contact was made based only on the race of the person. He said, “What is the standard? This stop may have been lawful but it was erroneous and shouldn’t have been made.”
He added, “The city did not recognize that an error was made.”
Councilmember Sharon Hightower asked, “What policy are you expecting to be put in place.”
Outling said that maybe 20 percent of the descriptors had to match. He said, “The color arguably matched, but there is no reason we should be elevating color above and beyond everything else.”
Councilmember Tammi Thurm offered the idea of “race plus one,” meaning a policy that the race and one other descriptor had to match.
James said, “We don’t want to make contact with people who had absolutely nothing to do with the call. But I’ve done it myself.”
James also said, “I’m fully willing to make an admission that we made an error.”
The Greensboro City Council is a JOKE & if I were a Policeman?Woman, I would Quit because City Council’s, New State Police Policies are impossible to follow thru on so I would just Quit & Walk Off the Job because I’m Not risking My Life because of some Stupid Rule that a Policeman has to Handle Each case with Kid Gloves & if I do it Wrong according to the New Rules then I Could be SUED & taken to Court over Nothing so I hope every Policeman in North Carolina tells the Cities & States to “Shove It” & nobody can Keep Law & Order without Policemen & soon very soon all of these dumb ass #Politicians will find this out the hard way!! Best thing we Citizens can do is Purchase multiple Firearms & carry them around with us everywhere we go because the only Protection we will receive moving forward is OUR Own Selves & Nobody else…..
Right! When the police can’t do their job, and are penalized by CYA politicians for making an effort; they look to just punch their time card, or get out. What remains is a “token” force.
Unless your can hire a 24/7 guard to be with you at all times, it is necessary for you to defend yourself and family from attack, both foreign and domestic. When called, our police will arrive at a crime scene. Now it is even more important to plan for your own defense.
It is legal to open carry, but it is a bad idea in that many feel threatened, and your weapon can be taken from you if you aren’t careful. Concealed carry works much better; and, you have to pass a written test on gun safety, and how you may legally defend yourself. For example, if you catch a burglar in you home, you cannot shoot them in the back as they are fleeing – they are no longer a threat.
Can the Coop.
This is purely agenda driven. If race were the only factor, then all black males in the area would have been stopped and searched. As Outling knows, that was not the case. Only one person was approached. They consented to the search. The officer said thanks, did not find anything, and moved on within about a minute., No one else in the area was searched, including the uncle of the guy’s uncle who was standing right there.
Outling is forcing selective facts to fit his narrative so that he can pander to voters when he runs for mayor next year. We are not that foolish sir.
Hammer, perhaps you could get the call notes and a recording of the radio traffic from that call. Might be interesting.
Outling said that maybe 20 percent of the descriptors had to match. He said, “The color arguably matched, but there is no reason we should be elevating color above and beyond everything else.”
Isn’t elevating color above and beyond everything else what our city council routinely does?
It seems like, if this is such a big issue, that it would qualify to be in the greater public interest. That would mean that council could approve releasing the body cam footage for public viewing. Then the public could decide for themselves how much race alone played a factor in their decision to stop this guy.
Release the tapes, Justin!
The City Council can’t release police body worn camera videos. Only a North Carolina Superior Court Judge can release a video to the public.
Let me rephrase: The council, or whoever has the authority, at the council’s request, could appeal to the court to have the tapes released.
Appeal to the Superior Court Judge or designate the appropriate person to appeal to the judge to release the tapes, Justin!
It just does not have the same ring to it.
And what, exactly, is the problem here? I have been stopped on suspicion myself, being a white male with red hair – which is quite unusual. Did I resent it? Did I scream “racism” against white males? Did I feel oppressed…”by the violence inherent in the system”, to quote Monty Python?
No, I just continued on my way after a ten minute traffic stop.
Are black people really so precious that their every inconvenience is a major crisis over which we must all grieve?
GET A LIFE.
BECEAUSE IT ISN’T FAIR – for anyone.
I was running in Irving Park before daylight last winter and a police car approached and motioned for me to stop which I did. They had reports of a suspicious white male in the neighborhood (I fit 2 parts of the description ) – after a few questions they thanked me and told me to have a good run. I never thought of contacting an attorney, the news media nor the police department – I think sometimes people try to read too much into these situations. I’ve been stopped many times over the years for driving a sports car – Is that being profiled?