Posted on 09/04/2014 10:54:48 AM PDT by nickcarraway
• Updated at 6:51 PM PDT
An Oakland firefighter, who is black, says an Oakland police officer, who is white, held him and his two sons at his own fire station, believing they were burglars. Keith Jones told reporters that he and his sons Trevon, 9, and Keith II, 12, had left a Raiders game at O.co Coliseum and were returning to their car, parked at the East Oakland fire station where Jones works.
Jones was "securing the station" after fire crews responding to an emergency had left a door open when a visitor arrived at about 10:45 p.m.: a police officer, who told Jones and his sons to put their hands up, according to reports.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Jones says the cop was "basically in a shooting stance" when he ordered Jones and his sons to put up their hands.
Jones says he identified himself as an Oakland firefighter but the police officer, who did not draw his weapon, kept his hand on his firearm and ordered the Jones family to keep their hands up.
"I'm pretty much thinking he's going to shoot me," Jones told reporters. His sons thought the same thing, the newspaper reported.
After a few minutes of a stand-off, the police officer allowed Jones to show his firefighter ID, the newspaper reported, and the incident ended without tragedy or further escalation.
The incident was captured on the officer's wearable camera, according to reports. Race relations and the behavior of police are hot topics in America after the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri last month.
That case had echoes of the fatal shooting of unarmed Oscar Grant by a BART police officer at the Fruitvale Station in East Oakland, not far from Jones's fire station.
Jones said race was the reason why he had a gun on him.
"I think they [police officers] view black males as a threat," he told reporters.
they police officers....veiw?
they ...WHITE police officers veiws....differ in what significant way from Black Police Officers???
he had to define the cop as WHITE...and that is RACIST.
theres just no way AROUND this one.
Nahhh. I suspect the same thing would have happened if Jones was white. Too many cops see their badge as a license to commit thuggery.
What a cry-baby! Call this poor persecuted black man a whaaa-balance!
Everyone should.
It’s not racism. It’s that they are Raiders fans. Deranged and dangerous.
No joke.
There was prejudice. Police are prejudiced against fire fighters. He probably had an article of clothing identifying him as such.
FTA:
“...the officer did not draw his weapon...” and “Jones said race was the reason why he had a gun on him.”
If the gun is not drawn, it was not “on him”.
The story said that the officer did not draw his gun. ??
However there is no interest among those groups to do anything about this problem. They both are content with how things are. LEOs can be simply ordered to behave, and those cameras do help. However there are too few black leaders who advocate civilized way of life and rejection of racism, and there is no oversight of citizens' behavior. Gangs are just modern tribes, with a power structure, rituals, raids, loot. This has to be changed, as western civilization is incompatible with tribal mentality. We cannot afford "hunters" in our midst.
How do you get in a “shooting stance” without a gun?
I think the BART cop was black.
Cops view black males as a threat? Hell, yeah!
what do blacks want? no law enforcement ....their families will not be safe. look at Chicago..
They view firefighters as a threat.
Sounds like a non-story that was only printed because the firefighter insisted it was racially charged. Nothing happened other than he needed to identify himself to a police officer. Likely, the officer was there to secure the station not knowing there was someone there.
Why don’t you explain that to the family of the updsate NY cop killed last night.
Had the station been robbed because it was left open and the cop saw the guy in there and just turned his head, the cop would also be blamed. I dont know why anyone wants to be a cop, they can’t turn around without being called racist and a thug, just like on this blog.
I view cops as a threat.
He was “basically” in a shooting stance, which is to say he wasn’t quite.
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