Posted on 08/22/2013 8:37:05 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
St. Louis County police have apologized for a white officer’s reference to the “headless horseman” while questioning a black family Friday about what they were doing at a home in the Mehlville area.
Dale C. Watson, 47, of St. Louis, said in an interview Tuesday that while he appreciates the apology, he wants the police department to discipline the officer and take steps to prevent similar behavior by its officers.
Watson said he, his wife, his nephew and his niece were fixing up a foreclosed home on Shady Green Drive for a real estate firm Friday morning when two St. Louis County patrolmen arrived and asked why they were there.
After explaining, Watson said, one officer said, “I’m going to assume that you’re legitimate, but if something happens down the road, then we’re gonna come down like the headless horseman. Do you know who the headless horseman is?”
Watson’s niece, Whitney Robinson, 25, recorded video of the conversation with her smartphone and released the clip to media. Watson said he believes the officer’s statement was racist and threatening.....
“Anyone who’s seen it knows he wasn’t inviting me to a birthday party,” Watson said Tuesday. “I’m not stupid, and I get what he was trying to give.”
Watson acknowledged he didn’t immediately understand the officer’s remarks but went online and found references to the headless horseman and the Ku Klux Klan....
St. Louis County Police Lt. Col. Ken Gregory said officers responded to an anonymous call Friday about people in a vehicle who appeared to be looking at homes and possibly lost.
Once officers arrived, they found the family at the home and asked everyone for their identification.
Gregory said officers learned that one of the men at the scene had a criminal record.....
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
In other news Fox prepares for its "racissssst" Sleepy Hollow series this Fall.
Is every cultural reference now to be considered racist? Notice too, that an apology is never enough!
What?
What the hell does the headless horseman have to do with blacks?
Unless I’m only thinking of the most famous headless horseman ever, and there are more of them?
The horseman was a Hessian and due to his Nazi ties, obviously means he’s racist s/
So the guy had to spend time looking something up so he could be offended?
“You’re white, therefore you’re a racist by being white” Period.
Answer: No, they do not know who the headless horseman is.
I know that it would have lessened the impact of the threat, but the officer should have taken the time to explain it... Of course then he'd have been accused of being racist for assuming that they were unlearned...
Eh, off to the re-education camp Mr. Hater Patrolman ...
Victim-hood requires due diligence.
“I’m going to assume that you’re legitimate, but if something happens down the road, then we’re gonna come down...”
Why was donut guy threatening these people?
Every cultural reference is ray-ciss, first because if you're ignorant, you're also paranoid, since you are continually hearing things you don't understand, which could be somebody laughing at you because of your race. Or your clothing choices.
And then it's ray-ciss even if it isn't about race at all, because it makes you aware of being dumb-ass-ignorant, which you may believe is associated with your race—in your own mind, anyway. And clearly the apology isn't going to be enough—because it doesn't make your dumb-ass ignorance go away. You still feel stupid.
‘Gregory, who is black, said he has never personally heard of any racial connotation to the “headless horseman” phrase.’
At least this black StL man gets it.
I’m totally clueless to any racial reference to the famous headless horseman. People making up new things for themselves and spouting it on the internet doesn’t make it so.
The guy is obviously culturally illiterate. It’s another thing everyone in this country should know about, even if they never read the book or saw a film.
Check out the comments. Most find the “headless horseman” reference to be racist. There is no solution to this. Everything is racist. The sooner the term loses its stigma, the better. Sad state of affairs.
Stupidity all around.
I don’t understand the cops useless reference to “the headless horseman.”
A dumb-downed citizen has never heard of “the headless horseman”
the internet stupidly says it has something to do with the KKK
A dumbed down media reports the whole ridiculous episode as “racism” and everyone starts barking and salivating like Pavlov’s dogs.
Our society is has become just plain STUPID.
“Is every cultural reference now to be considered racist?”
If black people don’t “get it”, then yes. You are “talking down” to them, you racist!
Apparently there was a report that this guy had been driving erratically and when confronted about it became verbally abusive and threatening — thus someone called the police and this is what happened when the police showed up.
LOL
I checked the internet and could find no connection between the headless horseman and the KKK. Sleepy Hollow was written and Irving died in 1859 before the KKK was ever formed.
"Hello police....there are black people driving through my neighborhood. Come quick and do something about that."
Because they were taking apart a house?
It sounds like he was joking with them. I mean, headless horseman? That's not a threat, that's a literary reference. But they were too ignorant to get the joke. So they naturally took offense. Because someone told them that's the appropriate thing to do, when you're not really an adult.
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