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St. Louis County police apologize to black family for 'headless horseman' remark
Stltoday.com ^ | August 22, 2013 | Joel Currier

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 ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: headlesshorseman; ichabodcrane; race; racism; sleepyhollow; washingtonirving
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Who knew that Washington Irving and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was racissssst and that the headless horseman was KKK???

In other news Fox prepares for its "racissssst" Sleepy Hollow series this Fall.

1 posted on 08/22/2013 8:37:05 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: Uncle Chip

Is every cultural reference now to be considered racist? Notice too, that an apology is never enough!


2 posted on 08/22/2013 8:39:33 AM PDT by pastorbillrandles (, but you are right about the mood, tense)
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To: Uncle Chip

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?


3 posted on 08/22/2013 8:40:57 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
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To: Uncle Chip

The horseman was a Hessian and due to his Nazi ties, obviously means he’s racist s/


4 posted on 08/22/2013 8:41:37 AM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company after the election, & laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: Uncle Chip

So the guy had to spend time looking something up so he could be offended?


5 posted on 08/22/2013 8:41:41 AM PDT by svcw (Stand or die)
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To: Uncle Chip

“You’re white, therefore you’re a racist by being white” Period.


6 posted on 08/22/2013 8:43:36 AM PDT by SkyDancer (A white woman would be accused of racism if she gave birth to a white baby.)
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To: Uncle Chip



7 posted on 08/22/2013 8:44:04 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey (Block Captain..Tyranny Response Team / al-Kilab Division)
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To: Uncle Chip
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?”

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 ...

8 posted on 08/22/2013 8:45:31 AM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: svcw
So the guy had to spend time looking something up so he could be offended?

Victim-hood requires due diligence.

9 posted on 08/22/2013 8:45:55 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To the left the truth looks like Right-Wing extremism.)
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To: Uncle Chip

“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?


10 posted on 08/22/2013 8:46:38 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: pastorbillrandles
Is every cultural reference now to be considered racist? Notice too, that an apology is never enough!

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.

11 posted on 08/22/2013 8:46:55 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: Uncle Chip

‘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.


12 posted on 08/22/2013 8:47:01 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
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To: Uncle Chip

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.


13 posted on 08/22/2013 8:47:31 AM PDT by cdcdawg (Be seeing you...)
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To: Uncle Chip

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.


14 posted on 08/22/2013 8:47:37 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: pastorbillrandles

“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!


15 posted on 08/22/2013 8:48:02 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: BenLurkin

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.


16 posted on 08/22/2013 8:49:54 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: svcw

LOL


17 posted on 08/22/2013 8:52:27 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: cdcdawg

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.


18 posted on 08/22/2013 8:53:06 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: Uncle Chip
an anonymous call Friday about people in a vehicle who appeared to be looking at homes and possibly lost.

"Hello police....there are black people driving through my neighborhood. Come quick and do something about that."

19 posted on 08/22/2013 8:53:32 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: BenLurkin
Why was donut guy threatening these people?

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.

20 posted on 08/22/2013 8:54:23 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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