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 ...
He could have said:
“I’ll come down on you like three Crips wannabes on a white jogger.”
This wouldn’t have been a problem if our school systems weren’t so niggardly with their literary education.
a.) why Washington Irving's Headless Horseman is "ray-ciss", and
b.) WTF the officer meant when he referred to said character.
OMG, someone alert NBC... I think its NBC... they have a “Sleepy Hollow” TV series coming out.... oh noes... have to stop that racist show from airing!!
Who knew that Westchester County, NY was a hot bed of Klan activity. Must of started after that couple from Arkansas moved in.
Have you seen the preview?! I mean, it’s fish out of water funny, but still, it might make a few people ask themselves, “Did he just say that?”
It looks like it’s well done.
I hope it stays true to the book (:
The entire thing does not make sense to from the person calling 911 (why?) to the police answering the call (again why?) to the "come down on you like the headless horsemen" (huh?).
Maybe it is a localism that I have never heard but I believe my response to that would have been, "Pardon me?"
Yes I know who the headless horseman is but used in that context it really didn't make much sense.
It’s set in the present day, so I can’t imagine it would be too true to the book. I just realized I donated my copy. Darn.
The actual legend of the Headless Horsement dates back, back, back, back, way to the middle ages...........
LOL. It was published in 1820, long before the KKK. I guess all metaphors directed at blacks are racist. /preaching to the choir
I think I might have learned about him through Scooby Doo in the early 1970s.
What is racist about “headless horseman” or “BBQ Chicken” for that matter
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