That means that their choice came down to skin color. Didn’t matter what he was doing or not doing.

This needs to be out of the grays because you are absolutely correct.

The TBI just explains why he didn’t comply. People with traumatic brain injuries sometimes have trouble with stepwise instructions we find obvious.

What does the cop being Black have to do with the racist assumptions law enforcement make to the detriment of Black people?

He didn’t have a gun. But even if he did, they could treat him just like the Bundy’s and let him leave and go as he pleases.

It happens a lot, and that’s a big concern within the disabled community. Compliance-based approaches to law enforcement may not work with people who are unable to comply for a variety of reasons (physically incapable, unable to comprehend commands, etc.).

This is awful! We have GOT to win back elected offices in all states! So we can elect officials who will appoint police commissioners who actually CARE about people and who will TRAIN police officers on how to humanely handle people with mental deficiencies and illnesses. My heart goes out to this man’s family and…

I don’t know—how about what they at least sometimes do when the gun-toting person is white? White men with guns who tangle with cops at least have a chance not be shot and killed.

If he starts to point it at them, they gotta shoot. If someone is screaming they have a brain injury and doesn’t get what they are saying, and that person is merely holding it but not actively attempting to shoot anyone, then try rephrasing.

Whether or not he had a gun is irrelevant though, since North Carolina is an open carry state. But all of the recent events in the past few years clearly indicate that open carry is a law applicable for white people only. But god help you if you are a black person exercising your right to legally carry a gun in those…

Yeah, I read about this on r/blackladies (one of the only good things about reddit) and saw his fb post there, as well.

People can be non-white - even black - and still have an exaggerated and irrational fear of young black men because we live in a culture that frequently portrays young black men as extraordinarily dangerous and violent.

They weren’t searching the store for cheese. They were searching the store for an employee because one of the other customers couldn’t locate the oragel (which would be somewhat trickier to find than cheese).

I think they were mostly sticking around to figure out why there was nobody working there.

I think it meant they were looking for/waiting for the employees who had seemingly vanished....I think.

Ha ha, no! A little-known fact about people who join the kkk: they are incredibly lazy and think they’re above education. Not exactly a winning combo for industry of any kind.

The common thread is racism and an employee who didn’t want to encounter a lone black man at night. They probably don’t think black people buy cheese.

They needed cheese. What are you gonna do?

This must be simply a poor estimate. People tend to overestimate how much time has passed in unpleasant situations. I read once about a study where they had people listen to a recoding of a crying baby and then asked them to estimate how long the baby had been crying. The average estimate was an hour, but the…

Racism is not a mental illness, nor is mental illness an excuse for racism.