Links and Open Thread for Wednesday Morning

Steve, I usually don't take exception to what you post but the link and accompanying description regarding "babysitting while white" is a biased representation of what actually happened.

First, the police were called by a concerned citizen because a man was seen chasing a young girl into the woods. I applaud the 911 caller as they thought that it was a kidnapping/pedophile issue. I only hope that someone would be so diligent if any grown up, regardless of color, was chasing one of my sons into the woods. The blogger, who was the white male that was detained, went on a rampage on his blog accusing two policemen of tazing him, throwing him around and handcuffing him. In reality, they didn't treat him harshly. The man cooperated without any weapon, tazers or otherwise, being drawn and he was released once a relative of the girl was contacted to determine if the man's story about being the girl's grandfather was true. I'm sure that the police would have verified that even if the man and girl were of the same race. When it was determined that the girl was okay and he was truly the grandfather, he was released. Once he was shown the dashboard camera footage, the man went back on his blog and retracted what he said about the tasers and being treated roughly because, as you point out, what you remember under stress isn't always how things happened.

How do I know these details? Because I live in the Austin area and watch KVUE, a local Austin station [see video link from KVUE below]. The Austin Chief of Police was on the news last night stating that the officers were exonerated from any wrongdoing. The man in question has decided not to pursue any lawsuit against the City of Austin. The sad thing is that this story went viral and gave the Austin police department a black eye nationally and internationally but, I will guarantee you, the man's retraction on his blog and the KVUE story didn't go viral because no one wants to see or hear the dull, mundane truth that nothing really happened. Now, ask yourself this, what if the caller hadn't called. What if the police hadn't responded. What if that WASN'T the girls grandfather and it WAS a pedophile. You would see a story on the back page about a raped black girl found dead in the woods IF it got coverage at all. Personally, I would rather see someone detained until the facts were ascertained than risk that news story!

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/APD-sa ... al-blogger-139921603.html

Way to go unidentified caller and way to go APD and way to go grandpa/blogger for retracting the incorrect story on his blog!

Mary Beth Pinkerton
ex-Lewisville resident