Two comedians are suing Clayton County in Georgia after they say police officers racially profiled them during a search of the Atlanta airport. ABC News’ Andrew Dymburt has the details. WATCH ABC News live stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Ma8oQLmSM SUBSCRIBE to ABC NEWS: https://bit.ly/2vZb6yP See more at http://abcnews.go. com/ LIKE ABC News on FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/abcnews FOLLOW ABC News on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/abc #abcnews #ericandre #claytonenglish #georgia
Original source (ABC/Youtube)
they search everyone at the airport
I hope Andre wrecks those bastards in court. The south is a cancerous tumor on this country. I'm white with a black wife and terrified to enter that part of the country.
You would have figured that he would have been arrested for all of his pranks not merely for walking through an airport
Never heard of these comedians before. Thats the reason these clowns are pulling this stunt.
Yeah it took me smoking weed in same room as my luggage that I checked for them to stop me in the Atlanta Airport. (I'm white) They asked about how much money I had on me but I had very little cash on me. I've known and seen others that got stopped. Black people just get stopped for being black. They didn't need the dogs to hit on their checked luggage that smells like pot
Ugh, Searches are random. These guys need to get over themselves and delete facebook.
As a latin european living in a country where I'm considered white but "just not white enough" trust me I know that racial profiling and discrimination are definitely real. And I've actually been told to my face by a police officer that searched my backpack for drugs and weapons that reason for the stop was because I "looked different and it appeased the public to see the police carrying out such actions on individuals that looked different and/or foreigners". That being said, I'm sorry but I disagree with the arguments presented in this very short video for claiming that this was racial profiling. And this is not to say that it wasn't racial profiling, don't get me wrong, this is to say that the two-minute video presents no facts to support that assumption whatsoever. Everything I write here is based on the two-minute video because that is all I can comment on, not knowing the full details of the case.
André starts by saying that the experience was "humiliating and dehumanising" – which I'm sure it was! But does that present evidence of racial profiling? I mean would it have been any less humiliating and dehumanising to a hispanic person? To a white person? To an asian person?
Clayton English then says he felt "completely powerless and violated" – which again I'm sure he did, but again, wouldn't just about anyone feel that way regardless of race, creed, political affiliation, sexual preference, age group, whether they are 4'1'' or 8' tall? It's not an indication of either racism or racial discrimination.
Let me pose a question to you: if instead of two famous African American men speaking on that podium you had two famous white women, let's say … Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lawrence talking about the exact same situation happening to them, literally saying the words "humiliating and dehumanising" as well as describing feeling "completely powerless and violated", chances are you'd call them Karens and laugh it off as "the 0.0001% problems" and you'd never agree that they had any reason to consider themselves as being racially profiled. Even if when drilling down into statistics it happened to be that 56% of white women being stopped by police in similar situations happened to be blonde. What if the two individuals were jew? Gay? Non-binary gender conforming?
So ultimately the question to me is: what is the aim here? Should police stop searching for drugs altogether, because doing so makes people feel humiliated and dehumanised and puts them in a situation where they feel completely powerless and violated? Should that "right" just extend to certain people in our communities because we as a society want to move forward and leave the baggage of the past (colonialism, slavery, religious persecution, etc) behind and we need to be mindful of how they might feel in a situation like that taking into account not only the past but the differences and inequalities we still face today? Should such interactions and questions be limited to people that are not rich and famous (with the assumption that police needs to know who is rich and famous to begin with)? Should police have monthly quotas for how many people of a certain group they're allowed to stop? Should certain groups be handled differently than others? I'm by no means on the side of police and they absolutely need to change a lot, but I honestly struggle to understand how they are expected to be able to do their job – be it look for drugs, firearms, general public protection, traffic stops, etc – in a way that is considered "legal" and non-discriminatory to anyone at all.
If anything – and this is taken from a different video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzk2j5YDH64 – it actually sounds like the interaction was civil enough that when they asked if they could search his stuff and he counter-asked "do I have to?" they just accurately replied "no" and let him go.
Society is by no means perfect (neither are humans, inventors of society) and a lot can and needs to change which I fully support (and again I suffer from discrimination on a daily basis myself), but can someone explain in what manner a cop would have to talk to a person of colour and ask them about drugs to not be considered racial profiling? And if the answer is "the same way they'd do a white person" then the conversation stops there! If the way people or colour are treated is different from white people than clearly that is wrong – it may not be racial profiling but it's racial discrimination and/or racism. But I've not heard André, English, the lawyers, the news reports or anyone else for that matter claim that the manner in which they (André and English) were talked to was either rude or any different from the way a white person would be talked to/quizzed/stopped/interrogated.
Lastly (and again, this may very well be taken out of context but it's what the two-minute video gives us unfortunately) André finishes with the statement "it's not just about me and what I'm going through, it's about the hundreds of black and brown people that have been harassed". Why is the statement limited to black and brown people being harassed? Again as someone that deals with harassment on a daily basis my first thought when hearing this was "so is it ok to harass me because I'm neither black nor brown?" – and I'm not implying that's what he's saying and definitely not calling him a racist, just saying that everything can be misinterpreted, taken out of context and that our first impressions of situations aren't always accurate. Could it be that that's what happened with this specific police stop? In the same way that could it be that he didn't mean to imply that it's ok to harass non-black and brown individuals?
Maybe we need to stop drawing conclusions from watching two-minute videos that have been heavily edited and portray just one side of an interaction. But most importantly, I am really curious to understand how police are expected to do their jobs – which I'm sure involves stopping people of all skin colours (among other catergorisations) – without fearing a lawsuit or being called racist, discriminatory or anything similar.
Defo Profiling. What ever Happened to Probable Cause for One thing and, Also are they grabbing Tall Black Men ? It wd be seriously interesting to see what's the Profile of the Profiling, IYKWIM.
No matter how famous or wealthy you are, no matter how loved you are by fans, if you are a black man, you cannot escape white supremacy. It's about power and dominance. I've personally experienced similar treatment as these men.
But I'm sure many whites viewing this video will say otherwise. Also, you will NOT hear about this lawsuit on your local news. Want proof? Just notice how few of the reporters chose to ask questions.
Since starting my YouTube channel I've gotten tons of videos like this in my suggestions. I will comment on each and every one.
Interesting, in a city that's half black, half the people stopped at it's airport are also black. Must be racism.
Quit crying. Statistics show black people are the most likely to traffic drugs.
Sue them into oblivion.
Imagine, racial profiling in Clayton County GA or all of Georgia for that matter. 🤔🤔🤔How can that be.. Black friends of mine in ATL were telling their teen children 15 years ago, after they got drivers licenses, " remember your black"
If you get pulled over cooperate. Don't resist. Driving while black was a crime in the minds of some racistl law enforcement….Of course that can happen anywhere including sitting in your car eating a burger.
What it didnt mention is the almost million dollars confiscated by police without charging anyone with a crime.
because these 2 niggas look like any other drug mule in Georgia
juicy smolett was right
They are racist
All cops are racist and that makes me sick😢
stupid story about two babies
警察は偏見持ってんのかよ
English
And people wonder why everyone is happy white males are killing themselves in droves
Screw airports and flying! Have to deal with DHS before boarding and don't you dare joke and laugh with your friends and family while waiting in line. We have been dealing with them since 2001 and I do not think they have stopped anything. We traded some of our freedom for a false sense of security because the FBI majorly screwed the pooch and ignored the warnings. Now we all get treated like terrorists. Unless you are a politician caught trying to bring a gun on a plane twice, you do not face any consequences.
I do feel bad that they had to deal with this s*** but Andre should have pulled out a bottle of Ranch and soaked em IJS
Why would they use that Pic of Clayton lmao
All this for attention
I feel bad that i can't take Andre seriously lol
Losers 👎 Basic airport security. If drugs are detected on your luggage or body, the police question you. Just more people who enjoy playing the victim card.
I want to thank Dr OSABA on YouTube for curing my HSV disease
This also happened with a lady in Doha Hamid International Airport in Qatar
Oh my
Everyone knows who Andre is just looking at him. Sounds like there’s more to the story.
STFU
in fact, it's time to remove several cards from the deck and the race card is one if them
"It's a joke bro"
Shout out to George Floyd on 871 days of sobriety. It took some tough love but he did it. Say his name liberals! Where’s Jackie?