He'll win this lawsuit, but then be tailgated by the Sacramento PD from the moment he steps out of the courthouse. They'll be waiting for him to do something - ANYTHING - illegal, like jaywalking or littering, so they can hassle him, arrest him for resisting arrest, taze him, or just outright shoot him 19 times and then claim self-defense because he was reaching for what they thought was a gun but was actually his wallet.

King Something: He'll win this lawsuit, but then be tailgated by the Sacramento PD from the moment he steps out of the courthouse. They'll be waiting for him to do something - ANYTHING - illegal, like jaywalking or littering, so they can hassle him, arrest him for resisting arrest, taze him, or just outright shoot him 19 times and then claim self-defense because he was reaching for what they thought was a gun but was actually his wallet.

Or they'll just go right to planting narcotics on him.

Occam's Chainsaw: King Something: or just outright shoot him 19 times and then claim self-defense because he was reaching for what they thought was a gun but was actually his wallet.

They've been cross-training with Oakland Transit?

Yes, by virtue of being cops.

The part about a black guy getting shot to death by police while reaching for his wallet actually happened. Ask any New Yorker who Amadou Diallo was.

SusanIvanova: Or they'll just go right to planting narcotics on him.

Okay, so I missed that one. Still, they'll f*ck up his life worse than they already have (or just end his life outright) AND they'll get away with it.

Reportedly very pleased with this development.

/hot

I used to live in a bad part of town. I was pulled over twice in one week by the police because I was driving a "black vehicle". =\

approves

Is the "FAIL" tag locked up for crimes it didn't commit?

/Wish I could say this surprised me but...shocked I am not.

Ward's problems began in June, when city police arrested him for riding a bicycle under the influence of alcohol.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/19/2618177/the-two-calvins-sacramento-man.html#ixz z0igVpjPJp

And if you're from Poland commit all the traffic violations you want, because the cops will record the infraction as having been committed by someone named "Prawo Jazdy"

AbsolutTBomb's alt

I used to live in a bad part of town. I was pulled over twice in one week by the police because I was driving a "black vehicle". =\

I've seen quite a few expensive cars pulled over with a black man being questioned by the police in upper class white neighborhoods. We still have a long way to go here in the country in race relations.

The funny thing is that despite the fact that blacks are more than twice as likely to get pulled over by the cops, whites are actually three times more likely than blacks to actually have contraband in the car. Not only is it racist, it's shiatTY POLICE WORK!

So, fun story. Not quite mistaken identity but an example of how these screwups sometimes take an unbelievably long time to get fixed.

So my buddy Chat got pulled over for speeding. No big, he did it, admitted as much, and decided to just send in the payment by mail instead of going to court. It's necessary to point out here and now that under City, County, and State law if you mail in your payment you DON'T have to go to court. It even says so on the ticket. The payment goes in, he gets a receipt in the mail. Done, wipe hands on pants, right?

Flash forward a few months. Chat gets pulled over again for something (I forget what) and all of the sudden the cops start arresting him. Why? He has a "failure to appear" warrant out for him. After spending a night in jail (thank God it was a weekday) he finds out it's for failing to appear for the speeding ticket. He says, "I already paid it." Judge says, "no you didn't, or we wouldn't have a warrant." Chat's lawyer says, "look it up." They look it up. Says he paid it. Case closed, apology issued to Chat. Done now? No.

Some time later he's brought in AGAIN for the SAME goddamn warrant. By the time he gets up there he's hopping mad, and sure enough the warrant should never have been issued. His lawyer insists the fine be removed and the warrant voided, then and there, for sure.

Nope. He's brought in again for the same ticket (different warrant). At this point he's had it. He sues. He wins. City pays him a high four-digit sum and promises to remove the records.

Oh, but that's not the end. Can't be the end. A few months later he's on the other end of the state on a road trip when the car he's in gets pulled over. Highway Patrol runs his ID, and sure enough he's got ANOTHER WARRANT. He spends the night in jail across the state while his friends drive 400 miles home to get bail money and then drive 400 miles back to get him. I came along for the return trip, which is where I heard the story.

Last I heard, he sued the City again, this time for something in the mid five-digit range. No idea what the outcome was there, but as far as I know he hasn't been arrested again.


The moral of this story: sometimes, suing people (or the government) IS the right response.

In my moms old town there was just 1 black family and they were as she used to put it (the good kind , kept smiling while getting pissed on ect) and some new black guy moved into town and the boss hog and his buddies kept arresting the other black guys family members cause "them dar tar babies look alike"

NumberMonkey42: Not only is it racist, it's shiatTY POLICE WORK!

It's effective criminal enterprise management though. Pay your black guys to run distraction and load up the whites with contraband. Not only are they looking for the wrong color of people, your bait is tying up valuable police time that could be used to fish out your whites.

FTA: amergft wrote on 03/19/2010 08:50:41 PM:

Yea,Yea,Yea! First of all bbbmer5th is a racist! Calvin Ward should be compensated, but Im afraid that his selfish side will look at this as an opportunity not to mention his race. You do not understand what racial profiling really means so try and educate yourself first! If you have nothing to hide, then you shouldnt feel offended. What this country needs is more racial profiling. This will be the only way the US will be able to rid of all the illegals, criminals, drug rings, scum bags etc. REMEMBER! If you have nothing to hideit will not apply to you. I shook the hand of a US Immigration officer at SFO after singling me out of an Immigration line and asked me many, many personal and racial questions. I thanked him for keeping our country safe. Remember! If you have nothing to hide..it will not apply to you and it should not offend you. If this had been you, you would have cried and complained at how unfair your country is to YOU. GROW UP and learn! PS I am not a Caucasian.hows that?

/Typical. The non caucasian calling the non-racist guy (who is probably white) racist. Classic!
//This is why I don't bother leaving the house, I'm white and have no hair and can't be arsed informing people that assuming I'm racist is in fact racist.

yukichigai: If you ask me, issuing warrants for "Failure to appear" for petty sh*t such as speeding tickets is absolutely retarded to begin with. Tack on fines and eventually send them to collections if anything but spending time in jail for something stupid like that doesn't make any sense, IMO.

/Obviously it's for $$$...but still.

Wow, he's even suing for a shockingly low sum. I like this guy more and more.

Kind of like this case, 50 calls to the wrong house over years and years...

Click (new window)

My brother-in-law gets interrogated whenever he travels as he shares a Hispanic name with a terrorist. His wife (my sister) and I also get the same treatment as we have relatives in a hardcore splinter of the PIRA. At least with my sister and I they have the right family. But come on. Neither of us have ever been involved in any serious crime. It is guilt by association.

King Something: Occam's Chainsaw: King Something: or just outright shoot him 19 times and then claim self-defense because he was reaching for what they thought was a gun but was actually his wallet.

They've been cross-training with Oakland Transit?

Yes, by virtue of being cops.

The part about a black guy getting shot to death by police while reaching for his wallet actually happened. Ask any New Yorker who Amadou Diallo was.



Your Daillo reference got me to look up more cases like that on Wikipedia. What amazes me is not that it happens, cops are stupid we know this, but that in nearly every case the cops are acquitted. In this one case I just finished reading (Gammage) some guy was pulled over for driving a Jaguar (belonged to his NFL player cousin Ray Seals) and the cops ended up beating him to death. Clear case of manslaughter right? They all got off and one later ended up being promoted. THAT is why people hate cops IMHO. Lots of people commit crimes, but only cops get away with it.

NumberMonkey42: The funny thing is that despite the fact that blacks are more than twice as likely to get pulled over by the cops, whites are actually three times more likely than blacks to actually have contraband in the car. Not only is it racist, it's shiatTY POLICE WORK!

Very shiatty police work. If the cops were to pull over, say, 3 times as many nubians as crackers, the number of contraband seizures would be equal. Our goal is equality, son. Get at it.

Panty Sniffer: My brother-in-law gets interrogated whenever he travels as he shares a Hispanic name with a terrorist. His wife (my sister) and I also get the same treatment as we have relatives in a hardcore splinter of the PIRA. At least with my sister and I they have the right family. But come on. Neither of us have ever been involved in any serious crime. It is guilt by association.

I always had a feeling the Sniffer family was up to no good!

CheddarPants: ...Ward pointed out that his paperwork erroneously identified him as Calvin Phillips, even though he had presented a driver's license that listed his true name. Deputies "ignored his protestations," the suit says, and he spent two days in jail.

Stuff like this happens when cops are stupid and/or lazy and/or crooked.

My brother was arrested once in a case of mistaken identity. When he was released from jail, they wouldn't give him any of his identification back, because they said it wasn't his real name.

Sounds like a story from The Biggest Gang in America (new window)

That motherfarker Calvin smells like french fries and his wife is farking some African guy.

King Something: He'll win this lawsuit, but then be tailgated by the Sacramento PD from the moment he steps out of the courthouse. They'll be waiting for him to do something - ANYTHING - illegal, like jaywalking or littering, so they can hassle him, arrest him for resisting arrest, taze him, or just outright shoot him 19 times and then claim self-defense because he was reaching for what they thought was a gun but was actually his wallet.

...but they aren't racist, even though they wouldn't do the same to the white Calvin (as evidenced by confusing this obviously-not-white Calvin for white Calvin multiple times).

And people wonder why I hate cops.

/If we want the law upheld and people protected it would behoove us to hire people that are much smarter than average, not dumber.

fnordfocus: yukichigai: The moral of this story: sometimes, suing people (or the government) IS the right response.

I hope he has time to spend the money before he falls on mag full of .40 bullets.

If it had been the cops, yeah, but this was the court system. The cops were just as pissed as he was because they wasted their time on him. I'll admit some cops enjoy harassing innocent people, but even THOSE cops really only like to when it was their idea, not some idiotic court screwup.

Guess I'm moving to Sacramento.

Although I'm white.

Does it matter?

Meh. To the cops any black Marvin should probably be arrested just in case. Cops also love calling shenanigans on any off-white or darker people with the last name of Smith, Jones, or Washington.

help you if you happen to have a name that may or may-not seem Muslim.

King Something:

SusanIvanova: Or they'll just go right to planting narcotics on him.

Okay, so I missed that one. Still, they'll f*ck up his life worse than they already have (or just end his life outright) AND they'll get away with it.

Lets just sprinkle some crack on him and get out of here..

Link

RedRiverRat: help you if you happen to have a name that may or may-not seem Muslim.

I once knew a guy whose name was like George Washington al'Moultallbi.

Dude got pulled over all the time, and was hell to go through an airport with.

Oh, come on, smitty. The case can't be that bad. There's gotta be some level of understanding for this confusion.

[reads article]



Oh, Jesus Christ...

I'm no fan of lawsuits, but I hope this guy wins. Punitive damages might normally be enough, but they nearly destroyed his business as well.

Different last names, different ethnicities, different measurements, and the cops still kept him locked up after being shown evidence that they were wrong.

Sounds like they just wanted to lock up a darkie. I hate to be that cynical, but this article is pretty damning.

So being unable to identify race or a four inch difference in height isn't grounds for dismissal or suspension among law enforcement?

Huh.

"You're pretty tan for a white guy. Oh well, the names match."

King Something: He'll win this lawsuit, but then be tailgated by the Sacramento PD from the moment he steps out of the courthouse. They'll be waiting for him to do something - ANYTHING - illegal, like jaywalking or littering, so they can hassle him, arrest him for resisting arrest, taze him, or just outright shoot him 19 times and then claim self-defense because he was reaching for what they thought was a gun but was actually his wallet.

A really massive civil fine levied on the local government would solve this problem, enough so that Mr. Ward can comfortably retire (if he so chooses).

/ firing a bunch of cops and city lawyers would be a close second.

jagec: Wow, he's even suing for a shockingly low sum. I like this guy more and more.

THIS. He's not going crazy with it. I hope he gets it.

To Wish Impossible Things: So being unable to identify race or a four inch difference in height isn't grounds for dismissal or suspension among law enforcement?

Huh.

"You're pretty tan for a white guy. Oh, well, the names match your name isn't even the same. Well, you're black. Obviously, you're a criminal."

And people wonder why there is so much hate for pigs.

SusanIvanova: King Something: He'll win this lawsuit, but then be tailgated by the Sacramento PD from the moment he steps out of the courthouse. They'll be waiting for him to do something - ANYTHING - illegal, like jaywalking or littering, so they can hassle him, arrest him for resisting arrest, taze him, or just outright shoot him 19 times and then claim self-defense because he was reaching for what they thought was a gun but was actually his wallet.

Or they'll just go right to planting narcotics on him.

And that's the end game. Given what's in TFA he's a business owner so there is a good chance that someone with some power in the town wants his business gone for one reason or another.
Cops are dumb but this kind of dumb happens on purpose.

yukichigai: The moral of this story: sometimes, suing people (or the government) IS the right response.

It is. But they will continue to fark with him unless he moves away.

WFern: Sounds like they just wanted to lock up a darkie. I hate to be that cynical, but this article is pretty damning.

There's a chance it's racial, but my guess the main reason is economic. This sounds like an attack on him to eliminate his business.

pull_my_dinger: THIS. He's not going crazy with it. I hope he gets it.

Civil penalty is the immediate losses one suffers during the duress.

The "unspecified damages" are where the real money is.

I, for one, am extremely un-suprised this happened in Excremento.