James Blake (1979- ), a retired American tennis star, was once ranked fourth in the world. He won second place in the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup. He was also named Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year. It was after he heard Arthur Ashe himself speak in Harlem that he knew he wanted to be a tennis player. He dropped out of Harvard to become one.
On September 9th 2015, the New York police (NYPD) threw him to the ground and arrested him – for credit card fraud. The police outnumbered Blake six to one. This was in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. They paraded Blake through the streets in handcuffs. Only after 15 minutes did they discover they had the wrong man.
Blake’s sister:
“‘[He] wasn’t doing anything wrong, but this still happened.”
The arrest was caught on video on the hotel’s security camera: Blake was calmly waiting in front of the hotel (for a ride to the US Open). A man comes up out of nowhere and jumps him. It was a plains clothes police officer. Blake did not put up any kind of fight.
The police did not report the arrest. William Bratton, the police commissioner, found out about it from the press.
Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio were quick to apologize. And quick to out the arresting officer: James Frascatore.
Was it about race? Frascatore and the five other officers were White, Blake is Black (or biracial).
Blake’s determinedly colour-blind (White) mother thinks so.
Bratton:
“This rush to put a race tag on it, I’m sorry, that’s not involved in this incident at all. That doesn’t denote there’s a racial angle to this at all. … The concern we had: was the force used appropriate, and the initial review – we believe it may not have been.”
Blake:
“I think the race issue is a bigger issue for another day and this is about excessive force.”
Blake on Frascatore:
“He should lose his job, this is not the right job for him.”
Blake might bring a lawsuit, but he would rather the NYPD change its ways.
Frascatore was a police officer in Florida. In the past four years that he has been with the NYPD, he has had five civilian complaints and two excessive-force lawsuits brought against him. Both excessive-force lawsuits were brought by Black men.
One of the civilian complaints:
- Leroy Cline says Frascatore punched him the mouth three times after pulling him over for a broken tail light. Frascatore said Cline tried to bite him.
The two lawsuits:
- Stefon Luckey says Frascatore punched him twice in the stomach and called him a “fucking nigger” after racially profiling him outside a Queens deli in 2013. He says Frascatore threw the first punch.
- Warren Diggs says Frascatore “sadistically and maliciously” beat him outside his home in 2013.
Diggs:
“Hopefully, [Blake’s] in a better position to do something about it so that he won’t be able to get away with it anymore.”
Frascatore is on desk duty while the police investigate themselves.
– Abagond, 2015.
Sources: Mainly The Guardian, Raw Story, BBC, Al Jazeera, New York Daily News.
See also:
- respectability politics
- The Black-on-Black crime argument
- Black Brute stereotype
- NYPD
- Police coming out of nowhere, shooting first and asking questions later:
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Abagond, you mean Blake’s mother is more realistic than he is!
He is determined to try to play race down, and his mother straight out said, “it was about race”
I hope Blake is only playing down “race” in order to effect change, because as we know, white society will not be on his side if he “offends them” by talking about race… they don’t want to hear it.
as long as he acts like it was nothing other than “mistaken identity”, they will support all the noise he is about to make.
Good Luck to him.
I’m glad he is OK because he did break his neck some years ago, so his lucky to walk away.
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I didn’t even know who this guy was to be honest until i read about what happened to him. Well he got his apology but like Abagond said in the open thread if he was just a regular guy instead of a sports celebrity they wouldn’t bother with apologizing.
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“…while the police investigate themselves.”
So sadly and succinctly true…
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This ought to be enough to have Frascatore sent packing, but the NYPD loves itself some cops who aren’t afraid to kick some Negro heads in.
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@Mack Lyons (@DDSSBlog)…You’re absolutely right, hence the “desk duty.” {smdh}
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Anyone have a link to what his mother said?
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Like the legend Dick Gregory said, “no intelligent white boy would ever aspire to be a cop with all the opportunities white boys have.”
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Apparently standing while Black in NYC (and elsewhere in racist Amerikkka) is as much a crime as driving or walking while Black. Clearly the police/swat process goes like this: use VIOLENCE FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER.
We need to come up with a new word – or phrase – that describes the on-going fear, apprehension, anxiety, suspicion and unyielding lower expectations a typical Black person has to deal with whenever we have to leave our homes and other people who look like us. A word or phrase other than HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE. Or, DEPRESSION.
They won’t permit us to be just – everyday people. They are as determined as they’ve ever been to make monsters and monstrosities of us all, by any means necessary!
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I think he got his N***** wake up call he better recognize.
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[…] Sourced through Scoop.it from: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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Imagine if Mr. Blake would have put up a fight to defend himself from this stranger.
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I think he’s wise. Race clouds the discussion of general police brutality. Sometimes you need to find another angle in a matter to make yourself heard
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@Open Eye Mag
That would work only if whites were also getting killed in droves at the same rate as the POC. But they think cops are angels. So, the best angle open their eyes, and make them uncomfortable as possible.
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Perhaps not killed but I’ve read comments from whites online saying they personally know how brutal cops can be too. All I’m saying is there needs to be some training for policemen to change their attitude towards all citizens – I’m sure that will ultimately decrease black fatalities too.
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@Open Eye Mag
Fair enough. But do you really think a white cop who was brought up in a middle class family in a very white neighborhood can be trained to view Blacks better when his only knowledge of blacks is what the movies and Fox news has told him for years? Changing attitudes is a lot of work and can only be successful if the individual is willing to change his attitudes. There is no neat or clean non-offensive way of doing this. It is either a revolution or maintenance of the status quo.
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But what’s happened so far isn’t working. Unfortunately protests are being ruined by a few and idiot citizens as well as officers will say that proves a stereotype about blacks. There’s no shame in going back to the drawing board sometimes. Black leaders should perhaps lobby for forces to give police training of the type I mentioned above. If white America plugs its ears when it comes to race discussions then the problem needs to be tackled from another angle.
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You know all black folks look alike (sarcasm)
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This ought to be enough to have Frascatore sent packing, but the NYPD loves itself some cops who aren’t afraid to kick some Negro heads in.
Too expensive for the police department as this clown already has other lawsuits against him for excessive use of force. The good news? This will up the ante on the other lawsuits as it shows a pattern off deleterious neglect on the police department in that this man should have been dismissed based upon his record. These questions will have to be answered in civil court. I can assure you that money talks. If they keep getting law suits and losing large amounts of cash, they will change due to losing money in such large amounts, not based upon any moral grounds. This is why I advise people to go for their pockets, sue. grieve(if you are in a union);call the newspaper, preferably ones which love ‘investigative reporting’ (brings in more revenue).
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@Open Eye mag
I get what you are saying, but you seem to skirt over the changing of the attitudes that villagewriter mentioned. No amount of training will make a cop change his/her attitude. That would be wasted funding and time for a solution that will bring everyone back to square one. They have been implementing attitude training for years and it has resulted in hidden attitudes.
How the system works has to be the change. Reform on police quotas is a start.
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@open eye mag
Remember, during the sixties MLK was called a trouble maker, and all sorts of disgusting things. Whites then thought that black people were making noise for nothing and that everything was okay. Look at history and you will see that what is happening now happened before. But MLK never gave up. He organized boycotts and demonstrations that made white people very uncomfortable and that brought in results. This is not a movement to look good in the eyes of white people, it is a movement to save the lives of Black girls and Black men. What whites think does not matter.
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Blake is playing it safe. I’m sure deep down he knows that it was about race, but you can lead more flies with honey than vinegar. If anything is white mom knows what’s up. Let her bring the noise *remember they listen to other white folks regarding racial matter* That fake-Rambo-cop needs to be FIRED. I think hopefully this will be the nail in the coffin for him. Only time will tell.
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Well I’m afraid it does matter in this instance because it’s white people you’re asking to change.
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@Open Eye mag
How does it matter? Years have passed on these same racial sensitivity training and it has made white people do what? Has racism disappeared? Has it become less? No, so really it matters how?
The asking of white people to change is the problem. Black people should be more concerned in networking and building their own instead of waiting for the invisible change of white people.
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@Open Eye Mag
Actually the movement serves to expose the police for who they are and wake up Black people to see their current situation. White people will never change because they are comfortable in their current position. So, Black people should do what sharinalr has stated- unite and fend for themselves.
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I do agree very much with your last sentence as a general thought. Do you think the AA community is doing this successfully (fending for yourselves?) On this particular issue though I guess I don’t have the solution, but I think that’s for AAs to work out and I really hope you get there. It’s heartbreaking seeing stories like Blake’s and others.
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@sharinair…“The asking of white people to change is the problem.”
Hey sharinair, hope all is well with you! You, my Sister, are absolutely right! We keep ASKING them for things (like civil rights and/or to “change”) that they and their spawn expect, demand AND GET all day long! {smdh}
Quite frankly, I don’t care whether they change or not. What I DO care about though, is US waking the hell up and realizing that we CAN — and MUST — stop being, as Dr. John Heinrik Clarke described us, “…a nation of brotherhood seekers” and look in the damned mirror for our own liberation.
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I absolutely agree.
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@archive1986
“Do you think the AA community is doing this successfully (fending for yourselves?”—No, but I also don’t want to take this too far off topic by going into detail. So I will provide a link of where to continue this.
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@Deb
Nice to read from you again. I am doing good and feeling blessed. How about you? How are you doing?
I agree 1000 times over. I realize that once blacks as a whole stop caring it is a whole weight lifted off your shoulders. Your focus shifts.
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@ Herneith
Going for their pockets is not going to change much. The city just has the taxpayers pay for it in the end. Also, in the slave patrol model of policing, which the NYPD seems to follow, having to pay for property damage (dead or injured slaves) was just part of the cost of doing business – ie, keeping Black people in line.
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@Open Eye mag…Thanx
@sharinair…Glad you’re well. I, on the other hand, feel like I’m losing my damned mind these days. So much has happened since I moved home to SC. I’m so tired of all the “ASKING” going on with not a lot of doing, despite the fact there are clearly things we could be doing.
I haven’t been able to write about any of it yet though, just totally blocked!! Hopefully real soon I’ll be able to get it all on the page, it’s just so much. And I agree, shifting focus is the only way we’re going to get anything done. I’ve been here a little over a year now and I keep saying to myself — “Self, we’ve got a long row to hoe here!” It’s been frustrating to say the very least!
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i wish you guys would visit Africa more often. I promise it doesn’t look like CNN say it does. Come breath fresh air here Deb; no police to harass you because of skin color
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I’m glad you covered this story, Abagond. I learned about it a lil’ while ago, and I couldn’t help but think that Blake knew good and well that this was more than likely “racially” motivated, yet he wants to toe that fine line of diplomacy that many athletes (especially POC) seem to almost be trained to do (no matter how big their careers get).
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Going for their pockets is not going to change much.
You are right, but if you are going to discriminate against me, you are going to pay for the privilege of doing so. I know they won’t change but it is fun bugging them and getting compensated for it.
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@villagewriter
I don’t believe sh*t America tells me about it. I would love to visit and hope to invest to start building and helping it grow.
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@villagewriter…Hey! As a matter of fact, I’ve visited West Africa every year from 2010-2012 and on the last trip, my husband and two grown sons met me there for Xmas (I’d told them I was tired of buying Xmas gifts for them that they took back and exchanged for something else, or worse, the cash!) — and that is exactly what my oldest son said!! He kept telling his friends when we got back, “Don’t believe the hype they feed you about Africa on TV, you need to go and see for yourself!” As I got off the plane the first time and since, I was always wonderfully overwhelmed by the feeling of being surrounded by folk who looked just like me, who on every occasion made me feel at home. And yes, I enjoyed the fresh air there!😊
I’d initially planned to move there, but a series of events caused me to detour back home to SC. Hopefully, like Randall Robinson, I can “quit America” in a year or so: http://www.democracynow.org/2004/2/3/quitting_america_the_departure_of_a
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Turns out James Blake’s “twin” was an innocent Australian man (who btw had a twin). The original criminals knew that by choosing a black fall guy fewer questions would be asked by the police.
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@
“i wish you guys would visit Africa more often. I promise it doesn’t look like CNN say it does. Come breath fresh air here Deb; no police to harass you because of skin color”
I’ve tried before to educate people in this blog about contemporary Africa and I think that the best thing to do is always to present pictures of our urban environment. This is the shortest path that can help people re-think about what the continent really looks like (“one picture is worth a thousand words!”)
Look at the following comment for an overview,
(https://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/the-broken-africa-stereotype/#comment-156161)
And some pictures of modern urban centers in Africa:
Maputo (Mozambique, East Africa)
1. Panorama (downtown)
(http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=102290862&postcount=928)
2. Views from the bay
(http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1446879&page=75)
3. Aerial (Drone) Video-clip
(http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=120359479&postcount=1378)
Lagos (Nigeria, West Africa)
1. Social events, urban environment
(www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1681028&page=88)
Dar es Salaam (Tanzania, East Africa)
1. Urban development
(http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=125739941&postcount=4256)
Nairobi (Kenya, East Africa)
1. Urban life and skyline
(http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=515152&page=309)
@ Deb
“Hopefully, like Randall Robinson, I can “quit America” in a year or so”
Regarding the issue of quitting America if you allow me I would suggest that instead of quitting totally you try as far as possible to retain your already existent connection to your home country. Put in another way: one foot in America and one foot elsewhere.
There at least 4 continents where significant Black populations exist, namely: Africa, North America, South America, Europe and (this is not a continent!) Caribbean. Before you go to any place there is very important to study that place and make a few short visits before the main one (but you Deb, have already did that, I see!)
Lately I would like to speak about the reasons some Black Americans seem to have to quit their home country.
If the main reason is security you must think twice really!
People, civilian people, are killed everywhere either by security forces (Police, Army, etc) or by criminals. You must assure yourself that you are not replacing an evil by a worst one! This is one of the reasons why is very important to make a prior assessment of the target place you want to move to.
Abagond has counted until now 62 unarmed black civilians killed by the US police (in 2015).
This can seem a very high number, specially if compared to similar numbers by other ethnic groups in the USA mosaic (White, Asians, etc), but is not that high if you compare with the number of killed civilians in other countries (by security forces or by criminals).
It is important also to think that the racial relations in the USA appear to follow a wave like pattern in time as Abagond pointed out*, with pits (nadir points, bad racial relations) followed by peaks (good racial relations) and vice versa. It means that after a while the “bullying” of Blacks by Whites – as we witness right now – can go away and be replaced by easier racial relationships.
Just a few thoughts!
*(https://abagond.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/the-nadir-of-american-race-relations/)
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Note (correction):
In my previous comment, where it is:
@
should be
@ villagewriter
The first part of that (my) comment was a reaction to a previous villagewriter’s comment.
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I used to have a celeb crush on him. I wondered what happened to him after he retired.
Anyway, sure it was about race, now come on. I am also sure the reason they apologized and sorted it out is because he’s somewhat famous.
Didn’t know his mother was white.
All in all, this seems similar to all the police brutality incidents that are racially charged in one form or another. Since nobody died, I doubt we’d hear about it if it wasn’t for a sports figure/public personality.
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