Link Scott Henson authors the popular Austin-based blog Grits for Breakfast, which has been cited numerous times on this blog over the years on a variety of criminal justice issues. Two Fridays ago, Henson and his wife were babysitting their five year-old granddaughter, Ty. After an evening at a neighborhood recreation center, Henson -- who is white -- and his granddaughter -- who is black -- started to walk to his home, which is just a few blocks from the rec center. Some busybody saw Henson and his granddaughter walking home, called police and alleged that a kidnapping was in progress. From that point on, all hell broke loose. Henson and his granddaughter were stopped twice by different law enforcement agencies while walking home (remarkably, this wasn't the first time this sort of thing has happened to Scott and his granddaughter). The second stop -- which was recorded by the Austin Police Department below -- resulted in Henson being handcuffed and detained for over 10 minutes by a half-dozen or so APD officers while his terrorized granddaughter was hauled off to sit in the back of a squad car. An APD officer then contacted Henson's wife, Henson's wife contacted his daughter, who called and verified his relationship with Ty. APD then let Henson and Ty go home. Subsequently, Henson blogged about the ordeal and got a couple of facts wrong. APD Chief Art Acevedo went on the offensive and claimed that Henson had lied about what he had been put through. As is usually the case in such matters, people then take sides and nothing productive is resolved. I mean really -- how many kidnappers would be leisurely walking along a neighborhood sidewalk? When Henson informed officers that he lived two blocks away, was it really necessary for APD officers to handcuff Henson in front of his granddaughter, even while she was crying out "That's my grandpa!"? Despite the obvious close relationship between Henson and his granddaughter, there isn't much doubt that Henson would have been detained for much longer if his daughter had been in a movie or other activity in which she would have been unavailable to take a phone call. It's unfortunate that Henson got a couple of facts wrong in his blog post, but I certainly understand how his recollection of events could be affected by the stress of the situation. But it's far more unfortunate that Chief Acevedo views what happened to Henson as appropriate police work. Yeah, it certainly could have been handled worse. But APD's conduct still looks over-the-top and excessive to me, particularly in regard to a 22-year resident of a neighborhood. And to add a final issue that no one involved seems to be addressing -- Just who the hell called in the report of the alleged kidnapping?
Makes one wonder what would happen if the grandparent is black and the granddaughter appears to be white.
I'm sorry For something I didn't do Lynched somebody But I don't know who You blame me for slavery A hundred years before I was born Guilty of being white I'm a convict Of a racist crime I've only served 19 years of my time Guilty of being white
I haven't read all the facts, and wouldn't call something like that in myself... BUT, I will at least note that isn't it better to be safe than sorry, especially in today's day and age? Again, don't get me wrong, the police went WAY WAY WAY overboard. You're talking about something that requires one police officer and a quick phone call at most to resolve, not handcuffing, etc, etc. But from the person that called it in perspective, a little intrusive, a little over the top, but better safe than sorry. I know I'd feel horrible for pretty much ever if I saw someone walking away with a child that I even thought a little bit might not be theirs and didn't do anything about it and bad things happened. Clearly, race is playing a role here. But I don't think the races matter that much, but rather that there were two distinctly different races.
The police chief's explanation of the events were satisfactory in this case for me -- 911 received a call that a man had taken a girl from the entertainment center and she was trying to run from him. Really no other way for them to react -- damned if they do really damned if they don't and the call was accurate.
I don't have a problem with the police questioning Henson, because as others have said, better safe than sorry. But if you read his full description of the encounter, the police were real assholes, and could have handled it much better. I knew Scott Henson at UT, where we crossed paths as members of various commie/pinko political groups. While I'm sure that gwayneco posted this as an example of white people oppression, I think it's safe to say that Henson wrote about this incident as an example of police fascism.
While I'm generally sympathetic to the police, I realize they are not perfect. My mother was once riding in a car with a family friend. That family friend happened to be a black man. The police pulled them over. During the stop the police said they thought my mother had been kidnapped. This was about 4 years ago and must have been a case of DWB.
