Hello? Police? There are BLACK PEOPLE using our neighborhood pool!

[Loren Pechtel]

She had a pass key to get in and showed it to the man... so either 1) she is a resident 2) she is friends with a resident 3) she has a forged key. The third is only likely in a Loren Pechtel hypothetical in which he is justifying her shooting death by police.

So she has a key that grants her access... there is little else to suggest she shouldn't be there.

As far as I'm concerned, having the pass key is plenty of indication that she's legit.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

My point was not made clear. I'm not taking sides. Let's say she was in the wrong. I don't care. Let's say he is a racist. Again, not germane to my point. So, let's say she wasn't in the wrong and he's not a racist. Still, irrelevant to my point. Whose side we can or should come down on or stand up for all beside the point.

Agreed. All that matters is calling the police because of someone having access to the pool that you have failed in knowing they have access to the pool is unbelievably stupid and should open the person to ridicule. Talk about white privilege! Person in the pool area in your uber-fancy area you don't think belongs... just call the police.

Do you really want to send mixed messages? We are not just stupid. As you say, we're unbelievably stupid, so what's registering (do you think) in my mind exactly? The message has always been "don't take the law into your own hands. Call the police." Don't take the law into your own hands. Call the police. This really (truly) bears repeating. What do you think has been committed to muscle memory? Don't take the law into your own hands. Call the police.

And now we have you coming along saying, don't call the police. You're stupid if you call the police. Have you that short a memory? Recall, not just stupid. You seem to have some wild and crazy thought running through your head that there's a third option--yet how you think that's supposed to register, I have no idea.

Maybe we should start sending the "calling the police is stupid" message to young poor people --the kind that hasn't been privileged to have been born to non-lazy working parents. I'll take stupid people calling the police any day over your "you're stupid for calling the police" message, but then hey, no skin off my back. As some of you may know, I never call.

ETA oh, and it's not lost on me that you're not exactly saying to never call, but gee, that's like really complicated, especially for stupid people.

I don't completely agree. Let me play devil's advocate. I woke up this morning and was out of cereal. So i called the police. Some guy was walking his dog down the street. So i called the police. When i got in my car, my gas was low. So i called the police.

Yes, people are incredibly stupid and so are police sometimes. If i call the police on my cereal, i could possibly be considered a danger and if non-compliant when police arrive, wind up dead. Now the guy walking down the street could also wind up dead when police get there.

There's a meme, "if you see something, say something," but the government started that psa after 9/11 and it speaks to paranoia. No don't call the police unless you might be in danger because when authoritarian pricks show up with guns, someone actually IS in danger. In order for the reward to outweigh the risk there must be viable danger present. Don't call police on a family swimming in a pool peacefully. There's no upside.

For very stupid people who need an oversimplified rule: danger means call police.

 

[Arctish]

So, the article says the guy (described as "pool chair") first asked her for ID. Does that mean she refused and then he called the police?That certainly would be different than if he had just immediately called the cops. It also matters whether he has previously (as he claims he does every week) asked others for ID.

The article I read said he asked her for her address and she told him. She also had the card residents get so they can unlock the gate. Then he came back and asked her for ID. She asked him why he wanted it since it isn't posted on the signs that residents are required to show ID and no one else had to show it to get in.

Instead of backing down and bringing the matter up at the next neighborhood association meeting, the guy called to cops. It was a needless escalation of a confrontation he created because he didn't recognize the black family who showed up at the pool.

The NYPost article didn't say anything about him first asking for the address, but that doesn't make much difference. Anyone can give say a fake address, so this situation is no different than if he'd asked for the ID to begin with and she refused.
It also doesn't matter whether anyone else was asked for ID at that time. What matters is whether he or someone regularly ask people for ID when they don't recognize them as a resident. IF not, then he's a racist and 100% responsible for the incident. He claims he does and it should be easy to verify if other residents have been asked in the past. If so, then he was doing what he is supposed to and it had nothing to do with race, then she escalated it by refusing to show ID and claiming racial discrimination.

It matters whether he had the authority to check IDs.

If the neighborhood association hasn't given that authority to pool staff or members of the board, and the residents haven't agreed to the plan, then he had no business demanding she present ID before entering the pool.

Earlier in the thread someone noted that they don't bring ID with them to the pool. I don't either, unless I have to and I can lock it up somewhere. If I was a resident in that neighborhood I'd probably walk to the pool wearing my swim suit and a cover-up and just bring my pool pass and a towel. I think most people would do the same. So I wonder how often that guy asked for ID and how often people were able to show it.

Arguably, even then, he should have asked her to leave rather than call the cops, and if she wasn't a resident she either would have left or maybe called his bluff but still not returned to press her luck.
There is no way to keep out non-residents if people cannot be kicked out when they can't or won't verify residency when asked, but asking every person every time is needless burdensome to all.
The only way to avoid such a situation would be for the board to either create a burdensome policy that requires even well known 30 year residents to automatically show ID every time they enter the pool, or a policy that allows anyone who can get in the gate to use the pool without being asked to verify residency and without consequence. Can you think of any other policy that would avoid this situation?

Sure.

The neighborhood association could have everyone sign in on an iPad that displays photos of authorized users, or takes pictures of people using their pass cards. Guests of residents could be issued day passes. Rules about presenting ID could be passed by the association and posted along with the other pool rules. And people who have the authority to challenge pool users and/or deny them access could be clearly identified. They could even be issued badges to wear when acting in their official Pool Patrol capacity so they don't just look like jerks being mean to a mom and her kids.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

In case you need reminding, calling the police in situations like this can get get people killed.

Then why do you do things like that?