Journalist shares the story of her son's unlawful arrest

[RavenSky]

Goldie Taylor is a journalist for the Daily Beast

What "suspicious" activity did my son demonstrate? He posted his MacBook for sale on CraigsList. Armed undercover officers showed up. He arranged to meet with a potential "buyer," who turned out to be a police decoy. A device was use to secretly scan his computer files. As they conducted the illegal search, an undercover officer approached from behind and ordered him to place his hands behind his back. He did not ID himself. He pressed a weapon to my son's back or ordered him to stay still. My son feared for his life. He did not know who they were. Another officer approached, determined the MacBook belonged to my son. They uncuffed him, apologized and walked away. Never once ID'ing themselves.

https://twitter.com/i/moments/731957349640867840

This is what she wrote just over a year ago on Trayvon Martin's birthday: http://bluenationreview.com/tbd-goldie-taylor-trayvon-martin/

 

[Valjean]

I'm sure this thing happens all the time.

 

[RavenSky]

I'm sure it does, too.

It shouldn't

 

[TSwizzle]

Sounds bogus to me.

 

[laughing dog]

I shudder to think what might have happened if George Zimmerman had been one of those police officers.

 

[untermensche]

The definition of a police state is a nation where the police are above the law.

The US has long been a police state.

But since most of the victims are poor and minorities nobody cares.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

If you look more carefully at the case you'll see that it has to have been the buyer who thought it was stolen--otherwise there would have been no buyer involved, it would have just been the police.

Their conduct doesn't seem too out of line if you look at it as someone going to the cops and saying "somebody's trying to sell me a stolen laptop"--the police pretend to be the buyer and arrest the seller.

 

[RavenSky]

If you look more carefully at the case you'll see that it has to have been the buyer who thought it was stolen--otherwise there would have been no buyer involved, it would have just been the police.

Their conduct doesn't seem too out of line if you look at it as someone going to the cops and saying "somebody's trying to sell me a stolen laptop"--the police pretend to be the buyer and arrest the seller.

Leave it to you to defend the police... as always

But in fact, "if you look more carefully at the case you'll see that" the "buyer" was a police decoy

 

[untermensche]

If you look more carefully at the case you'll see that it has to have been the buyer who thought it was stolen--otherwise there would have been no buyer involved, it would have just been the police.

Their conduct doesn't seem too out of line if you look at it as someone going to the cops and saying "somebody's trying to sell me a stolen laptop"--the police pretend to be the buyer and arrest the seller.

He pulled a weapon and threatened a totally innocent person with it. At least that is the allegation.

In anything but a police state it would be a serious crime.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

If you look more carefully at the case you'll see that it has to have been the buyer who thought it was stolen--otherwise there would have been no buyer involved, it would have just been the police.

Their conduct doesn't seem too out of line if you look at it as someone going to the cops and saying "somebody's trying to sell me a stolen laptop"--the police pretend to be the buyer and arrest the seller.

Leave it to you to defend the police... as always

But in fact, "if you look more carefully at the case you'll see that" the "buyer" was a police decoy

No, there was an actual buyer apart from the police.

 

[Arctish]

Leave it to you to defend the police... as always

But in fact, "if you look more carefully at the case you'll see that" the "buyer" was a police decoy

No, there was an actual buyer apart from the police.

Where did you get that information? It's not in the OP. Ms. Taylor wrote:

We still don't know who the officers were or the real ID of the "buyer." But I've hired an attorney and an investigator to find out.

The "buyer" who showed up was an undercover cop, and the Taylors suspect he was the only "buyer" to ever contact them.

 

[TSwizzle]

The "buyer" who showed up was an undercover cop, and the Taylors suspect he was the only "buyer" to ever contact them.

How do we know this if the "undercover cop" never ID himself and there is no trace of any sting operation ? The whole thing is bogus. The kid wasn't arrested either. I smell bullshit.

 

[Artemus]

How do we know this if the "undercover cop" never ID himself and there is no trace of any sting operation ? The whole thing is bogus. The kid wasn't arrested either. I smell bullshit.

I share your concerns about the veracity of the details of the story, but if he was handcuffed then he was arrested.

 

[barbos]

I suspect stolen macbooks are pretty common on craigslist, specially if seller is a young somewhat blackish male.
How recent macbook model was?

Speaking of IDing, how much use it has if average person can't tell a difference between real ID and poorly made fake you are not even allowed to carefully study?

 

[Deepak]

How do we know this if the "undercover cop" never ID himself and there is no trace of any sting operation ? The whole thing is bogus. The kid wasn't arrested either. I smell bullshit.

I share your concerns about the veracity of the details of the story, but if he was handcuffed then he was arrested.

Not true - you can be handcuffed during an investigatory detention.

See Gallegos v Colorado Springs and CA v Osborne

 

[barbos]

I share your concerns about the veracity of the details of the story, but if he was handcuffed then he was arrested.

Not true - you can be handcuffed during an investigatory detention.

Yes, one can often see it on COPS TV show.

 

[Artemus]

I share your concerns about the veracity of the details of the story, but if he was handcuffed then he was arrested.

Not true - you can be handcuffed during an investigatory detention.

See Gallegos v Colorado Springs and CA v Osborne

I couldn't find the relevant sections of these cases.

Detention is arrested whether they call it that or not. Google "reasonable person not free to go arrest" and you will find hundreds of links (including the one I gave earlier) that say

The test used to determine whether an arrest took place in a particular case is objective, and it turns on whether a reasonable person under these circumstances would believe he or she was restrained or free to go. That is straight from a SCOTUS decision.

Saying "You are not under arrest" when handcuffing someone is meaningless. Of course you are because you are restrained and not free to go. What they really should say is you are not charged with a crime at this point.

ETA: For what it's worth, Here is an interesting blog on the confusion between "detain" and "arrest" by an attorney on Huffington Post.

 

[TSwizzle]

How do we know this if the "undercover cop" never ID himself and there is no trace of any sting operation ? The whole thing is bogus. The kid wasn't arrested either. I smell bullshit.

I share your concerns about the veracity of the details of the story, but if he was handcuffed then he was arrested.

Since the incident is bogus, whether he was "arrested" or arrested is a moo point.

 

[Artemus]

I share your concerns about the veracity of the details of the story, but if he was handcuffed then he was arrested.

Since the incident is bogus, whether he was "arrested" or arrested is a moo point.

Here is more on the alleged incident. It says that, according to Atlanta police, a Justin Kahler assumed that the laptop was his so answered the ad as "Derek Charleston" and then contacted the police. This story also says that a police spokesperson said "the details of the incident is under an internal review." Something definitely happened or the police wouldn't have made the statement in the first place. Now, whether the police refused to identify themselves and had a taser (the weapon according to this story) drawn is another question, but it is highly unlikely that the entire incident was fabricated.

 

[RavenSky]

I wonder when Derec, Loren, RVonse et.al. will be calling for Justin Kahler's arrest and prosecution for lying.