This was actually on page 2A of the Dominion Post, the Morgantown, WV daily (Crazy ass John Raese owns this paper, too– I’m kind of amused he is not running for Senate this time around like he has basically every election since the 80’s. I guess Arch Moore and the establishment Republicans still have some clout over the teatards and cleared the primary for his daughter, Moore-Capito):
ATTN: EVERY BLACK MAN IN MORGANTOWN! Don’t be suspicious, because we are onto your shit.
This is one of those things that you see, and your jaw just drops and all you can muster is a mental “Are you fucking serious?”
rikyrah
this shocks you?
doesn’t shock me in the least.
Then again, I have been Black in America longer than 3 days.
rikyrah
Has chickenshyt Senator Manchin surfaced since the toxic water happened in WV?
FlyingToaster
Has anyone forwarded this to the US DOJ?
Seriously, this shit will go on for fucking ever if a big flashlight isn’t shone upon it EVERY DAMNED TIME.
dan
I live on Long Island, but I think I saw the suspect today.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Was he voting?
Violet
@rikyrah: Manchin was on CNN yesterday afternoon.
John, maybe you should send that to Jay Leno for his “Headlines” segment.
Elizabelle
Besides which, “suspicious activity” is a term you can drive a truck through.
I would love if Monongalia County residents kept calling in Morgan’s deputies. That would be teh awesome.
ruemara
“white man’s burden” indeed. Nothing compared to a black person’s burden. Jeez louise.
Zam
Reminds me of when friends of mine go to a large city and proclaim that there was totally a guy selling drugs on like every corner. When what they really mean is they saw a black guy waiting for the bus.
scav
No reason to advertise for a White Person behaving intelligently at the Dominion Post, Morgantown, WV or in the immediate vicinity of Dep. J. D. Morgan.
PaulW
it’s a typo, sad to say the newspapers do NOT have the high-quality staff manning the copy editing jobs.
we have the local papers delete half of our library events announcements into mincemeat to where nobody knows WHEN an event is taking place and/or who is hosting it.
Unless you can show me the exact Press release from the sheriff’s department, I’m putting this on sloppy newspaper work.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, all black men are suspicious.
ESPECIALLY those who hang out anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in DC.
Smiling Mortician
I wonder how many people are calling that number now in order to fuck with the sheriff’s department from all directions.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
I saw one yesterday in Virginia. Is it possible he is on the run?
bewleys
You better delete that phone number for J.D.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
My sister got on a local mailing list for her upscale neighborhood and was shocked find out her neighbors were calling the cops on dangerous thugs like the Girl Scouts and Young Life. I can only imagine what is going to be the results of “suspicious black man” warning from the cops with paranoid America.
Aji
@PaulW: Oh, FFS. Happens every damn day all over the country. It’s only white folks who don’t believe it – because, of course, you never have to have it on your radar, much less be subject to being followed, S&F, false arrest, or any of the other indignities POC endure every day.
MikeBoyScout
I betcha the suspicious man they’re looking for is either Eric Holder or Barry Obama.
J
I saw fully three, maybe more, men answering to this description today. It’s a bit confusing, but perhaps the safest thing would be for Deputy J.D. Morgan to round them all up?
PaulW
usually the police make an honest attempt to describe the suspect, what he’s wearing, what he’s driving, his height, his body fat index, what have you. They’d want to make it easier to find a suspect, not harder. Just leaving it up as “a black guy” is either going to get you 50,000 prank calls, 50,000 racist calls, or 200,000 protest calls.
Violet
I didn’t see any black men today but saw a lot of brown men. Are we sure it wasn’t one of them?
Omnes Omnibus
I think he might be in Madison now – along with several henchmen.
max
@MikeBoyScout: I betcha the suspicious man they’re looking for is either Eric Holder or Barry Obama.
This is West Virginny – they’re probably more worried that it’s OJ.
max
[‘Lots of white Broncos ’round here, son.’]
karen
Is this their “legal” way of making a “citizen’s arrest” of President Obama? Cuz I’m sure that sign wouldn’t have been there before 2008. It seems like because we have a black President, the boil of genteel good manners burst and the pus of naked racism has spattered all lover the country.
Scott
I just called and told them I saw a black guy in NYC today and wondered if maybe that’s the guy they were looking for. They said no probably not but when I said oh, okay well stay racists the guy on the phone replied “will do” WTF Dude?
Aji
@Violet: Brown, black, red – we all look alike, right?
shelly
But just how black is he? Blue-black? Or more of a mocha shade?
Mike G
Round up the usual suspects.
PhoenixRising
…Okay, I’m…perplexed.
How many, or more precisely how few, black people live in Morgantown? I know that WV is heavily segregated, but that seems extreme.
The Dangerman
So, WTF was Colston thinking? He could have had one more play by just stepping out of bounds!
Idiot.
sparrow
@Elizabelle: I’m pretty sure the “suspicious activity” involved was “being black”. So really they were being redundant there. (barf).
Omnes Omnibus
@Aji: “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.”
— Deng Xiaoping.
Keith G
Okay, I’ll bite.
What happens in a criminal complaint where skin tone/color is the only description given?
More is so much better, but what happens if that is the only piece if information that the victim is able to provide?
Aji
@sparrow: Also known as BWB (“breathing while Black”).
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, well, theory never aligns with practice, and especially not in this country when it comes to race.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
I somehow suspect that “suspicious activity” in this case means having the wrong skin color for the neighborhood.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith G: The witness statement, if that is all it is, is worthless.
Johnny's Mom
hello, Mr. Morgan? I just left the Super Fresh. There was a black guy in there. I’m positive he’s your man. He absolutely looks like the kind of guy who would have been doing something suspicious yesterday. (Like I said, he’s black.)
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
*Offer does not apply to Americans.
Aji
@Omnes Omnibus: Exactly. And calling it a “witness statement” (much less a “criminal complaint”) is ridiculously generous – to the point of obscenity.
Skin color is NEVER all that’s noticed, unless it’s all they want to to notice. If they saw enough to know it’s “suspicious activity,” then they can give a “Taller than you/shorter than you,” “skinnier/heavier than you,” etc., description to the cop. If they can’t do that, then they didn’t see enough to have seen “suspicious activity.” All they saw was BWB.
Omnes Omnibus
@Aji: Agreed.
ETA: The witness probably also noticed the hoodie. But that just goes with black and suspicious, right?
Violet
@Aji: Oh completely. All non-white people look exactly alike.
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus: Let’s take it a step further then.
Police are called to a robbery scene. When asked for a description, the sole victim states, “I don’t know, I saw a gun and a (insert color) face. It happened so fast and I was so scared.”
Is a report filed?
cbear
.ATTENTION: The Bergen County Sheriff’s Department is asking for help in identifying a man involved in some suspicious activity.
The person is described as a fat fuck.
If anyone has any information he or she is asked to contact Mayor Mark Sokolich at the Fort Lee City Offices.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith G: A report is filed in both situations. Absent other info, however, nothing will ever come of it. In addition, what Aji said.
Violet
@sparrow: Reminds me of those high school kids on some sports team who were waiting for a bus to go to a game and the cops arrested them. Seriously–standing around and breathing while black.
Aji
O/T: Cole, since you’re a cat lover, maybe you’d wanna spread the word on this? From the GOS, from some folks who do cat rescue (and IIRC, the diarist’s partner is gravely ill, as well): $1,300 needed for medical care for rescue Junkyard Johnny, an orange tabby.
kdaug
@J:
Precisely. Send them all to an island and nuke it until it glows.
Aji
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, if Black, there must be a hoodie. Somewhere. Maybe in the next county, but it’s still there!
JPL
The person that they are looking for plays for Seattle and that is why they won. The NFL needs to look into this immediately.
Aji
@cbear: “Is it wrong that I’m smiling?”
kdaug
@Omnes Omnibus:
Henchmens… I needs some.
Reckon I’ve deputized the dog and cat already, but they suck at the tumblers.
I need hench. Solid hench.
FlyingToaster
@Keith G: Oh, there was more information.
Location where suspicious activity took place.
Date/time when suspicious activity was observed.
Nature of suspicious activity.
Normal police log, out here in the People’s Republic of God Save It:
Police are seeking information on a man sneaking through backyards in {redacted}port on Thursday night. The suspect is believed to be black. Anyone with information please contact Lt.{redacted} at {redacted}.
The Dangerman
Is it possible that “ngalia” is West Virginian slang for an African American?
raven
Second game thread?
raven
Dan Dierdorf’s last game. He’s my age. ugh
Trentrunner
If that man didn’t want to be a suspect, he shouldn’t have been so black.
Bootstraps, people!
max
@Keith G: What happens in a criminal complaint where skin tone/color is the only description given?
Why, they get a lineup and have the victim pick the out the perp.
max
[‘The lineup will consist of four white guys and the black dude.’]
raff ripdash
OK, thanks for the heads up, Dominion Post. I’ll be sure to be on the look-out for a black dude doing something suspicious, like… umm, eating Skittles, or something? Or something involving a hoodie, I guess?
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus: The one and only time a gun was pointed at my face was during such an occasion.
I was bartender/night manager of a small neighborhood bar. Five minutes til closing, all customers gone, one cleanup guy in the back.
I sensed a presence and turned to see a silver revolver leveled at my face. Punk asked for the money, I looked down opened the drawer, handed him the tray and waited for my head to explode.
It didn’t. He left. I heard the tray and some coins clang off the sidewalk.
Note: Up to that point, I saw three things, a barrel in focus, several bullets in focus, and face a bit out of focus.
Had I not let adrenaline take over for a bit, that would have been all. But I suddenly jumped the bar, ran outside, turned a corner an ran toward the one way that was not a dead end and turning a corned I saw him still running ahead…then I thought, “What the fuck am I doing???”
That was actually what the cop said a bit later…WTF.
But by violating common sense and self preservation, I got a second look and was able to get a secondary description. Which as it turned out was not enough to id from the muggs I eventually was shown.
Had I not jumped the bar, skin tone and gun was all I had.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith G: In which case, you are of no real use as an identification witness. You can testify that the you were robbed and describe the circumstances. You can’t ID anyone.
? Martin
I saw the suspect on my tv today. He was standing behind a podium berating Congress for not extending unemployment benefits.
In related news, Ms Martin finally got the paperwork with DOD and VA sorted out after her dad died. They had spelled his name wrong on the original paperwork (her dad was adopted and had different names on different legal docs). Anyway, two copies of a nice letter acknowledging his service arrived, noted the bronze star and other medals he earned. Her brother doesn’t want the other one because Obama signed it.
These people are hopeless.
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus: And as is often the case, if a note was placed in the neighborhood crime watch (had I not jumped the bar) the police report of the incident would say that the suspect was a white male armed with a handgun.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith G: Yes, and the report would probably also say that the suspect was wanted in connection with an armed robbery at such and such a bar on such and such a date. This ad did not.
Alice B
Holy crap! Arch Moore is still alive?
Aji
@Keith G: Wait, what?
Do you really not see the difference between:
1) and incident report that says “I was just robbed by a white guy in a hoodie who stuck a fucking gun in my face,” and
2) one that says “There’s a guy engaging in suspicious activity” (nothing more specific) and the one and only descriptor is that he’s Black? Excuse me, “black.”
Huge difference there.
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus: I know and agree. As I said earlier, I wanted to extend the narrative to discuss where the boundaries might/should be drawn.
It’s easy to cite the egregiously wrong choices and mock them. “They are bad, we are good”. It’s more fun and edifying to bring up the gray areas or marginal cases (to me, anyway).
Keith G
@Aji: See above.
Aji
@Keith G: I did see above. You didn’t answer the question. You’re comparing apples and oranges.
Not to say your “ID” couldn’t be destroyed by a halfway decent lawyer, but there’s no comparison between what you describe and the “incident report” in the image above.
Anoniminous
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Makes sense. You never know what a Girl Scout will do.
Aimai
@Keith G: there cant be any kind of “marginal case” or “grey area” between the description given, which amounts to “male biped seen doing something” and a useful request for information.
J
A long time ago, in ’81 I think, I was mugged in NYC. I called the police who came and asked me ‘was he black or hispanic’. The answer was neither, but a white guy on a ten speed bicycle.
ruemara
I’m pleased at how many see the humour/stupid bigotry in the situation described in the report. And not that surprised at the few attempting to say it’s the reporter or somehow similar to something it is not similar to. You do realize that this is why Trayvon Martin died, right? He was a black guy being suspicious, i.e. existing, while in proximity to an innocent whiter-than-him person. Being black is suspicious if a crime or even a disturbance occurs anywhere near you. That’s what this is about. It may make the world a much better place if you can find a benign explanation, but often, there is none.
Keith G
@Aji:
I do. My inquiry was along the line of: Given that the press clipping is egregious, what is the smallest amount of additional information that would make it not offensive? Where would a responsible editor be able to say, “Okay.”?
Keith G
@J: I was a victim of a white guy with a gun in ’82. I see a trend.
Damn them!
Anoniminous
@Keith G:
When are the Leaders of the White Community going to speak out against this senseless violence?
@ruemara:
There is no benign explanation. It’s bigotry all the way down.
trollhattan
@dan:
Nuh-uh, he checked me out at Costco today, different coast.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: That does sound suspicious.
Scamp Dog
@PhoenixRising: according to the Font of All Knowledge (Wikipedia), the 2012 population was 31,000, and the demographics are 4.1% African-American. Assuming half of them are male, there are 635.5 suspects! Be afraid, very afraid! Of what, I’m not quite sure, but that’s advice every good conservative should follow.
ruemara
@Anoniminous: I didn’t say there was one.
debbie
@ruemara:
I don’t at all disagree with you, but I think this is also an example of the sad state of journalism. Where have all the writers gone?
Omnes Omnibus
@Scamp Dog: WVU probably adds a few to that number during the school year.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
It got worse, he made me PAY FOR MY STUFF. As if I could “have a great afternoon” after that sort of treatment. Hrrrmph.
FlyingToaster
@debbie: There is the owner, the owner’s wife, and the owner’s nephew who works for room and board. All other reporters were forced out by lack of pay.
/snark
In all seriousness, most papers’ police logs are copypasta, and public notices are vetted by the town organization before publication. This looks like someone called the public information officer at the PD and asked “anything new” and copied the gossip into their filler space. The phrase “irresponsible” doesn’t even come close to covering this behavior.
In a just world, the DOJ would descend upon Morgantown and the newspaper would be up on Civil Rights act charges from the first black dude questioned after this, but I’m not holding my breath.
John Cole
@Omnes Omnibus: WVU swells to 60-70 thousand during the school year, and close to 120k on game day. During the school year, though, I would bet 35% or more of the population is minority, we have a vibrant GLBT community, and are a very ethnically diverse town. On top of that, the actual residents have lived in a college town for their entire lives and are also more tolerant than you would see in other portions of the state. We’re basically the same kind of oasis as Austin and Athens and Madison.
The ad itself was appalling, but for residents of Morgantown (and I lived there for 20 years), it’s doubly so because it is just not the way most of us think or live.
Renie
@cbear: top comment. LOL
jon
I can’t decide if it’s racism or just an action of someone too stupid to have the intellectual capacity to be racist. Same thing, I guess.
Mumbles
We was walking around, looking about. Better get out of the car and chase him…
I don’t have a real problem with identifying the race of a person, as long as it’s a *part* of the description, and there was a definite crime. “There was a robbery at this place at 10pm, suspect is this race, this tall, this build, wearing this clothing” and so forth. But “uh a black guy was acting all suspicious” is silly.
Not that I’m shocked, since, like rikyrah, I’ve been black in America for more than 3 days…
Scamp Dog
Nobody’s brought this up yet, but there’s no location or time associated with this report. Oh, and no hints about what this suspicious activity was. It’s hard to imagine report less informative than this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Scamp Dog:
Hmmm…
Mike in NC
A couple of months ago the motherfucking Myrtle Beach Sun News actually printed a Letter to the Editor from some sick geriatric asshole who complained that he had to see too many black people on his fucking TV. Yeah, South Carolina and all that shit…
Aji
@Keith G: Not where it is. At all.
If you can’t define anything other than “black,” and the description is nothing more specific than “suspicious activity,” then it’s just the same-old, same-old, and no self-respecting (i.e., wants to be non-racist) editor – or cop, for that matter – should be dignifying it.
It has NOTHING. Period. There is nothing useable in it, except to people who are predisposed to think that being Black is somehow predictable here.
Scamp Dog
@Omnes Omnibus: come on, you don’t really expect me to read ALL the comments, do you?
Still, it’s a near-useless report, and I think it should be noted at the start of a comment, so there!
Omnes Omnibus
@Scamp Dog:
It is worse than that. It is a dangerous report.
Scamp Dog
@Omnes Omnibus: darn it, now I have to agree with you!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Aji: Respectfully, I think you are missing what Keith is saying.
He’s not arguing that it’s not racist as printed.
He’s saying that no sensible person who has a position of responsibility at a newspaper would write or print such a thing. No sensible person in a position of responsibility at a police department would send out a request for help from the community would send out such a thing. It’s nonsensical even if the person in that position of responsibility were a racist. As you and others here have said, it’s so broad as to be meaningless. Worse than meaningless – it’s inflammatory and counterproductive.
The police don’t want to be getting hundreds of phone calls from people who see a black male. They don’t want to end up as a hashtag and the butt of jokes.
Someone messed up: 1) someone at the police department; or 2) someone who got the information at the paper; or 3) and editor; or 4) the people who prepared the paste-up for the presses.
One thing that does give me pause is I’ve looked on the paper’s web page – nothing about this is there. And nothing shows up in the local TV web pages either. Hmm… Maybe the story is a template for information from the Sheriff’s office. That might explain the lack of specificity. In that is the case, someone deserves a firm talking to and needs to answer some questions. If it’s a template, why is there an assumption that they’re looking for a black man?
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Scamp Dog
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: If it’s a template, wouldn’t you put in appropriate placeholders for things like place, time, and such?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Scamp Dog: Sure, but maybe the printer strips them out if they’re blank or something…
I agree it doesn’t make much sense – but what else does?
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Scamp Dog: Also, when I put placeholders in a template, I make sure they are silly so that it gets caught during all but the most cursory proofread. “The person is described as a shambling Yeti-like being with vile body odor and an eye patch.”
FlyingToaster
@Omnes Omnibus: Most of us in the early days of desktop publishing learned that one, or to put in other alphabets — greek, hebrew, sanskrit, whatevs — or even just plain old lorem ipsum.
I stand by my belief that this was gossip that got inserted by whoever called and talked to the PD. At publishing houses, it used to be the intern, but I don’t know who the low-person-on-the-totem-pole is on a small-town newspaper nowadays. Our local “patch” seems to be one just-outta-college guy who is on 24 hours a day.
Warren Terra
As printed it’s incredibly racist. It might actually be an error at the newspaper rather than the sheriff’s department, though; I went looking at the Dominion Post’s truly execrable website, and what I could find was this (note that hyperlink doesn’t look likely to last):
There are photos on the web page of a black man and of a SUV (I assume it’s the suspect and his car, though this is not stated).
So: a far, far more sane (far, far less racist) “Sheriff Looking For Suspect” press release exists in Morgantown today; I assume it’s a far, far more sane version of the same story (rather than another manhunt the same day, answering to the same Deputy). Assuming this is the press release that could have been written all along, someone F’d up and expurgated all the useful information, leaving the disgustingly racist squib Cole photographed. My guess is that this was done by the newspaper staff; they’ve got the incentive to do so, far more than the cops do.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Warren Terra: Excellent sleuthing. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
bago
Being a reasonably handsome young man, white and in a suit with strippers on each arm can get you anywhere. I have abused this privilege many times, and while I would like to contrast that walking into a foodbank, you still get vip treatment. The Loius C. K. Bit is right on. If anything it should knock it into the heads of a few bro-grammers how much they can get away with, but we still have the Brooks’s of the world. You can get away with so much if you’re a white male, especially if you know a bit about football.
e.a. foster
You’ve got to be kidding, they issued a bulletin like that? Like where are their brains? So was he suspicious because he was black or was he black and therefore suspicious. And the American supreme court thought it was o.k. to strike sections of the Voting Act. Guess they never met this bunch of idiots.
Make sure the President of the U.S.A. doesn’t pass through town or for that matter any world leader who isn’t white.
What a bunch of fucking idiots.
Sir Nose'D
What exactly do you mean by “man?” There is an 8 year old fitting that description just outside my window right now!
Tdubs
Is this a fake? I think this is the full story: http://thedpost.com/New-Press-Release
Diana Preeston
I read this today and wasn’t sure if my mind, or eyes, were playing tricks on me. Just moved back to Motown from 10 yrs in sw florida. Educated Morgantown, an article like this!! QJohn Stewart will highlight this week, no doubt.
collin237
First photo, gray beret. Second photo, white baseball-cap.
First photo, no glasses. Second photo, glasses.
First photo, underbite. Second photo, overbite.
First photo, blue trousers. Second photo, black trousers.
Two different people.
taylormattd
@PaulW: It is not. One of John’s friends called the police and were basically told to pound sand.
Jay C
@Omnes Omnibus:
This is West By God Virginia, dude: not sure this description would necessarily be taken as frivolous…..
bigyaz
@PaulW: A typo is when someone inadvertently mistypes something (“teh” instead of “the”). This is anything but that. It shows blatant ignorance and insensitivity. Don’t be an apologist.