So lately I have seen a bunch of these random racism and bias events that have been happening around the country, but this one is just plain stupid. In Wisconsin, someone tried to go into a jewelry store to look at a watch. Seeing the man approach the store, the owners went and locked the store before he could get in and told him to go away.

So the man rang the bell and the people in the store ran and hid in the back of the store before calling the cops. You would think that from there, the Cops would most likely see that the man was harmless, but even after hearing his story, they had to scan his plates and check him, but then they went to the back of the store to tell the owners they were being idiots. That's not all, because the story gets even sillier from there because it wasn't like the man was some random guy off the street. He was a very rich, professional basketball player, John Henson.

First off, something like that is wrong right off the bat, even if it turns out he was a bad guy, that's not something that you can do. But on top of that, the guy makes nearly 10 million dollars a year, so I doubt he would be wearing something that implies he's going to rob a store or that he can't afford any of it. He was probably wearing clothes more expensive than what they were selling and they're going to think that the only reason for him to be there is to steal.

Thoughts?

Oh boy, I hate these incidents. At least, for once, it's not the police force at fault.

Where do I even start? I guess I should first look at this event at face value, barring the knowledge of who it was who was victimized by this farce. I hate profiling and assumption, but I have to acknowledge one thing about the both of them: they exist. This story only proves that to be true. But my question is this: why does it happen here?

To my knowledge, it's against the law to deny service outright to anyone, regardless of their race, sexual orientation, sexual identity, or attire (assuming the person is at least in compliance with the "no shoes, no shirt, no service" policy). So what even caused the store to react in such a violent way to someone walking towards the entrance?

I've seen some pretty stupid stuff happen in my 18 and a half years on this Earth, true, but I still try to frivolously wish that there's more to it than this.

The next thing to consider, is who was the victim in this case, which only leads me to more confusion. I'm completely baffled as to why something like this would occur with a random stranger; now it's only become harder for me to see why. My only reason (and there is absolutely NO evidence to back this, but it's all I've got) is the same reason swatting became a thing from gamers against others...jealousy/hate. Yes, I know how rare and dumb it sounds, especially considering the maturity level of at least one of the people in that store, but I'll shoot out the thought regardless. I have no other thoughts on why.

The one thing I can excuse (ironically, it's the same thing I excuse in swatting situations, regardless of what the majority tends to think) is how the police reacted to the incident. Yes, they went out of their way to double-check the man, but you have to understand their point of view. If there's any possibility to assess the situation further to assure safety, it is far better to take it and waste a bit more time, than not take it, and risk a snowballing situation if the assumption is wrong. It's the same reason SWAT teams still respond to EVERY severe 911 call, and not only 50 percent of them; even if there is a 10 percent chance that the call is real, they must assume that it's so. I'd talk more about it, but at this point, I'd be beating a dead horse unless I get a more specific question over this.

The conclusion: What a dumb series of events. Those owners seem pretty stupid to do this, even if my very improbable reasoning is accurate. But, at least the situation was handled well.

The reaction of the jewel store employees was completely blown out of proportion. However I am surprised the police did not try to take him down as they probably would have in, say, New York City.

SWTerra : the fact that there are SWAT teams is an indication of how sick our society has become. They were created only to confront VERY severe situations, which happen in less than 5 percent of all crimes. Now, it has become a place to dumb army-grade material to local police forces. 

janus : Have you seen the kinds of calls people make to swat other players? They always sound like they fall under that 5 percent, especially with claims of heavy bombs, family taken hostage, and other insane things.

janus : One of the officers must have in fact recognized who he was. He's literally one of the biggest athletes in that state, so I'm surprised the store didn't know who he was.

Sadly enough I am not surprised. I just see it with my, er, cousin-in-law's family; they call the police for every little problem they have while they could easily solve it themselves, or at worst with a "mediator". Too many people have lost their sense of responsibility and believe that "good-guy" government is the only one that can help them with anything.

Wow, those jewelry store employees are some of the biggest idiots out there. This kind of racist crap really gets on my nerves, I don't get why some people think that when a black person comes by, that something bad's going to happen, it's stupid. I can go on and on about how moronic it is, but at the end of the day, the jewelry store's going to be the ones who lose in this situation, I bet this incident will hurt their business.

how far we've come and things like this continue to happen. Shame on them. Idiots. He should sue them.

jlove92 : I don't think he's going to sue. He did receive and accept an apology and i assume that's all he was after because he said that he just wants to bring awareness of what happened.

gamerforlifeforever2 : ...I actually have a good idea why, and I'll throw in some personal experience in here.

My first experience with a black person, sadly, ended in one of the worst ways possible. A classmate I met in primary school, turned out to be my worst nightmare, consistently bullying me both physically and verbally (this was also before I learned to defend myself, although I would still never act, or even react, in violence) throughout three years of my life, before he was expelled, most likely by a possible witness to it snitching. I don't feel the need to go into any detail on the matter; while I don't mind others knowing about what exactly transpired, I also know that not everyone cares, to be blunt about it.

So how does this even matter? Surely, this has nothing to do with an answer to your question, right?

...Well, we humans, we can be a fickle folk. And more than fickle, we are a habitual species. There's a reason the saying, "old habits die hard," exists. Past experiences can leave trauma behind of various degrees, and depending of the severity of trauma/significance of the past experience, your precedent for the next similar situation can lean more towards which past experience hurt you the most, rather than which past experience is most accurate as a precedent to this situation. I am not afraid to say that I experienced this first-hand, and used this bullying incident as precedent for my next meetings with blacks. Was it right? Absolutely not! And in hindsight I feel like an idiot for ever allowing myself to use that as a general warning to me with all black people! Sure, I might've been young then, but I find that no excuse past the age of 9. I felt that way until a few years ago (about five), although I suppressed it and made conscious decisions to avoid my first response being the one that's heard.

Does this at all justify what was done here? No. As I stated myself, we have an ability to avoid defaulting to the first response we think of. We each have this supercomputer encased within our skulls, that allow us to think of things in a different, non-instinctive way. This brain each one of us has allows us to think not just through our emotions, but through logic and reasoning. Too bad there are many times where people, instead, opt to be lazy and not think things through more thoroughly before they act.

zanderlex : this is not a good indicator. A football player (NFL) from Florida got his car and money seized because of civil asset forfeiture.

janus : Uh. What the heck does that mean?

zanderlex : it means that the police can stop you and seize whatever the hell they want even though you are not accused or found guilty of anything. The funds are usually "cashed in" by police departments, who then grow in size and start a vicious circle on tyranny.

That's ridiculous, I guess they thought the clothes he was wearing were clothes that thieves wear or something. Actually, I don't think thieves usually wear specific clothes so that they look like normal people!

I think what their problem was is that they assumed since he's wearing expensive clothes, he's a bad guy. I've noticed a lot of people in my school that wear expensive clothes are mean and defiant people so that's probably what the owners assumed.

PacmanandMariofan : He was one of the biggest celebrities in the entire state, I don't understand why they didn't recognize him.

zanderlex : Considering that many police departments dismiss rookies with "too high" an IQ, this would explain that...

janus : ??? That would explain what?

That they simply mindlessly do their job without questioning orders.

janus : But why are the police brought up?

Closed for the sake of peace.