Posted on 03/27/2014 5:22:39 AM PDT by PaulCruz2016
So, it’s a warm day, and you’re standing in a parking lot, drinking a refreshing can of iced tea.
Suddenly, a random dude walks up and demands your beverage. You show him that it is in fact iced tea and that you aren’t publicly intoxicated. He tells you to give him the can and you say no, figuring this stranger can get his own iced tea.
This is exactly what happened to rapper Christopher “Xstrav” Beatty, who was handcuffed and arrested by Officer Rick Libero of the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Law Enforcement for drinking a can of Arizona iced tea in the parking lot of a liquor store in Fayetteville, North Carolina last April. Luckily for Beatty, a friend was right there, capturing the arrested on his camera. It’s also important to note that Officer Libero did NOT immediately identify himself as a police officer.
One would think that with the entire debacle on video that Beatty’s plight would have ended shortly after this incident. One would be incorrect. Beatty was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, and is being offered a “deal” by prosecutors. (Is it an election year? This wouldn’t be the first prosecutor to “crack down” for a ridiculous reason in order to win fame and garner votes.)
Let’s be sure we are 100% clear on this.
THEY WANT A MAN WHO IS GUILTY OF DRINKING ICED TEA AND NOT GOING AWAY AT THE ORDER OF AN (AT THE TIME) UNIDENTIFIED MAN TO TAKE A PLEA BARGAIN.
According to a court document, the deal would punish Beatty with probation and community service on misdemeanor allegations that he was trespassing and resisted a public officer.
(Excerpt) Read more at dcclothesline.com ...
Pretty sure Heartland meant there are cases of a person being arrested for “just being black” as opposed to a real crime - and this is one example.
“He should take the deal and consider himself lucky that the SWAT team didn’t show up and shoot him. /s”
Lucky he wasn’t walking his dog.
I think I got the gist of the situation at first reading, but thank you for highlighting the lack of identification again.
“Part of the problem is, he wasn’t wearing a badge and didn’t identify himself as a police officer when he approached the individual and demanding his can of iced tea.”
I would say that’s a mighty big problem in and of itself.
There are people who are unfairly arrested because of the color of their skin. This story would indicate that is possibly what happened here.
The whole point of an under cover officer is that you don’t know he is a cop.
I understood that. Thanks
But Heartland did use the word legit.
Its a crime against everyone. The US is a police state now where even the slightest thing can end up with a person handcuffed and beat down.
Time to reign in these goons
You did use the word legit. If it was meant as sarcasm, I missed it.
: = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
(Police) Major Colvin "The Wire"
(After he proposed Drug Usage Zones in Baltimore)
The brown bag was a great moment in civic compromise. Some “nameless smokehound” put his bottle of booze in a brown bag and the police left him alone. The consumption of alcohol in public places is illegal, and enforcing the law was an incredible drain on police resources.
 |
He said there are legitimate cases of arrested for being black. Not legitimate cases for arrested for being black.
In other words, in some cases, there are legitimate complaints that a law-abiding citizen was targeted by the police solely for the color of their skin. This appears to be one of them.
My apologies for butting in, just thought I'd help :-)
” No doubt there is a problem in
Fayetteville with public intoxication, and
no doubt they’re attempting to disguise it
by mixing drinks in iced tea cans.”
There is plenty of doubt, until someone show it is actually a significant issue.
” But, there comes a point when the “solution”
is worse than the problem.”
Which is the big issue. Laws aren’t ends to themselves. Laws serve the public, not themselves.
If he had skittles he’d be dead.
Kidnapping
Aggravated battery
$$$$
In Nazi Germany, the badge meant one was correct in ALL situations, up to and including pulling out a luger and shooting another in the head for no particular reason. In the Iced Tea episode, if this had escalated to fisticuffs or something more deadly and it wasn’t discovered until after the incident that the offender was an officer, the officer would immediately be granted the benefit of the doubt. From that point on, the wronged man would be fighting for his life.
The next individual he sees drinking iced tea, out comes his gun and bang, bang, bang. "It looked like he/she was holding a gun and I was in fear of my life", will be his/her story.
I had a similar thing happen to me in that frickin state.
Pulled over by not one but 2 N.C. state patrolmen..yanked out of my car demanding that I hand over the beer I was drinking...what they found was a coke which I had been drinking.
One officer had me face down on the ground the other proceeded to empty my luggage and dumped it all over the ground looking for the “beer”
Not finding what they were looking for, they just up and left...no sorry, no let me help you reload your car.
Me...at the time..White, 58, a bit overweight, drive a Cadillac.
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