In spite of
his protestations Mr. Belk was handcuffed and made to sit on the curb at the
height of rush hour for 45 minutes where no one bothered to even inform him of
why he was being detained. I gotta tell you that has got to be the most
humiliating experience ever, made to sit on the curb like some dog in broad daylight
while everyone drives around gawking, pointing and making assumptions about you
and your character. And I have to say
that while I have seen this “sitting on
the curb” punishment inflicted on countless Black and Brown men not once
have I seen it done to a White man. So after 45 minutes of curb humiliation he was transported to the Beverly Hills police
station where he was booked, finger printed, finally made aware of the charges
against him and assessed a $100,000 bail. However he was not allowed to make a
phone call or speak to an attorney and no one attempted to check out his alibi,
run his ID or attempt to verify he was who he said he was…he fit the
description. Oh, and no one ever bothered to read him his rights. Next he was erroneously
positively identified by some they all look alike to me White female
witness from the bank robbery. At this point after enduring verbal abuse from
both the police and an FBI agent they were confident enough to let him contact
his attorney. Aided by his attorney he was able to convince them to view the
video of the robbery from the bank which they had in their possession the
entire time and after 6 hours of mental torture he was released as they
realized they had the wrong man…oops. Oh, and they had impounded his car but
neglected to inform him. He found out when he went to retrieve it.
Several things
come to a rational mind.
- Did the Beverly Hills cop just stop the first bald headed
Black man they saw assuming he was the suspect, I mean what other reason
would a tall bald headed Black man have to be walking down the streets of
Beverly Hills, right? He’s Black so he must be guilty of something.
- Did the cops not realize how vague the description was? I
mean were they going to spend the entire day arresting every single bald
headed Black man they saw? If the description had been of a tall, bald
white man would they have detained the first one they saw and refuse to
answer his questions as to why he had been stopped and force him to sit on
the curb?
- In the 6 hours he was detained, especially in the first 45
minutes he was curbed, why didn’t
someone check his alibi or try to confirm his employment? Did he have a
business card? Or did they assume he was a bank robber by day and a Hollywood
producer by night. I did a google search and along with the news of his
arrest I found his Facebook, twitter and IMDb pages…took all of 10
seconds. You know, simple investigation.
- Charles Belk said the only reason he wasn’t running to get
to the meter in time was because he had just received a text. Can you
imagine what would’ve happened had he been running down Wilshire Blvd.?
- Wasn’t the car they impounded a clue, after all it was a
part of his alibi. Just how many bank robbers do you know who take time to
use metered parking?
- If he wasn’t affluent enough to have an attorney on retainer
might he still be accused and in jail facing the possibility of a 20 year
sentence?
- Can you imagine if there had been a bald headed Black men convention in town?
What
happened that day was the Beverly Hills police most likely stopped the first
Black man they saw and felt it was absolutely within their authority to accost
and arrest him and not listen to his made
up fantasies of being a television producer (who ever heard of such a thing
for an African-American). The moment they saw him they made up their minds as
to who he was and what he was about, plain and simple racial profiling. The
same as when a "witness"
identifies the first Black person they get shown as the suspect. In the
meantime the real suspect escaped…probably on the bus, if he was smart and Charles
Belk ends up with an arrest record and in the
system. My bad, arrested but charges dropped, as if that fucking helps.
So what’s
the moral of the story? Black men stay away from banks, convenience stores, gas
stations, restaurants, train stations, bus stops, subway stations, Walmart toy
departments and anywhere else you may be accused of being Black. If you feel
the need to go out, hire a damn chauffer to drive you around even if you’re
just going to the curb to check your mailbox. Oh and make sure he’s White.
I encourage you
to read Mr. Belk’s account of his ordeal at the following link:
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