WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BLACK MEN OPEN CARRY
BY BRANDY ZADROZNY
A disturbing video contrasts police treatment of a white man and a black man carrying the same type of weapon in public.
Here's What Happens When A Black Man Open Carries A Gun
A disturbing video contrasts police treatment of a white man and a black man carrying the same type of weapon in public.
Open carry is all the rage in gun rights circles. Advocates strap handguns to their hips, sling AK-47s and AR-15s to their backs and stroll the streets with cameras in hand to catch unwitting cops violating their Second Amendment rights by asking for Identification or trying to ascertain if the heavily-armed man walking towards a school might be a threat. For liberty or some such.
A quick Google image or Youtube search will demonstrate what we know to be true: the open carry crowd is made up of a whole lot of white people, mostly men. Why is being allowed to walk heavily armed through the streets baiting cops purely a white fight, you may wonder?
It could have something to do with the fact that black men already face enough danger from interactions with the police to want to bait cops for the fun of it. Young black men are 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police than their white counterparts, according to an analysis by Propublica.
And when a gun is present? For that answer, we can look to the recent shooting death of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot dead for carrying a BB gun in a Cleveland Park. Or John Crawford, who was gunned down by police in a WalMart as he held an unloaded air rifle from one of the store’s shelves.
Still, there are a few brave open carriers of color and a new YouTube video appears to show just how differently they are treated compared to their white freedom-loving counterparts.
In the clips, two men—one white, one black—walk down the street strapped with AR-15s. The white man, Warren Drouin, is a well-known fixture in the open carry movement. In fact, he and police in his small Oregon town are on a first-name basis due to the scores of complaints from scared neighbors over Drouin’s exercises.
The camera shows Drouin being approached by a police officer and a polite exchange about his right to carry a gun in public. The end.
The next clip follows an unnamed black man as he carries the same weapon strapped across his back. A police car approaches and out jumps a white officer who pulls his gun and orders the man, “Get down on the street. Now!” The officer also orders the man’s wife, who is recording the incident, to get on the ground. “I’m seven months pregnant,” she replies.
“I am being held at gunpoint,” the man says from the ground. “I am merely open carrying.”
more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/29/here-s-what-happens-when-a-black-man-open-carries-a-gun.html?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon
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