Black teen accused of stealing phone in viral incident at NYC hotel says he's shell shocked

https://abc7ny.com/keyon-harrold-ar...black-teen-accused-of-stealing-phone/9171321/

Is this racism? Racial profiling? Should the woman be charged and go to jail?

 

I think she should make a sincere and public apology

 

She should be ashamed and she should apologize.

 

But wouldn't him showing her his phone screen actually have shut her up ?

I just think it would have been easier if they just showed her that it wasn't her phone

She went about it the wrong way, but not sure why this would be considered a "racial" incident.

 

Tricky one that - in a way it seems logical, but if you've experienced racial profiling throughout your life, when someone suspects your son of stealing their phone (you suspect) because he's black, you probably don't feel like cooperating.

 

Ahhh! Poor Baby shell shocked for being accused of stealing a Phone and it's Worldwide News
Elderly White women gets Knocked out for Fun by Black Thugs and it barely gets noticed by Liberals

 

Don’t misunderstand, it IS a tricky on, and I understood the parents position also. But just seemed to me that a very quick glance at the Home Screen would have literally shut her up

 

That would be a reasonable logical thing to do. But we're not living in reasonable logical times.... It's a lot more fun to cry "racism" and "victim" and get 15 minutes of fame. It never would have made the news or the talk shows if he'd just showed her it was his phone.

 

Rationally yes. I don't fault the father though.

 

You need to imagine what it's like to get stopped by the police multiple times for no reason, and then have a woman accuse your son of stealing her phone for no reason. The "15 minutes of fame" comment is really low.

 

Well, wow. That changes things...

How many times was he stopped? What was he stopped for? Is there more video showing these stops?

The article didn't provide those details, but it sure would explain his state if mind, thanks in advance.

 

Cute. I think you know what I was getting at. No matter what a single person's experience is, the experience of the black community as a whole has involved significant discrimination, so when someone accuses your son of stealing their phone for no reason, it is hardly a jump to imagine they just saw your son's skin colour and jumped to conclusions.

 

The lady should apologize and somehow atone for her actions.

But you raised something that I'd like to pursue, what is the profile for a black person - in NYC no less? When people say 'profiling' the impression I get is the people who are saying it believe the profile is negative and it applies to all the people belonging to the people being profiled. There's a word for that. When I was living in NJ and went into Jersey City at night I was stopped by the cops more than once because the profile of a white boy in that neck of the woods was he was looking for trouble. And you know what? The cops were right.

Secondly, it's quite possible a white kid would have been put through the same mess; has anyone of your race, gender, level of education, economic status, or religion ever accused you of something you didn't do? It happens enough times that defense lawyers get rich from it.

Lastly, if this woman had any bias or preconceived negative impression of the young man, then what would explain it? How would anyone, as you say, generate a negative profile of someone based on color? Something had to spark that impression and it probably wasn't a single incident. Some times all you have to do is watch the news because not everyone is perfect like the folks we see in commercials. And I'll say it again, this occurred in New York City.

The bottom line is mistakes happen, trust me, they really do.

 

Tell me, why would anyone judge innocence of guilt based on skin color? What good would it do the woman to accuse someone who she knows didn't didn't steal her phone?

What I'm seeing here is a lot of people accusing someone, the woman, of something based on skin color. Interesting.

 

Interesting observations and questions. How negative impressions of a group get formed is probably a complex combination of many factors, and I don't feel qualified to comment on it. Nor did I intend to imply the woman was being racist. My observation was just about imagining being the dad. If I or my friends had felt we had been treated unfairly because of our skin colour, I'd be really incensed if my SON was unfairly accused.

 

I don't think it's a question of "what good does it do?", rather a question of instinct. In the video the woman appears kind of on the edge emotionally - to be expected in the circumstances of losing your phone. It's easy in those situations for your underlying biases to come out because you're not able to think as rationally as usual. I'm not saying that's necessarily what happened. Maybe he was just the nearest to her and she wanted to find someone to lash out at. Or maybe she genuinely thought there was some clue which suggested he'd taken it. She certainly shouldn't be hounded because she made a mistake.

 

Then why didn't the woman ask for that? She just assumed the phone had been stolen from her since hers was missing and went from there

 

I wonder if she would have acted like such a loon if it was a white kid. Would a white kid even been accused? When the hotel manager got involved the black kid should have been happy to show his phone...just to prove her wrong.
The family is rightfully upset but I don't think the charges need to be trumped up.

A drivers car (not sure where) was attacked for no reason other than stopping & letting a group of kids cross the street. I'm sure that was upsetting also.

 

I think you made some good comments there.

Back when I lived in Fort Lee, NJ, about once every 1 or 2 months would would go to a club in Jersey City because it was known to attract lots of women, it was called the Joker II and I wonder if it's still there, probably not. During that time JC was starting to go from a crap hole to an area a lot of people today can't afford. Anyway, due to the construction it seemed every time we went there the roads we took the last time were now closed and we had to find an alternate route - this was way before smart phones and GPS. One of my friends drove a blue Seville, the other a red Regal, and I drove a Mustang at the time. As we would wind through some horrible neighborhoods we would get stopped because we, as white kids, we absolutely out of place. The cops (I don't recall their races, race wasn't a big deal at the time) would ask if if we're lost, or if we were looking for something/one, or whatever. Maybe once of twice they asked us for ID, but usually not. They were looking to see if we were buying or selling drugs and I guess they had a way of figuring out if we were just by how we behaved. They were always polite, they gave us directions, but I am convinced beyond any doubt the reason they stopped us was because we were white. Like I said, back then it wasn't a big deal because people hadn't perfected the art race hustling and Sharpton was too busy in NYC to be concerned about stuff across the Hudson. Anyway, we behaved ourselves and nothing ever became of it, no one cared back then if people were profiled based on their color because the profiles typically had a degree of accuracy to them, maybe not always, but in general they did in those neighborhoods. Actually, I applaud the cops for doing their jobs.

 

Interesting story. But I presume that experience of profiling was an aberration for you? If I'm remembering what I've read correctly, for many in the black community, profiling isn't an aberration but a relatively regular occurrence.

 

I didn’t see evidence of anything that would meet the legal bar to charge for anything racial related. Likely a charge for assault and maybe fleeing.

She looks deranged though

 

This situation is very simple. The woman needs to be charged with assault and attempted robbery. Apparently that's precisely what the NY DA intends to charge her with. There is no need to infuse race into the situation (which is why the DA apparently is not planning to charge her with a hate crime); at least, not regarding the woman (more on this later, regarding the hotel). She lounged at the boy trying to get his phone, tackled him, and scratched his father. It doesn't matter if she "thought" that the phone was hers. It matters that she committed assault and actually attempted to grab someone else's property. Her belief and how it can factor in her sentence if she is found guilty, is something for the judge and the jury to determine. But she DID commit the offenses the DA is planning to charge her with. Apparently, hotel security cameras confirm that she assaulted the boy and his father, and tried to grab their property, in the words of the NYPD detective assigned to the case.

Now, to prove that she did it because the boy was black, is another much trickier proposition. Apparently she first tried to accuse someone else, according to the CNN article after they interviewed her for 20 minutes. The article doesn't detail if the "someone else" was also black but it is implied that the person wasn't black, given that the woman mentioned this, while defending herself against the accusation of racism. She also said that prior to the incident, she asked the hotel to show her security camera images, to try to determine who stole her phone. So, it is possible that she didn't initially zoom on the black boy, which enhances her version that her actions were not racially motivated.

As for the idea that the boy and his father should have "cooperated" - expressed by another poster here - this is utterly preposterous! Where is the presumption of innocence??? They WERE ACTUALLY innocent. The burden to prove that, is not theirs. If the POLICE were there investigating the situation and asked to see the phone, there is a case to be made about cooperating. But should they have "cooperated" with this lunatic? Absolutely not! Or with the hotel manager? He doesn't have police powers.

I mean, think of it. If some lunatic approached you and said "I think that this phone of yours is mine and you're a thief; prove that you aren't," what would you say? I believe that "F.... you" is in order, not some sort of sheepish "cooperation."

A case about racial discrimination is best made against the hotel. Again, that's precisely what the black family's attorney is planning: a civil rights violation case directed at the hotel on bases of discrimination. The manager clearly sided with the woman, who wasn't a hotel guest, against the boy, who was a hotel guest. Why in the hell did the manager side with the woman who wasn't a guest, against his guest??? There's gotta be a reason, right? Does anyone care for guessing what the reason might be? That is A LOT more suspicious of racial bias, than the woman's conduct, especially if the first person she thought had stolen her phone was not black. The woman's conduct is partially explained by her belief that someone stole her phone so it isn't necessarily racial, if she looked at other possible culprits too.

The manager's conduct, however, doesn't pass the smell test, given that the boy was actually a guest. Why in the hell did he empower a stranger, a non-guest, against his guest??? There is NO possible explanation for this that doesn't include at least the consideration of a hypothesis of racial bias, because normally, a hotel manager sides with his guests. CNN has also indicated that the hotel let the woman go, despite her obviously criminal actions, without waiting for the police, which had been called. One wonders why... One wonders if the manager hoped that the police would arrive, determine that the phone was stolen, and arrest the black kid... when the person who should have been arrested, should have been the woman, who committed the assault. I believe that hotel security could have exercised a citizen's arrest and could have retained her there until the police arrived without risking unlawful imprisonment charges, because they had the security camera images demonstrating her assaultive behavior so it would have been reasonable to retain the offender until the arrival of law enforcement. But no, again, it seems like they sided with her... Why?

There is an interesting point made by the boy's mother. The father is a prominent musician, a Grammy winner. The father has money and contacts in high places. So, he was able to make a big fuss and to hire a good lawyer, and was able to get the mayor and the DA on his side. The mother said, what if they were humble, poor people? Most likely nobody would have cared about what happened to them. This is likely to be true and is indeed disgusting. I attribute this to classism more than to racism, though. Humble people of any color would have had trouble making their rights be heard, if they were innocent victims of assault and attempted robbery while being accused of something they didn't do.

I'm no lawyer, but I think that all of the above is rather common sense and likely legally sound... but if a lawyer here tells me otherwise, I'll defer to higher expertise.

 

Screw that. Make her build a statue to herself so he can tear it down.

 

I think the only potential charge mentioned was assault. I think the kid just wants an apology.

 

But wait, she made more than "a mistake." She tackled the child, scratched the father, and tried to grab the child's phone and take it from him. These are actually criminal acts. Assault, battery, attempted robbery... This is more than "a mistake." If someone did that to your kid, I'm not sure you'd be excusing it as "a mistake." I know that I wouldn't. I would press charges against her. The woman deserves to be prosecuted for these actions, and if found guilty, punished according to the law. Her belief that her phone was stolen might be an attenuating circumstance that will be factored into her punishment... maybe she will get a fine and probation, especially if it is her first offense, but she did act criminally. Making "a mistake" is no excuse for breaking the law. "Well, I thought his phone was mine." Sure, call the cops, let them sort it out... but don't tackle a child, try to grab the child's property, and scratch the child's father. Her actions were clearly criminal, and apparently, that's what the NYPD detective and the DA think too, after reviewing hotel security camera imagery.