Chops’ Charges Dismissed

What a shame, and what a good explanation of systemic racism for anyone who doesn't get it.

@Streever, I agree. Hopefully the job that he applied to will offer him the position back after seeing the article. It's unfortunate that he missed out on that employment opportunity.

Messed up. Where's all the dudes that wanted to give the Rent-A-Cop a medal for jacking this kind up? Did that guy even apologize?

Ankoma Wells should take a copy of this article to his potential employer to prove to him that a great injustice has been done and his name has been cleared. It is a case of mistaken identity or an outright lie.
I know this young man. In my experience with him in high school, he was always respectful, mild-mannered,even-tempered, kind,and even gentle. I would be shocked if he had acted in a violent and criminal way toward another human being. So I would urge his potential employer to hire this young man.

The system worked. Innocent until proven guilty, true that, but we all can be accused.

Media often has this tendency as well as the public that equates being accused as guilt.

Mr. Well's employer should reconsider his dismissal and to do so quickly.

Would the NHI follow up on this story?

I doubt if employer will apologise. If job is offered he would be smart to decline it. What they did once they would do again in a short time. Would love to see litigation of guard, Auto Zone, arresting ofc. and his employer. This man should NOT have to pay bail, he should be paid. Afro American men are an endangered specie. I am surprised he didn't have a knitted hat ( oops, he had one and ditched it ) before being detained. Similar to Mass. man returning from a birthing class. His pregnant wife was killed or injured by Afro Amer. man wearing a knitted hat. Or in Susan Smith's case ( drowned her babies in her car ). Black man with knitted hat again responsible. She did this to be with man other than husband and children's father who did not want children. More recently Boston's marathon bombing >>>>>a DARK skin man is person of interest per media. Boston man confessed to bombing is not dark nor is he light skin.

This story is beyond sad.

Losing a job in this economy over this kind of mistake is beyond a shame.

Another example of how justice in our society is for the powerful and connected.

Better stop here.

Xavier
If you mean the system of racism, you are absolutely correct: another young black man has been labeled a criminal despite not doing anything to anyone. The system of racism worked very well--for racists--in this case.

Would be nice if AutoZone offered this fellow a job.

Streever

Where is your evidence that racism was at play here? Do you have anything to show had Wells been of a different race anything would have happened differently?

NHI
It is disappointing to see you continue to publish these accusations that have no factual basis.

Edward H, "Chops" was not int he gang doing the beating. He just happend to be black and nearby. What do you call that? It's profiling at the least, which pretty much IS racism.

Edward_H
Systemic racism is defined in this incident: I suspect you are looking for the scary racist boogey man who hates minorities. Sorry, that isn't the form that most racism takes. The type of common-place racism that is most common in New Haven and other parts of New England is far more insidious, and robs minorities of the right to participate in society.

As a white person, I've never had to worry that people will "citizen arrest" me when I'm literally just walking around my neighborhood. I've never had to worry that I won't get a job because of a false arrest. That is why I am glad that the NHI covered a story which shows systemic racism for the real impact and mechanism by which it works.

Curious

I call it called "mistaken identity" or "eyewitness identification". Black victims misidentify Black attackers as well. While the victims of crimes like sexual assault usually have their identities protected a bit of simple research at http://www.innocenceproject.org/ will show witnesses of crime can be unreliable. You might want to look into the work Elizabeth Loftus has done as well on false memories.

And BTW Curious you might also want to look up the definition of "racial profiling" If the suspects are black stopping a black man is not racial profiling.

"Racial profiling is the use of an individual's race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement (e.g. make a traffic stop or arrest). The practice is controversial and is illegal in many jurisdictions"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_profiling

This rent-a-cop can reasonable be said to have stopped Wells due to his incompetence at identifying suspects. You ,like Streever, have no factual basis to level a charge of racism as of yet.

Some skinny guys wearing black jumped the victim, Wells said. "But a fat guy wearing orange goes to jail. I find that kind of shocking."

He didn't grab a skinny white guy, did he? He grabbed the heavyset black guy. He didn't grab any black Yale student in a polo shirt.

You're right, I do have that definition wrong. Apparently racial profiling as defined by Wikipedia applies to law enforcement...not gung-ho wanna-be rent-a-cops.

@Edward_H.Racist people can delude you of their racism. Some of them have even gotten trickier with their antics.

Forest Whitaker frisked for allegedly stealing at Manhattan deli.

http://www.examiner.com/article/forest-whitaker-frisked-for-allegedly-stealing-at-manhattan-deli

Happens to people of color everyday.

Edward_H
I'm sorry, but we're talking about two different things.

Systemic racism doesn't involve "charges" or "accusations". I'm not accusing the security guard of being a bad person or of being a racist.

Regardless of his intentions, character, or humanity, he is part of society, right?

Systemic racism doesn't require him to be anything other than a member of society.

Systemic racism states that, as members of society, we are influenced and biased against people on the basis of their race because of a host of complicated, inter-connected issues, which MAY OR MAY NOT be intentional.

I assume that the security guard is a good person who tried to do a good thing. I assume he has no grudge against someone based on their race.

However, systemic racism does not require him to hold a grudge. It is the SYSTEM by which people are hurt merely because of their RACE: hence, systemic racism.

This young man was indeed hurt by being a person of color. Young white men don't see their chances of gainful employment slip away because they "look like criminals"--yet young black men absolutely do, far beyond any reasonable percentage.

I'm sorry, this is a very complicated subject, and it is hard to explain it in a comments box. If you really want to understand what I'm talking about, I'd encourage you to follow-up and read "Systemic Racism" and "White Racial Frame", both by Joe Feagin. They are very expensive (scholarly works): you can probably get them at the library, and a cheaper Kindle version is available as well.

Edward_H:
Do you believe that if a security guard saw a few white college kids beating up another white college kid, yelled, and they all ran away, he'd have cruised the block for a half hour, found a different white college kid, and arrested him?

Do you believe that in this hypothetical instance, a white college attending male would have later been denied a job over the incident?

Do you believe that this hypothetical situation would have been documented in a local paper? Or even a more mild situation of a few white college kids fighting?

It is likely that if a security guard saw a bunch of white college kids brawling he would have broken it up and shook his head, just as happens on Crown street EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK to students from the surrounding colleges.

Security guards do not follow white college students around and perform citizen arrests. They yell at them to knock it off and walk away. If that wasn't the case, the NHI would be full of these stories, all about students from local colleges getting arrested.

That is why this story is such a great example of systemic racism: even in reporting on it and discussing it, we all (including me!) are perpetuating myths and stories about race.

I was incorrect when I said this story explained systemic racism: rather, it demonstrates it.