Plan B Forum

Black realtor handcuffed by cops while showing house. Client and his teenage son cuffed too

A Black real-estate agent and his Black client were handcuffed during a home showing in Michigan after police reportedly got a call of a break-in in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming.

News station WGN reports that Eric Brown was showing a home to Roy Thorne and Thorne’s teenage son when they spotted police gathered outside, pointing guns toward the property. Brown said he thought he might have to reschedule the showing because cops appeared to be “looking for a criminal.”

The trio engaged the officers, who instructed them to exit the house in a single-file line with their hands raised.

“They keep their guns drawn on us until all of us were in cuffs,” Thorne told WGN. “So, that was a little traumatizing I guess. You know, under the current climate of things, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Brown explained the situation to police and showed them his real estate credentials, at which time officers un-cuffed the trio and apologized. Police said they were responding to a 911 call from a neighbor.

Capt. Timothy Pols told a local station that the caller believed a suspect who’d been arrested breaking into that same home a week earlier had returned. He denied there was “a racial element” to the police response.

Thorne said an officer came back to apologize a second time, but the “damage” was done.

“My son was a little disturbed. He hasn’t seen anything like that,” Thorne said. “He’s not going to forget this.”

Brown said the incident has him “pretty anxious, or nervous or maybe even a little bit scared” about how he can protect himself while showing houses in the future.

Pols said in a statement that the Wyoming Police Department’s officers were simply adhering to protocol when they detained Brown and the Thornes.

“After listening to the individuals’ explanation for why they were in the house, officers immediately removed the handcuffs,” the statement reads. “The Wyoming Department of Public Safety takes emergency calls such as this seriously and officers rely on their training and department policy in their response.”

Pols said in a statement that the Wyoming Police Department’s officers were simply adhering to protocol when they detained Brown and the Thornes.

A milkman was given an early morning wake-up call when he was dramatically arrested by police who had mistaken him for a burglar because he was 'driving around so early in the morning'.



The unnamed driver for Aycliffe Dairies, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, had been carrying out his morning rounds at around 5am Wednesday when he noticed police at the Greenfield Convenience Store.

He initially thought nothing of it but then realised police were following his milk van.

He immediately rang his boss Russ Gibson to say he thought he was going to be pulled over, and he was.

But after a brief questioning he was allowed to continue on his route - only to be arrested while stopping for coffee a mere 15 minutes later, as three police cars swooped in and pulled him out of his vehicle.

Mr Gibson described the whole ordeal as 'crazy'.

He said: 'The driver said the police were following him and then pulled him over.

'He explained he was delivering milk but they kept asking what he was doing this early in the morning and just kept questioning him.

'He even opened the back of the doors and showed them the milk but said he was told there had been a break in at Greenfield shop and that he matched the description.

'After a while though police ended up believing him and he just kept driving.'

Mr Gibson said 15 minutes later the driver stopped for coffee when he was surrounded by three police cars.

He said he was told officers then got out of their vehicles took him out the car and arrested him.

Mr Gibson said: 'He showed them his work badge and told them to look at the delivery sheet but was told to stop resisting, it's crazy.

'Next thing I knew they took him to the police station.

'We have a tracker on the van so I went to pick it up but there was a cop car guarding it.'

The business owner claims he was told the van could not be moved as it was evidence but told officers he needed to take the milk out of the vehicle to ensure it did not go off.

Mr Gibson said after explaining the situation to police he was able to get the driver released and then able to recover the van at 7am.

Burning Petard wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:20 am

.....
But it is hard to understand why this milk delivery was considered a criminal activity.

Burning Petard wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:20 am

The event described at the top of this thread seems to me to have some elements of a contemporary (anarchist to me) practice called 'setting'

One calls a 911 line reported something that prompts an big response by the local police, but there is actually a non-event,but with potential violent or deadly action as a not-unexpected consequence. Sometimes that violent action is the desired end point. It has resulted in dead police officers and dead civilians and the local law may find the deaths on either side as just unfortunate misunderstandings.

But it is hard to understand why this milk delivery was considered a criminal activity.

snailgate

Joe Guy wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:41 am

Burning Petard wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:20 am

.....
But it is hard to understand why this milk delivery was considered a criminal activity.

It was a moo-ving violation.

Sue U wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:51 pm

I'll show myself out.