Checking out of Airbnb while black gets the police called on you apparently

[Lanyap]

Oh I absolutely agree with that. While I think it is plausible to assume that this was Granny's thinking, it's likely difficult to prove.

It seems to me that the central issue in this story is what seems to be a police overreaction to the call: shut down the street, multiple squad cars, helicopter, etc--and not so much Granny calling it in.

Police response does appear to be excessive. If it had been a group of white women they probably would have dispatched one or two units and been more "friendly". This incident reminds of the social experiment several years ago on the different police response to a white male open carrying an "assault rifle" versus a black male doing the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXrh6wAxJlw

 

[Lanyap]

So like, TV's with cables, electronic devices, maybe small home appliances were in their hands, right?

That's old school. These days you pack up the small valuable stuff like jewelry, cash, guns, coin/stamp collection, etc. in their suitcase and make it look like you were just visiting.

 

[SamQuint]

My home was robbed and they took a backpack of mine. They dumped out all the books and filled it with my stuff and left. If luggage is available in a house you bet a smart thief would use it to take stuff out. I would have called the cops too if I did not recognize the people coming out of a home carrying a bunch of items.

 

[Lanyap]

If you think a family casually hauling luggage out of a home amounts to burglars... yeah, there's a degree of racism involved. It's strange if you've never heard of the concept of Airbnb, but c'mon -- burglars don't recruit their family and take their sweet time offloading things in daylight.

As for the police? Well, that's tricky -- American police have a bad habit of overreacting to everything. Wouldn't rule out racist behavior, but I think a lot of that could stem from the report (something tells me the 911 call didn't provide an accurate description of the family).

Did you read the OP's post or the article? It was a group of four or five adult friends, three of whom were black women. It was not a family. (The total number in the group differs based on which article you read.)

The residence was an unlicensed Airbnb. Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc. are relatively new services started within the last 10 years by entrepreneurial people who are thinking outside of the box. Believe it or not there are a lot of people who still don't know about these relatively new services. These new services don't conform to what was the norm.

I agree the police overreacted.

 

[ch33zw1z]

That's old school. These days you pack up the small valuable stuff like jewelry, cash, guns, coin/stamp collection, etc. in their suitcase and make it look like you were just visiting.

Or in this case, just visiting

 

[HomerJS]

My home was robbed and they took a backpack of mine. They dumped out all the books and filled it with my stuff and left. If luggage is available in a house you bet a smart thief would use it to take stuff out. I would have called the cops too if I did not recognize the people coming out of a home carrying a bunch of items.

Thugs would also put on their good clothes, get made up and hop in their Infiniti SUV

 

[Commodus]

Did you read the OP's post or the article? It was a group of four or five adult friends, three of whom were black women. It was not a family. (The total number in the group differs based on which article you read.)

The residence was an unlicensed Airbnb. Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc. are relatively new services started within the last 10 years by entrepreneurial people who are thinking outside of the box. Believe it or not there are a lot of people who still don't know about these relatively new services. These new services don't conform to what was the norm.

I agree the police overreacted.

Ah, sorry about that. That doesn't change certain aspects of it, though: they were hauling luggage, certainly weren't dressed to remain inconspicuous and weren't exactly in a rush. Yes, Airbnb is relatively new, but I can't help but think that those visual cues would still suggest these weren't burglars.

 

[Victorian Gray]

Huh, just read that one of the women is Bob Marley's granddaughter.

 

[pcgeek11]

Cases like this where no clear overt racism is demonstrable yet plausible are a challenge. I would hope that you would agree @pcgeek11 and @zinfamous that black people are subjected to these kinds of things at very disparate rates and that such a thing is a big societal problem.

It does happen I will admit.

Not in this case, I wouldn't even call it plausible in this case.

 

[pcgeek11]

I do hope that all those blaming the older woman for racism has their house visited by a nice looking group that robs them blind. The neighbors don't call because well " they looked so nice".

 

[HomerJS]

I do hope that all those blaming the older woman for racism has their house visited by a nice looking group that robs them blind. The neighbors don't call because well " they looked so nice".

Because the country is full of well dressed, Infiniti driving, calmly walking out of the house, in broad daylight with bags packed thugs. Who must be black.

 

[zinfamous]

I do hope that all those blaming the older woman for racism has their house visited by a nice looking group that robs them blind. The neighbors don't call because well " they looked so nice".

why did you destroy an honest comment in the very next post? what about wearing rather expensive snake-skin pants = shabby, cheap clothing?

I mean, do you think maybe it has to do with ignorant old lady calling in because of her ignorance? (has no fucking clue what people wear today, has no fucking clue that her neighbors are asshole AirBnBrs, etc?) It can be many things. Racism is no more or less plausible than simple ignorance, no reason to jump to either conclusion, with conviction, without knowing otherwise.

 

[Vic]

Well to be honest about it. If I saw five strangers coming out of my neighbors house with baggage and i didn't know who they were I would call the police regardless of what race they were. It is called being a good neighbor. In this case three of them happened to be black. I think to just assume racism is being extremely stupid.

The home owner should have let the neighbors in on the Airbnb gig and this wouldn't have happened.

Airbnb is very common, especially in California. So why don't we ever hear about all this good neighborliness when those strangers are white? And when was the last time you got stopped by the police, and instead of the police asking questions, it was automatically escalated to a guns drawn felony stop before you even did or said anything?

 

[pcgeek11]

why did you destroy an honest comment in the very next post? what about wearing rather expensive snake-skin pants = shabby, cheap clothing?

I mean, do you think maybe it has to do with ignorant old lady calling in because of her ignorance? (has no fucking clue what people wear today, has no fucking clue that her neighbors are asshole AirBnBrs, etc?) It can be many things. Racism is no more or less plausible than simple ignorance, no reason to jump to either conclusion, with conviction, without knowing otherwise.

I didn't destroy anything. I just hate that everybody calls racism with absolutely nothing to go on other than 3 of the 5 people were black. I didn't see what race the woman that called was.

Granted It does look like a typical police over reaction, but I see no overt racism in any of this. Hell around here if you have a fender bender you will end up with three or four police cruisers at the scene with an ambulance, EMS and a fire truck or two.

 

[pcgeek11]

Airbnb is very common, especially in California. So why don't we ever hear about all this good neighborliness when those strangers are white? And when was the last time you got stopped by the police, and instead of the police asking questions, it was automatically escalated to a guns drawn felony stop before you even did or said anything?

Only three of the five were black. Yes it does look like the police over reacted to a suspected burglary... That doesn't make it racist.

 

[Paladin3]

You tell me if this looks like your typical thug?

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10160498802620121

I don't think we should judge folks based on their looks, but on their actions. If I see someone other than my neighbor coming out of their house with packed bags when they are not home, I might be tempted to call the police to double check no burglary is going on.

You can't tell a thug by their dress, or color. Nor can you assume racism every time something happens to a minority.

 

[Paladin3]

So like, TV's with cables, electronic devices, maybe small home appliances were in their hands, right?

So it's racism because some busybody old lady couldn't tell the difference between packed luggage and stolen goods? Was it wrong of her to maybe be sure so she called the cops to check?

Jesus, neighbors looking out for one another isn't a bad thing in this case.

 

[Paladin3]

Last summer I was at our local lake and there were two teenage girls at a table nearby. The went swimming and left a camera, two phones, a purse and a backpack in clear view on the table. I was watching their stuff out of the corner of my eye when a woman about 30 and man about 60 came along and grabbed up all the valuables, loaded them into the backpack and headed for the parking lot. They weren't at all dressed for the beach, I hadn't seen them with the girls at all since I'd been there, and it looked a little suspicious to me.

I was half asleep and told myself it was probably innocent, but thought what would I want someone else to do if they saw this happen to my kids. So I called the police and walked after them to see where they were going, and pointed them out to the cops when they showed up. Turns out it was the girls' mother and grandfather there to pick up the girls, and saw the valuable sitting out so they were locking them in the car where they'd be safe. Granddad was a little pissed off that I had called the cops on him, but mom at least thanked me for looking out for her daughters' stuff.

Did I do wrong? Am I a racist if the folks were minorities? Or was I just being a good neighbor? Should I mind my own business next time? I understand a Nervous Nancy can take things too far, but do you want to live in a neighborhood where folks don't look out for each other?

 

[theeedude]

Why wasn't the racist caller identified for public shaming?

 

[pcgeek11]

Why wasn't the racist caller identified for public shaming?

Because it wasn't racist by the facts given. It was a concerned neighbor.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Thugs would also put on their good clothes, get made up and hop in their Infiniti SUV

The drug dealer in my last apartment complex drove an Infiniti and was always inpeccably groomed in a going to the club kind of way.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Why wasn't the racist caller identified for public shaming?

Why aren’t we shaming the person running an inlicensed airbnb, which is the root cause for all of this.

 

[ch33zw1z]

The drug dealer in my last apartment complex drove an Infiniti and was always inpeccably groomed in a going to the club kind of way.

Why would a business man involved in the actual free market not dress the part.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Why aren’t we shaming the person running an inlicensed airbnb, which is the root cause for all of this.

Can you prove your RCA assessment here? The neighbor called the police because of an unlicensed airbnb, I'd love to see a quote from the neighbor to this end.

 

[ch33zw1z]

racism is based on irrational fear. Do the math.