(WNBK) #1: "Stand"
Think through, on paper, the scene in “Stand” in which Stevenson is confronted and wrongly searched by the police. How did that situation begin to go wrong? What kinds of changes might help such a situation go right? Does this pattern also apply to other instances of injustice detailed in the book? Do you think Stevenson made the right choice in his response to the officers? What do you think you would have done?
(Gigi)
ReplyDeleteStevenson's encounter with the cops immediately began to go downhill when one of the police officer's pulled out his revolver and pointed it towards Stevenson. Once a weapon is directed towards another, all bets are off. The gun carriers were uncivilized, hyper, and unreasonable. IF they had a REASON to be suspicious of Stevenson, the subject still remains: they should of calmly asked for any licenses or registration, never demanding that Stevenson to get out from his vehicle and absolutely, never pointing a weapon towards Stevenson unless as a defense mechanism, and that reason alone, can be shaky. They also shouldn't of searched Stevenson's car without a warrant or a specific, evidence based reason to. They treated Stevenson like an animal ripped from its cage. Overall, the situation was unjustifiably wrong and dangerous.
There are many patterns occurring throughout the book that are similar to Stevenson's experience. The main conflict is the treatment of human to human conversation. The cops treat Stevenson inhumanely because of his race. The Justice System fails to convict and trial several cases mentioned in the book humanely and decently. We see again and again the injustices of how court systems handle the wrongly or falsely accused, and the factors relating to why they carry out such accusation: racial discrimination.
I believe Stevenson did react to the officers as anyone right-minded would: calm and unresistant, yet frightened and angered at the unfairness of the situation. He tried to object but was aware it wasn't worth his life, and followed the officer's unreasonable requests. It wasn't right, but under gunpoint, he had to do it.
Its hard to know what I would of done, but I would of followed Stevenson's reaction similarly. If I were under gunpoint, I would keep my hands up and try not to resist. I would be angry. I would be. But I wouldn't let scum like those policemen take my life.
Preston
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that made this encounter with the police was when Officer 1 decided to start the experience with the gun pointed directly at Stevenson. I could understand that the police were a little concerned due to "suspected criminal," but that doesn't justify immediately drawing your gun on someone. Had Officer 1 not had been so trigger happy and more defensive, Stevenson's encounter with the police would have been more civilized. Also Officer 2 decided to illegally search Stevenson's car. Search Warrants were created for a reason, the Officer's should have thought more clearly then they were.
We read about a story similar to Stevenson's encounter with the police just pages before when telling the story of Mr. Ruffin's arrest. Mr. Ruffin had been arrested for having a license plate that had expired. However, when Mr. Ruffin arrived at the city jail, he was badly bruised and bleeding. Similarities in this story relate to how the police both used their "authority status," to violently disrupt Mr. Ruffin and Stevenson's lives.
Stevenson reacted to the Officers' motives properly. He remained calm during the situation, gave minor feedback even though the Officers acted poorly, and he was able to further anymore injustice performed by the police. If I were in his shoes, I would have responded the same only I would question as to why the police would be searching my vehicle without proper warrants.
Jackson Kernan
ReplyDeleteThe situation began to go wrong when Stevenson was approached by the SWAT team. If he seemed suspicious, the proper first action would have been to send in an officer to see what he was doing, a SWAT team wouldn’t be necessary unless they had discovered a bomb or something of the sort. Even if Stevenson was someone suspicious, or a dangerous person, the situation could have been easily handled with a couple of officers, a SWAT team was never necessary. This encounter is highly descriptive of the rest of the book, a man was held powerless due to a factor that was out of his control, in this case, skin color. For his personal safety, I believe that Stevenson made the right choice of just doing what the officers said, however for the sake of justice, I believe Stevenson made the wrong decision. For justice, he should have explained himself and how what the SWAT team was doing was illegal. Personally, I would have done a combination of the both. I would follow along with what the SWAT are doing, but inform them that I knew what they were doing was illegal.
Jackson,
DeleteJust correcting incorrect information, it was not a whole team but rather 2 men that were in the vehicle, pg 39 "eventually two police officers got out of their vehicle"
Sorry to be a snob, but the truth is important,
Julian
By the way this isn't one of my responses^
Delete#1 Stand:
ReplyDeleteLucy
Honestly this encounter went wrong from the start. The whole thing shouldn’t have even happened. I don’t really know a specific thing should have been changed, overall it was an inappropriate experience. I mean obviously they should have been polite, used respect, and that didn’t happen for one minute.Although, I do believe that this directly correlates to the other stories in the book. Throughout the book there is a common theme of judgment without understanding. That is exactly what happens during the encounter and others. A quote by Elia Kazan perfectly sums it up, “Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion, and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it." I believe this is a truth portrayed by Stevenson throughout the book. I also believe that Stevenson handled the situation very well. While he did comment about being upset he felt the urge to run, he didn’t, and he faced it. In the instance under gunpoint, you aren’t able to think quite as clearly as normal and i think he did his best in the situation. I am sad he didn’t get justice for their crime but he came out safe. It’s hard to say what I would have done in the situation. While we all would like to say we would have been calm, cool, collected, and handled it perfectly, it’s not realistic. To be honest, I probably would have been a mess. I’d get through it but probably not like Stevenson did.
Julian,
ReplyDeleteThe situation derailed when the spotlight hit the car, because they were already eyeing Stevenson because he is black. Protocol was immediately changed right when they confirmed the color of his skin, because of this the police officers were able to threaten death, illegally search his car, and physically harm him and get away with it. Not to mention that, the cop pointed a gun at Stevenson without him threatening or doing anything illegal at all. Part of the blame is on the neighbors, because of there racist beliefs against Stevenson rather than doing anything, even if they weren't black, in fact they made it worse for Stevenson by accusing him of stealing. If it was me in that situation I could get away with it, because I'm not black I will never know the unfair struggles put in place by ignorant peoples, in fact the cop probably wouldn't of given the time of day to even point that spotlight. Stevenson was not so lucky, because of his race, he was forced to handle a situation no one should be able to know what to do. I barely know what to do when I get pulled over by a cop, do you think he would know, about a life threatening interaction with clearly racist cops.
This whole situation started off in the wrong, causing everything to go into turmoil. As soon as Stevenson got out of his car after listening to the song "stand," he was immediately ambushed by the police SWAT team. The first action that caused this chain of unfortunate events was when the officer pulled his gun and pointed it at Stevenson. This was completely breaking protocol, as you can not pull a weapon on somebody without just cause, and showed that the police were not giving the same rights to Stevenson from the beginning. It is clear that these officers were not playing by the rules and that they were treating Stevenson unfair. This story strongly connects with other stories in the book. Many of the other stories deal with discrimination due to the color of a person's skin, which puts the people of color in unfair and dangerous situations. In every story, there is a common theme of not finding the root causes of the events but instead just threading together misconceptions.
ReplyDeleteIn Stevenson's story, he reacted with the proper responses. When under distress your body can cause you to act in unpredictable ways; Stevenson's responses showed that he harnessed some control over what he was doing and saying. If I were personally in Stevenson's situation, I would have been terrified. I can not imagine what it would be like to be held at gunpoint. I would try my best to stay calm and act in the best way possible in a situation like that, but there is no way of telling what I would've done when actually in the moment.