I am not a lawyer. But it strikes me that there is considerable malice aforethought at play when police departments allow a knee-jerk and callous mens rea to permeate their operations as detailed in the N166ER story diaried here.
The dispatcher, and very possibly the recipients of her email, thought this was "...I'm really sorry, I really, really tried not to laugh but...........!" But she did. And she thought it would find similar humorous resonance with the recipients of her forwarded email, shown here.
Presumption of Innocence accords a certain respect and dignity to an individual in our system of justice - the lady with scales is blindfolded for a reason. If you can't accord and encourage simple respect and dignity to an African American man who happens to hold the highest office in the land, why should we presume that you are capable of dealing fairly and respectfully with any African American you encounter on Canton Road or Edison Street in Uniontown?
The question for me is, if the President of the United States carries no implicit respect via his achievements and simple personhood, how the hell does an acverage African American stand the chance of garnering any implicit respect in their dealings with this police department?
As I understand it, mens rea means, literally, "guilty mind." While there's no 'crime' here, there's most certainly a breach of the organizational protocols or guidance of departmental leadership of the Uniontown P.D. And that breach calls into question the simple ability of the P.D. to professionally and impartially serve a portion of the public it is charged to serve and protect.
I feel like I'm just repeating the obvious here, but there's so much "obvious" charging around unleashed and trashing every conception of common sense and proportion that I feel the need to ask one thing: How the fuck can you be a public servant and disdain a certain percentage of that public based on no more information available than the color of their skin?
Easy. This is Stark County's census demo:
The racial makeup of the county was 90.28% White, 7.20% Black or African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.54% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.29% from other races, and 1.43% from two or more races. 0.92% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
And, within Stark County, this is Uniontown's census demo:
The racial makeup of the CDP was 98.14% White, 0.32% African American, 0.14% Native American, 0.54% Asian, 0.14% from other races, and 0.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.50% of the population.
I know, statistics are funny things. But my experience (see pics below) dealing with 3rd and 4th Amendment issues and racial profiling/asset-seizure-for-profit studies in places like Volusia County, Florida make me really eager to see a FOIA request as the beginning of a closer look at the quality of 'servant-leadership' of the Uniontown PD, in addition to their "sense of humor."
I'm a message guy, and a believer in the Golden Rule, and I'm about tapped out on all the barely concealed white ansgt that climbs into a uniform, or just straps on a carry-permitted sidearm, for all the wrong reasons of self-aggrandizement and insecurity and martyrdom and mommy-didn't-love-me-enough. Let's look into this fine constabulary and let's share what we find in the spirit of that Golden Rule. Somehow, what I think is funny or ironic is probably much different than Dispatcher Webb and her colleagues in the Uniontown P.D.