Walmart arrest; racist or not?

IanC

Gold Member
Sep 22, 2009
11,061
1,344
245
Arrest at Walmart triggers charges of racism - Crime & courts- msnbc.com

ST. LOUIS - Nearly three years after Heather Ellis switched checkout lines at a southeast Missouri store and touched off what she calls a racially charged dispute with white customers and authorities, the young black schoolteacher faces a trial that could send her to prison for 15 years.

Witnesses have told authorities that Ellis cut in front of waiting customers at the Walmart in Kennett on Jan. 6, 2007, shoved merchandise already placed on a conveyor belt out of the way, and became belligerent when confronted, according to court filings.

Ellis maintains she was merely joining her cousin, whose checkout line was moving more quickly. She claimed in a written complaint to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that she was then pushed by a white customer, hassled by store employees, called racial slurs and physically mistreated by Kennett police officers.

whose standards should be used? beligerence and disrespect of authority seem to be pretty ingrained in black culture. should we just accept a lower standard of behaviour? or should we defend standards that lead to civilized and amiable neighbourhoods?
 
o please everyone does this...you split into different lines..if pals line moves faster...you hop over there...but the rules are....you dont push in behind said friend...you put your stuff in front of their stuff...and you ring it all up together....no separate purchases since you shoved in front of others...

if she pushed peoples stuff off that was rude and if the people behind you ...object ...you may end up at the back of the line again
 
I know people in Kennet, Mo! that place is waaaaaaaay down in southern Mo.. In the bootheel. Might as well be in Arkansas.
 
15 years for acting like an asshole at Walmart?

Ridiculous.

she is charged with assaulting a police officer, and that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. I don't think anyone expects her to get anything close to the maximum.

why would a school teacher make such a ruckus in a checkout line, and end up striking a police officer? I can't imagine fighting with a cop, let alone for such a stupid reason. would you want her teaching your child?
 
15 years for acting like an asshole at Walmart?

Ridiculous.

she is charged with assaulting a police officer, and that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. I don't think anyone expects her to get anything close to the maximum.

why would a school teacher make such a ruckus in a checkout line, and end up striking a police officer? I can't imagine fighting with a cop, let alone for such a stupid reason. would you want her teaching your child?
Better her than you.
 
15 years for acting like an asshole at Walmart?

Ridiculous.

she is charged with assaulting a police officer, and that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. I don't think anyone expects her to get anything close to the maximum.

why would a school teacher make such a ruckus in a checkout line, and end up striking a police officer? I can't imagine fighting with a cop, let alone for such a stupid reason. would you want her teaching your child?
Better her than you.


hahahahaha
 
I've actually seen this very same thing play out in my local walmart. The black woman who tried to cut ahead in line was allowed to do her thing---she raised hell and loudly called everyone not black a racist--but the checker and management let her go to the head of the line. And she wasn't joining anyone. She was just in a gawd-awful hurry and didn't think she should have to wait.

*sigh*

This kind of behavior doesn't surprise me in the least. The black kids at my children's middle school started acting like this when Obama was elected and they flat out told the white kids that they'd "better get used to it, cuz blacks own this country now".

And....so it seems they are right.
 
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXH-MwUt5E]YouTube - Woman Gets Tazered[/ame]

if the woman in this video had split open the cop's lip, should she have been charged with assault? were the cops right or wrong to taze her? how much crap are cops supposed to take before acting? just wondering what other people think, especially black people.
 
15 years for acting like an asshole at Walmart?

Ridiculous.

I believe that 15 years had to do with the assaulting a police officer bit.

Law enforcement tends to take that kind of thing seriously--even if you don't.

:eusa_naughty:
It isn't clear that she assaulted the police officers. If she did, she deserves punishment if it was unprovoked...if she was thrown around like she claims for acting like an idiot at Walmart then she probably doesn't deserve punishment.

Regardless, giving a cop a fat lip isn't something that deserves fifteen years in prison.
 
15 years for acting like an asshole at Walmart?

Ridiculous.

I believe that 15 years had to do with the assaulting a police officer bit.

Law enforcement tends to take that kind of thing seriously--even if you don't.

:eusa_naughty:
It isn't clear that she assaulted the police officers. If she did, she deserves punishment if it was unprovoked...if she was thrown around like she claims for acting like an idiot at Walmart then she probably doesn't deserve punishment.

Regardless, giving a cop a fat lip isn't something that deserves fifteen years in prison.

No, but it at least deserves 12 months. I might even split it with you and do 6 months and 6 suspended and an anger management class and 3 years probation.
 
I believe that 15 years had to do with the assaulting a police officer bit.

Law enforcement tends to take that kind of thing seriously--even if you don't.

:eusa_naughty:
It isn't clear that she assaulted the police officers. If she did, she deserves punishment if it was unprovoked...if she was thrown around like she claims for acting like an idiot at Walmart then she probably doesn't deserve punishment.

Regardless, giving a cop a fat lip isn't something that deserves fifteen years in prison.

No, but it at least deserves 12 months. I might even split it with you and do 6 months and 6 suspended and an anger management class and 3 years probation.
IMO, it would depend on whether she'd ever been in trouble before for something similar. I don't agree with putting first time offenders in prison for something this minor.
 
It isn't clear that she assaulted the police officers. If she did, she deserves punishment if it was unprovoked...if she was thrown around like she claims for acting like an idiot at Walmart then she probably doesn't deserve punishment.

Regardless, giving a cop a fat lip isn't something that deserves fifteen years in prison.

No, but it at least deserves 12 months. I might even split it with you and do 6 months and 6 suspended and an anger management class and 3 years probation.
IMO, it would depend on whether she'd ever been in trouble before for something similar. I don't agree with putting first time offenders in prison for something this minor.

The police generally do. That's why there is a 15 year max on it. It's bad public policy to put police out there and let people beat them with impunity. If people get the idea they can kick the crap out of a cop and there's no penalty, the thin blue line becomes a non-existent line.

Remember, the police are people too. If you aren't going to back me with the law in court, I'm not going to stick my neck out on the street. Society gets different real quick when the police start thinking like that.

Besides, in my offer, she doesn't do "prison" time, she does jail time. :lol:
 
It isn't clear that she assaulted the police officers. If she did, she deserves punishment if it was unprovoked...if she was thrown around like she claims for acting like an idiot at Walmart then she probably doesn't deserve punishment.

Regardless, giving a cop a fat lip isn't something that deserves fifteen years in prison.

No, but it at least deserves 12 months. I might even split it with you and do 6 months and 6 suspended and an anger management class and 3 years probation.
IMO, it would depend on whether she'd ever been in trouble before for something similar. I don't agree with putting first time offenders in prison for something this minor.

You call charges of assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace minor?

:cuckoo:
 
Arrest at Walmart triggers charges of racism - Crime & courts- msnbc.com

ST. LOUIS - Nearly three years after Heather Ellis switched checkout lines at a southeast Missouri store and touched off what she calls a racially charged dispute with white customers and authorities, the young black schoolteacher faces a trial that could send her to prison for 15 years.

Witnesses have told authorities that Ellis cut in front of waiting customers at the Walmart in Kennett on Jan. 6, 2007, shoved merchandise already placed on a conveyor belt out of the way, and became belligerent when confronted, according to court filings.

Ellis maintains she was merely joining her cousin, whose checkout line was moving more quickly. She claimed in a written complaint to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that she was then pushed by a white customer, hassled by store employees, called racial slurs and physically mistreated by Kennett police officers.

whose standards should be used? beligerence and disrespect of authority seem to be pretty ingrained in black culture. should we just accept a lower standard of behaviour? or should we defend standards that lead to civilized and amiable neighbourhoods?

Wow this story brings back memories from my days as a Walgreens manager.

I had a lady in our crescent street store in Brockton do almost the exact same thing. There were 3 registers going and it was busy. I was running some change from the safe to the main register when a lady basically hopped into the main reg line, in front of others, to join her friend who was at the checkout.

I told her she couldn't cut everyone else in line and would have to wait. And she responded very very very negatively to that statement by me. I still remember her words "I aint gonna take lip from no skinny white dude, now get me rung up". I said "no ma'am, you have to either leave your items behind or get back in line". This made her more irate and now she started flinging the racism thing around "You're just doing this cause im black you stupid piece of shit honkey ass lil punk"

This is when my cashier, a 71 year old black woman, put her foot down. It was GREAT. She shoved her finger right in the ladies face and said "Dont you dare talk to him like that, you dont know anything about anything you ignorant piece of.....(she stopped herself there and i took back over)" This is when I told her "sorry but what I said stands you either get back in line, at the back, or leave." She left.

I was physically shaken and so was my cashier, we both had the adrenaline going but I wasn't going to make all my other customers wait for a rude woman. The lady called the district office but i didn't get in trouble after they heard the story from me and my cashier.
 
No, but it at least deserves 12 months. I might even split it with you and do 6 months and 6 suspended and an anger management class and 3 years probation.
IMO, it would depend on whether she'd ever been in trouble before for something similar. I don't agree with putting first time offenders in prison for something this minor.

The police generally do. That's why there is a 15 year max on it. It's bad public policy to put police out there and let people beat them with impunity. If people get the idea they can kick the crap out of a cop and there's no penalty, the thin blue line becomes a non-existent line.

Remember, the police are people too. If you aren't going to back me with the law in court, I'm not going to stick my neck out on the street. Society gets different real quick when the police start thinking like that.

Besides, in my offer, she doesn't do "prison" time, she does jail time. :lol:
I've never been comfortable with equating resisting arrest with assaulting an officer. Sounds like she was flailing around...if she even gave the guy a fat lip.
 

Forum List

Back
Top