Police officer Craig Spencer said: ‘Residents called to complain there was an old scruffy man acting suspiciously.
‘It was an odd request because it was mid-afternoon, but it’s an ethnic Latin area and the residents felt the man didn’t fit in. Lets just say he looked eccentric.
At 68, Dylan tends to look as if he doesn’t have a dime. No facials for him, no teeth whitener, no Barney’s.
From Jan Herman:
Living in a Police State is OK:
I know, because I live in one, and I’m doing fine. I haven’t been arrested for jaywalking, littering, loitering, begging, or sleeping under a bridge. I haven’t been arrested for sleeping in a homeless shelter when there’s an outstanding warrant against me for sleeping on a suburban sidewalk. I haven’t been arrested for being someone who looks to a reasonable person like I belong on public assistance. I haven’t been arrested for eating food someone gave me in a park. I haven’t been arrested for not being white, wearing a wrong-color T-shirt in a wrong-color neighborhood, or looking overly anxious in an airport. I haven’t been arrested for being late for school or without ID in public housing. And those are just some of the things I haven’t been arrested for. The reason I haven’t been arrested is not because I’m white and haven’t committed any of these crimes — let’s face it, I’ve jaywalked, littered, and loitered, which makes me a triple threat — it’s because I’m not poor. If I were, living in my police state would not be OK, as Barbara Ehrenreich points out today in her must-read NY Times op-ed on “the viciousness of the official animus toward the indigent.”
News reports of the incident stress the humor of a 22-year-old police woman who didn’t recognize Dylan. None discuss why it’s ok to cuff somebody for looking odd, eccentric, out of place, indigent.
Even if he weren’t a celebrity, Johnny Depp could dress as shabbily as he wants. He’s protected by the beauty bubble.
Those with no money and no allure are advised to step lively in the street, with purpose and benign good will. Poor, ugly, weak and grim? Be sure to have a public defender on speed dial.
Here’s to the odd.
so true so true, the world has never seen the truth and beauty in the least of these. This incident reminds us to look at life through Gods eyes.
oh, but can you imagine the songs that will come from this. Show ’em the way, Bob… Show ’em the way!
Wealth is all!
Is this the trickle-down effect from the long burst financial bubble?
Where are the poets, the artists, the absent-minded professors?
Shows to go ya just how stupid the “establishment” has become.Sad thing is,we probably puttem there.Go figure!