Via 27B Stroke 6, The Washington Post reports on documents uncovered in a civil suit brought by some anti-war protesters that confirm their claims, which police and the FBI had denied, that the protesters had been detained for wearing black (anarchists wear black!) and interrogated about their political views by FBI agents. (The official rationale for the arrest was suspicion of “trespassing”… in a parking garage where they’d apparently parked their van.)
Forget “Driving While Black,” Now It’s “Walking While Wearing Black”
April 4th, 2007 · 2 Comments
Tags: Privacy and Surveillance
2 responses so far ↓
1 LP // Apr 4, 2007 at 4:16 pm
High school students here in Colorado (and probably elsewhere) still can’t wear anything that looks like a black trench coat, post-Columbine. Not that they’d get sent home to change (we’ve gotten past that phase), but chances are the student would be invited to visit the guidance counselor’s office for a long, heartfelt chat.
2 Justin // Apr 5, 2007 at 11:09 am
Yeah, as an ex-goth hipster grad student, it is very odd to me that the goth subculture can still be discriminated against with absolute impunity, despite a complete lack of evidence of a connection to violence. . .
I mean, I know they wore trench coats at Columbine, but most of the school shooters run more to “hick” than “goth,” if we’re looking for shallow stereotypical ways of profiling.