
Google Cloud Dev Advocate Jailed at SXSW - praptak
https://twitter.com/francesc/status/708962573685641216
======
slg
Before we turn into an angry mob, can we try to wait until more facts come out
about this? Remember what you have heard so far is only one guy's side of the
story.

In a different tweet the author said that it was for public intoxication.
Austin is a big college town and throwing young guys into the drunk tank for
public intoxication is a pretty common thing in these type of towns. And I am
willing to bet that most people who are thrown into the drunk tank think they
"did nothing wrong".

A reasonable explanation is this guy got a little tipsy and the police thought
he was drunker than he was, threw him into a drunk tank to sober up, put a
spit mask over his head in case (or because) he was being belligerent or he
might puke, then released him once he was clearly sober.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is fair treatment. But for anyone who
has spent years living in a college town populated by tens of thousands of
drunk 20 somethings, it is at least understandable why the citizenry would
want police to respond this way. It is also far from a sign that the US is
racists as a whole or an (extra) reason we should be afraid of Trump which the
author seemed to suggest in other tweets.

~~~
funkysquid
If anybody is acting rashly here, I think it's probably the police officers
who profiled him, threw him in jail, put a bag over his head, and then charged
him (after 2 drinks) with "public intoxication", because " we're racist" isn't
an official charge.

But please keep calm, internet, I'm sure the police were in the right.

~~~
justin_vanw
People shouldn't stay calm. Every time anyone accuses the police of anything
we should immediately believe them and start shouting about injustice on the
internet.

Nobody who has been arrested has ever been guilty, and filling up every public
forum with accusations of injustice the instant we hear any rumor is a mature
and effective way to fix the problems in the world.

It is completely reasonable for you to condemn the the police and assume they
are guilty of near criminal behavior and bigotry based on the unsupported
story someone you don't know personally is posting to Twitter. Most of the
time people who just got out of jail are telling the truth, and we should just
assume whatever they say is true and start calling for people to lose their
jobs.

In fact, every time anyone is arrested then later say they are not guilty, all
the police in the entire world are automatically racists.

~~~
funkysquid
This is exactly the problem. The police are obviously not always in the wrong,
but when people automatically assume that, regardless of what victims say, the
police are in the right, that's why nothing changes. Nobody is calling for
anyone to lose their jobs based on a tweet, we're calling for people to pay
attention, listen to the victims, and make sure this sort of behavior is
investigated and that people are held accountable.

~~~
justin_vanw
You said yourself in the comment I replied to that these police profiled him
because they are racist, and that he did nothing wrong.

Since you don't know the person that was arrested (I assume), and you don't
know the police who arrested him, you must have some more general way to know
that the police here are racists that are profiling him, right? Maybe you know
that they are racists because you know all police are racists? Or is it just
police in this Country or this State or this City? Maybe 'all police on the
night shift' are racist? I don't know how you knew they were racists, but you
said it, so I assume you are reasonable to believe it, and there must be a
logical way that you figured it out from information you know is true.

As for how you knew this person was innocent, well, since you don't know him,
didn't witness any of the events, and only know 'a person was arrested and
said it wasn't their fault', the logic from above must apply. You must have
made a logical inference that he is innocent. How do you know it?

How do you know that the police here are racists that profiled this person who
did nothing wrong? If it is based entirely on the evidence that this person
said they did nothing wrong, and that the person tweeted that they were
arrested for no reason because the police are racist, well then you must
believe everyone who says they didn't do it and that police are racist (or at
least the ones that work for Google? or that use Twitter? I'm not sure how you
were able to solve this, please let us know.) In that case it would imply that
all police are racists, since all police arrest people who later claim to be
innocent.

------
cubano
I have been locked up over 20 times in my life.

Everytime I've been to jail, there are newbies in the holding cells that cry
"I didn't do anything" and can't believe how horrible and mean all the CO's
are.

And everytime, if and when I go to First Appearance with them, it turns out
they very much did something quite illegal that got them arrested in the first
place, and its almost always something then did not want to discuss while they
were whining in the holding cell.

If your are new to jail, every fucking _hour_ seems like an entire day and the
powerlessness of the situation seems beyond comprehension.

BTW, it designed like that so, you know, you don't ever want to come back.
That's the whole point.

~~~
jacquesm
> BTW, it designed like that so, you know, you don't ever want to come back.
> That's the whole point.

Seems to contradict

> I have been locked up over 20 times in my life.

Now going on the assumption that you did not _want_ to go back it looks as if
that alone is not enough to stop it from happening.

~~~
cubano
Well you know, lifelong addiction is a real bitch, and every instance of jail
was due to it in one form or another.

It took me 25 years and utterly wrecked relationships with my brother, closest
old friends, and my lovely ex-wife to start to begin to see the light.

None of them really talk to me anymore, even though I've been pretty much
clean for years now.

I drove for 18 years on a suspended license that I was unable to get
reinstated for 5 years at time because I spent the ticket money on dope. Many
of my arrests were due to driving issues, but certainly not all.

It's been a real mess, and I'm tired. Maybe someone going down that path will
read this and think about what I'm saying.

~~~
jacquesm
Holy crap that's a tough one. My dad was a serious alcoholic, I've seen from
the front row what addiction can do to you and your relationships with others
and if anything that taught me in the harshest way imaginable to a young kid
to stay away from stuff that I'm not equipped to deal with even in moderation.
My dads funeral was a 'small' affair. As in, the only people present there
were two friends from his student days, his wife and my sister, me and my
eldest. Everybody else either didn't want to come or was told to stay away by
his wife. For someone who got to be 69 (in spite of all the booze) you'd
expect a few more people to show up but his relationships with the rest of the
world were so bad that he died quite lonely.

It looks - by your writing - as though you've come out the other end of this
and are on your way to a better life, congratulations, it must have been
extremely hard to get to where you are today, I don't think my dad would have
been able to achieve what you have done no matter how much time he would have
had.

~~~
cubano
I am sorry to hear about your Dad, and its very ironic in a way...both of my
grown sons are super careful about substances so I think I get what you are
saying.

I often think the only silver lining to the wreck-that-is-my-life is that I
left such an ugly imprint on them both that neither of them really touch
anything "evil", and I am incredibly proud of both of them, as I am sure your
Dad was of you.

Yeah whew...thank you very much for your kind words BTW. To tell the truth the
hard part isn't staying totally sober these days, the hard part is trying to
find a place in society for a 50yo man who has none of the obvious material
trappings of a successful life and a whole shitstorm of dirty laundry that is
only a Google search away.

------
justin_vanw
Anyone's story about 'why they just got arrested' is probably not one you can
really take at face value.

People who did nothing will usually say they did nothing.

People who committed a crime or were very unruly or unsafely intoxicated will
also usually say they did nothing.

Let's not start sharpening the pitchforks quite yet.

This could be a ridiculous and completely unjust situation!

However, it could also be that this person got very drunk while partying and
did something stupid, and either remembers it incorrectly (see 'drunk') or is
terrified of losing their job and wants to set the narrative.

------
nothrabannosir
Wow, I don't know what happened at SXSW, but this Twitter conversation is a
disaster in itself.

    
    
        Mr Spandex ‏@Manfeelings90  12h12 hours ago
    
        @strobist He was treated EXACTLY how he wants his
        opponents treated. He helped create this Culture of
        fear over "harassment"
    
        0 retweets 0 likes
    

\--

    
    
        Be Just & Fear Not ‏@SuperNerdMike  21h21 hours ago
        .@francesc Did you try spitting on the cops by chance?
        0 retweets 3 likes
        Reply   Retweet    
    
        Brussel Sprout ‏@TheIxxer  21h21 hours ago
        @SuperNerdMike can I take bets that he got drunk, belligerent. Police came,
        he called them bigots and spat at them. Now he cries oppression.
        1 retweet 5 likes
    
        Be Just & Fear Not ‏@SuperNerdMike  21h21 hours ago
        @TheIxxer Let's make a pool.
        0 retweets 4 likes
    
        Caffeine Commissar ‏@CaffComm  21h21 hours ago
        My money is not on trusting the guy who made his profile picture look like
        he has a halo.
        @SuperNerdMike @TheIxxer
    
    

... that's rough. Do these people know something I don't? Or is this really
what Twitter gets like once you get exposure?

~~~
fweespee_ch
> ... that's rough. Do these people know something I don't? Or is this really
> what Twitter gets like once you get exposure?

It is what Twitter is like when you get some exposure unfortunately. Trolls,
racists, etc. come out of the woodwork.

~~~
ps4fanboy
You could apply this to almost any amount of popularity look at what people
say about Donald Trump.

~~~
fweespee_ch
Yes. It isn't twitter specific but to be fair, Donald Trump engages in alot of
behavior that encourages that.

[http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/opinion-trump-latest-
pied...](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/opinion-trump-latest-pied-piper-
dog-whistle-politics-n397326)

~~~
ps4fanboy
Are you victim blaming?

~~~
fweespee_ch
If you say blatantly racist things, you aren't a victim.

~~~
ps4fanboy
If they are blatantly racist you wouldnt have any trouble quoting?

------
justifier
i was hit by a cop in his car in austin walking home from dinner with my so

he slammed on his brakes the moment he realised and the first thing out of his
mouth was, 'sir! back up onto the curb!(to my so) sir! sir, have you been
drinking?'

my so and i replied, 'WHAT?! you hit me, there is still 10 seconds on the walk
clock!' pointing at the crosswalk clock for our direction.. the cop ran his
red light

the next second three other cop cars sped onto the scene blocking the traffic
in three directions

all of their officers got out of their vehicles and rushed over to the officer
who hit me and asked him, 'what's going on here?'

then he walked them out of earshot and was gesturing wildly with his hands and
pointed at us

i walked over to their kafka'esque huddle and stated, 'why are you asking him?
he's the one who struck me with his vehicle'

they asked for 'my version' of the story then if i needed an ambulance to come
and take me to the er, and i said i would be unable to afford an ambulance and
hospital stay so they said, 'well, then everything is fine here' and all four
officers got in their cars and drove off

leaving my so and i in the middle of the intersection of 7th and melina
confused and infuriated

if i was alone i'm sure i would have been bagged as well for following the
rules of road but finding myself under the bumper of a red light running cop

the fact that this was during sxsw 2014 had previously been uninteresting to
me

..edit, said 'last year' but i lived in austin in 2014, yup, time flies

------
jerrycabbage
I've never known anyone who acted reasonably have a spit mask put over their
face. Only place I was arrested. I was off the charts drunk and treated 100%
fairly. Long hair and all. Just because some John Oliver show etc, doesn't
mean Texas is all the same. Nor can you take the behavior of one volunteer and
extrapolate to the rest of Texas. I honestly expect higher discourse from this
news aggregator site.

------
jc4p
SXSW also refused to give a US Olympian her badge until she removed her hijab:
[https://twitter.com/IbtihajMuhammad/status/70872225098001203...](https://twitter.com/IbtihajMuhammad/status/708722250980012034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

~~~
jerrycabbage
It was one volunteer. How stupid can you be? It was not "SXSW".

~~~
beedogs
Go away.

------
supernova87a
It would be helpful if the story had any details, to know what to provide
useful comment on...

------
jpgvm
That is really fucked up. The threshold for chucking someone in a cell needs
to be higher than hearsay.

~~~
ihsw
I would look at this from a different point of view -- give people recourse
against this kind of nonsense. Reduce the barrier for people to rightly
protect themselves and help them wherever necessary.

------
dctoedt
How about withholding judgment until more facts are known, please.

------
jacquesm
With a bag on his head? WTF?

~~~
molecule
_> It seems what they used to cover my head was a spit mask..._

[https://twitter.com/francesc/status/709161902631424004](https://twitter.com/francesc/status/709161902631424004)

------
nice_byte
> Finally got out of the Austin police station for no

> apparent reason other than "public intoxication"

> I had 2 glass of bourbon

> Thanks, Texas!

I've been drunk in Austin myself, and it's pretty scary to think that I could
have been detained. Probably won't visit again.

------
ps4fanboy
I wonder who pointed him out and why

------
jfdujdnn
There is far more to this story. Wait for it to come out before you jump to
conclusions.

------
beedogs
AKA, "why I don't miss the US after leaving 8 years ago." They'll lock you up
for breathing the wrong way there.

------
Mikeb85
Speaks foreign language, has a beard, and Texas.

Sounds about right.

~~~
vmorgulis
Yes, I think it's because of the beard.

I have myself similar problems but for different reasons.

~~~
krapp
I can't imagine a place which has less tolerance for beards than Austin,
Texas.

~~~
vmorgulis
The opposite is true in Iran.

~~~
lovemenot
ZZ Top intersects.

------
seivan
I thought this is what we wanted it? The ability to point at someone claim
they're a harasser/suspicious and get them bagged and tagged? Have I missed
the memo were that's not the modus operandi of recent efforts for combating
harassment?

------
jerrycabbage
Why is this crap making it to the top of ycombinator? I am perfectly happy
seeing SXSW not screw with Austin for a week. This guy was probably detained
for suspicion of a crime. Austin cops have their problems but are not
particularly bad in any regard. Austin is a very safe city and one of the few
to not have any "mass shootings" in recent history. Austin's big problem is
the gentrification brought on by class conscious geeks constantly moving
there.

~~~
kennywinker
There have been a number of mass shootings in Austin, with many fatalities. A
quick google search will find details. Also, safe is an arbitrary thing.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
> Also, safe is an arbitrary thing.

What does that even mean?

If you're saying that dividing cities into "safe" and "not safe" requires an
arbitrary threshold, then yes, it's arbitrary where you set the threshold. But
even then, you can non-arbitrarily label cities as "safer" and "less safe"
when compared to each other.

But if you mean that the _concept_ of "safe" is arbitrary: Safe means that
there's a lower chance ( _not_ zero!) that I'll be on the receiving end of
crime. Less chance that I'll be put in the hospital (or in the ground) or have
my stuff stolen. That translates into less worry and less attention that I
have to pay to keeping myself safe. (It does _not_ mean that I can pay no
attention!) That "less worry" and "less chance of being injured or killed" are
not arbitrary. They make a real, concrete difference in my life.

~~~
kennywinker
I was more hinting at the idea that places that are "safe" for one group of
people (often white middle-class people) are incredibly unsafe for other
groups of people.

If safe/unsafe is dependant on who you are, then calling a place "safe" or
even "safer" needs lots of provisos.

Anyway, bad choice of words. In retrospect "safe is a relative thing" gets
closer to what I mean.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Ah. I hadn't thought about _who_ is safe. Good point.

And I agree that "safe is a relative thing".

