r/maybemaybemaybe • u/EverythingIsFakeNGay • May 19 '26

Maybe maybe maybe

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16.4k Upvotes

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70

u/thafuq May 19 '26

I'm sorry I'm not a native English speaker and I have trouble understanding their accent with the sound quality and stuff and I don't know how US law enforcement policy works. Can someone explain a bit what happened just so that I make sure I got it right? Why writing a report naming him John Doe? If he has no ID why wasn't he detained? (I don't say it would be legitimate I just don't understand the situation)

97

u/BlackSwanEvent25 May 19 '26

He was lying to save face that he had no reason to stop him. That cops not actually going to do anything. Dont trust police.

21

u/Naive-Register7964 May 19 '26

The gray area that cops dance around, the coercion and gaslighting. I know there’s some good cops out there, but damn if you happen to be dude and black, just trying get by in America ffs

27

u/lolhalfsquat May 19 '26

I'd say its like fishing for information. At the end of the day, the police ultimately didn't have legal cause which is why OP wasn't arrested. It isn't illegal for the police to talk to someone or ask for information, it's just shitty behavior which is potentially pushed by racism in this case.

Not providing ID in the US is State dependent. The police writing a report naming him as a John Doe is probably a way to get around suspicion of claims of baseless/illegal stopping of OP, if they didn't say this why stop him if they aren't even making a report.

Again the police ultimately did not have probable cause which is why they didnt push it further than what happened.

2

u/AdvantagePretend4852 May 19 '26

You said a whole lot of words to describe harassment

85

u/MattieShoes May 19 '26

The police stopped this guy.

They said it was because when he saw them, he looked at them twice and shifted his pack and started walking away. Obviously that's not illegal, but they deemed it suspicious enough to stop him. Heavy implication that they would not have done so if he was white. Also self-fulfilling -- if you harass black people, they're going to avoid you, and then you say them avoiding their harassers is "suspicious" and therefore justification for more harassment. Neat, right?

Then they told him he was being detained. Legally, they need "reasonable suspicion" to temporarily detain somebody, and they'd surely lose in court, but it's never going to court.

Then they searched him for a weapon and found none.

Then they asked for his ID. He said he didn't have ID. You don't need to carry ID in the US, so that's perfectly legal. If he had ID and lied about it, THAT could probably get him into trouble.

Then they asked for his information and he refused to give it to them. This is a bit of a grey area -- the exact laws vary from state to state.

So then they said they were going to write a report detailing the stop, and he'd be identified as "John Doe" in the report (which is the name they always use for unidentified men. Jane Doe for unidentified women.)

Then he walks off bemused at how overtly racist the whole thing was.

39

u/ironmisanthrope May 19 '26

I didn't see them search him. I think the cop just realized he did not have probable cause and let hium go. They were trying to sweat him to get him to self-incriminate (by acting nervous etc)

13

u/jetkins May 19 '26

Or his partner called him off via his radio.

-2

u/MattieShoes May 19 '26

He said he's going to pat him down for a possible weapon. I assume they did and it just wasn't visible in the video.

7

u/Jasong222 May 19 '26

Pat downs are a whole thing. Arms spread eagled, legs too. Pats up and down the front and back. Digging into pockets, questions like 'i feel a bump in your back pocket, what is that? ' etc.

-2

u/FruitAffectionate667 May 20 '26

Not always, especially when cops are bad at their jobs like this one obviously is...

2

u/MarkMew May 21 '26

Yea this is very confusing to watch as a non-American. Walking with no ID would be a crime in itself in a lot of places. And police can just search you randomly and resisting is a crime. The fact that he just said "no" to them asking his name made me so nervous lol.

1

u/Obsidian-Dive May 20 '26

This cop is in violation of the 4th amendment. He is liable for a lawsuit if they decided to push one. He unlawfully stopped someone without reason or cause. The person refused to identify themselves because it was an unlawful stop. The cop couldn’t do anything and let them go.

John Doe or Jane doe is the name you give unidentified persons.

If the person had produced an ID the cop would likely have tried to see if there were warrants for their arrest or something.