By: Diane Benjamin
See both previous stories at this link: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/23/in-support-of-art-and-camille-taylor/
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Art Taylor, in his four-page screed complaining of his treatment during the incident closes with this:
Not being accorded the respect of the “benefit of the doubt” is what hurts the most, and that is why citizens of color feel like there are two systems of justice in our society.
You may want to re-read Art Taylor’s entire statement before proceeding: https://blnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bpd-incident-art-and-camille-taylor.pdf
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I have received the audio from the body-cam of the officer interviewing Art and Camille Taylor. It was FOIA’d by the officer involved and released through the police union.
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I will upload and post the entire discussion between Art and Camille Taylor and the officer. Sections are still redacted for unknown reason. The conversation is mostly respectful until almost 20 minutes in. The Taylors do most of the talking becoming more and more agitated the longer they speak. They obviously believe the police are out to get black people, especially young black males. As previously reported, the Taylors are not the only blacks in the neighborhood.
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Below is a troubling excerpt. Watch this and see what you think.
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Below is the latest statement from Jon Boch, one of the citizens involved in the incident.
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Thanks to what we believe was City Manager Tim Gleason’s intervention, Art got the benefit of the “elite” class of justice here. He got his and his wife’s real-life prejudice and bigotry hidden from public view. This despite the City of Bloomington’s extensive verbiage about “transparency…” Maybe it’s time for a new City Manager, because this one surely seems to be playing favorites and then suppressing evidence.
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Meanwhile the little people – my neighbors and my family – were left to twist in the wind to not only Art Taylor’s baseless, unfounded accusations, but also NIOT’s even more defamatory and utterly unfounded claims of racism. Even worse, the Bloomington Police Department in general and the officer in particular were disparaged by these utterly false and meritless accusations. Amazingly, City Manager Gleason seems to have ignored his fiduciary duty and suppressed evidence that would exonerated his city’s police department and one of its officers from baseless, hurtful and defamatory claims. (Diane emphasized this statement)
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A public apology from both would be the responsible and decent thing to do. We’ll see how much responsibility they take for their false and hurtful claims, and how much decency they have.
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Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised, but I don’t have high hopes. And for the record, we would be the first ones to come to Art and Camille’s grandson’s aid – or anyone else in distress – if “something” happened to him in front of our homes. Even after this ugly incident.
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John Boch
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WGLT needs to update their story – the Police weren’t hiding anything:
Oh my. Worst acting ever. Notice how the officer said they are trained on how to interact with juveniles and volunteered that he’s a foster parent himself in order to build up a positive conversation while demonstrating the compassion that’s no doubt in his heart. I hope the police union has some choice words for Tari, Gleason, and those in the City that obstructed transparency and harmed the integrity of the officer and BPD.
Does another opinion make the Taylor’s perception of the situation wrong? I think not. Two people can see the same thing and both have differing views of what they saw….doesn’t make either person wrong. So just because the Taylor’s may have seen it from a “racial angle” doesn’t make them racist people. Have you walked in their shoes all their lives, in their skin color, had their experiences, lived through discrimination, etc? Do you know what that particular day may have been for them, tired, depressed, not feeling well, something of an unpleasant nature may have happened to them within a day or two before the incident? People are quick to judge them in a negative view, but, maybe there’s an untold story no one is aware of. And, there’s no need for them to offer explanations, people will believe whatever suits their frame of mind, or whatever they choose to believe. This world is really going down hill fast. Sad. Whatever happened to Christian values. Maybe that’s why that’s why we’re in such a mess and God has left the country.
People can choose how they react to situations. Nobody is a victim unless they want to be.
https://youtu.be/CAZogp2_pZ8
The Taylors had a bad day? Are you kidding me? From the get go they made this a race issue. They blasted their 4 page narrative through the community vilifying these two families. Listen to the whole video. Mr. Taylor walks away at the end seeming as though he accepted the apology that it was not their car. He then sets the tone that not only are these families racist, but so are the BPD and the officer. Then the Taylors meet with the city to keep the video suppressed. Why? Because it might make them look bad. Pillars of the community is how they have been touted, yet two law abiding, hard working families are left to defend themselves from the viscous attacks across multiple social media platforms and new agencies. Oh but hey, the Taylors maybe had a bad day.
Is this person really giving a lecture about what is and what isn’t racist? Are they really giving a talk about things not being Christian values? I find it extremely amusing that some people have such severe cognitive dissonance that they don’t even realize their own words contradict them. And don’t even get me started on the idea of “Everyone else sinned so terribly that God has forsaken us” and the religious guilt trip that goes along with it. If you believe that God abandons you because you do something wrong, then why do you even believe in God in the first place? What would be the point, since all people are flawed and broken?
The last thing I want to ask is this. Why are you so insistent upon defending racist behavior? Please, stop trying to rationalize racism to us. You are free to believe whatever you want, but most of us don’t care about skin color, and bringing it up when it’s irrelevant to the situation makes that person guilty of racist behavior, at the very least.
P.S. – I laugh at your Christian values comment every time I’m in BloNo and see a car with a Vale Church sticker run a red light, tailgate, or speed (especially in school zones). Sad, indeed.
Where’s the “digital recording system” that cannot be tampered with? How does a city this large still allow manual interaction to recorded sessions that’s clearly a conflict of interest?
I’ve had the same question about the court house and why FDR hasn’t been implemented yet.
The Taylor’s Black Lives Matter the most… and they’re playing the poor poor victim. Just act like decent human beings rather than somebody who feels that they’re entitled. Bunch of bulshit