Fred Weary: a Dismissed “Driving While Black” Court Case Equals a Media Whiteout

After practice on November 14, 2006, Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary was tasered by Houston police officer after, as reported by Armando Villafranca of the Houston Chronicle:

Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary is facing a possible charge of resisting arrest after Houston police said he refused to comply with orders during a traffic stop this afternoon, eventually using a Taser on him.

Weary was not injured in the Taser incident, said HPD spokesman John Cannon. Weary was then taken to city jail.

Cannon said police became suspicious of Weary while patrolling the South Main and South Loop area about 1 p.m., where they saw him in a Chevrolet Impala SS. Cannon said Weary “exhibited suspicious behavior” and kept “looking at officers on several occasions.” Police decided to follow the vehicle.

A separate article on DESPN.com (Disney Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) gave a slightly different version of the story:

According to the police report, the incident began when officers noticed a Chevy Impala SS driving in an area near Reliant Stadium where police are on alert due to criminal activity. They noticed the driver “looking very suspicious” as he looked back and forth at the police several times. Weary was pulled over after police followed the car and noticed that it did not have a front license plate.

And there is yet a third variant in this Villafranca piece written the following day:

Weary, 29, was southbound on the West Loop near the Southwest Freeway when he was stopped by a two-officer unit at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

Police, who had stopped Weary after he made an improper lane change, then noticed the front license plate was missing from his Chevrolet Impala SS.

John Cannon, HPD spokesman, said Weary had drawn the officers’ attention after acting suspiciously and “looking at (them) on several occasions.” (bold added).

At the time I wrote:

Just what is “acting suspiciously?” And when did it become grounds to be surveilled because you look at policemen? So, what came first, the “improper lane change,” or policemen driving either behind Weary, obviously checking out him and his vehicle?

The second article snippet begs the question, just how is the following possible?

Weary was pulled over after police followed the car and noticed that it did not have a front license plate.

This means police were behind Weary’s Impala yet somehow saw the front of his vehicle and saw that there was no front license plate. The HPD’s version of Weary’s being tasered stunk like ludefisk at a Minnesota state fair.

What equally smelled was the failure of DESPN to mention Weary’s arrest and tasering on DESPN News, Sportscenter, NFL Live, or Cold Pizza until two full days after the event. Perhaps the media whiteout had something to do with this blogpost in the Chronicle by Stephanie Hadley, a practicing attorney and wife of a former Harris County (Texas) assistant district attorney:

In Fred Weary’s case, he was driving an Impala near where he works, Reliant Stadium. He was deemed suspicious according to the police report because he was in a high crime area near Reliant Stadium, and he looked suspicious for looking at the police repeatedly.

Huh? If repeatedly looking at a police car makes you the object of suspicion, then I am guessing all of us are suspects. The police reportedly followed him from the Reliant area to a parking lot at 610 and Fournace. They pulled him over for an improper lane change. This is approximately 6 mile distance for those not familiar with Houston.

Personally, if a police car had followed me for 4-6 miles and then pulled me over, they would not hear any combativeness from me. Instead, I would be profusely apologizing for soiling my drawers. I don’t engage in illegal stuff, but geez, you get followed that long by the police, you have to feel a little wigged out.

I know a lot of people don’t want to turn things into racial stuff. And I am more hesitant than most. Just on its face, it sure looks like Weary became an object of suspicion because he was driving while black. Even if the arresting officers didn’t consciously think about race.

Do you think that police would follow Texans owner Bob McNair from Reliant to 610-Southwest Freeway in the middle of the afternoon?”

However, by November 16, the Disney cast members at its entertainment and sports programming network felt comfortable enough with the situation to deride Weary and his teammates who supported him. Skip Bayless said of course Weary’s team was going to support him, after all that’s what jocks do. He likened the support for Weary to the “thin blue line,” a phrase used by the police that means a thin blue line of police is all that separates law and order from chaos and anarchy. In this case, the line was formed by the players to protect the Houston organization from the media. Bayless and Mark Schlereth later in the afternoon of the 16th also evoked another phrase for Weary’s teammate’s alleged refusal to provide dirt on the offensive lineman known in the Texans organization and throughout Houston as a “good guy.” The phrase was, “the “wall of silence.”

Both Bayless and Schlereth, by their statements, implied that Weary was guilty as the police portrayed him. They implied that there was dirt in Weary’s past and his teammates were following the jock code by refusing to say anything negative about their “fallen” – in this case, from grace – team member.

For a week from the time of Weary’s arrest the general public, particularly in Texas was ready and willing to vilify Weary. The HPD were defended zealously and Weary was attacked for being yet another jock attempting to “get over” at the expense of fans. But a funny thing happened on the way to the media lynching of Fred Weary.

On November 20, the charges against him were dropped. Oddly, the Houston Chronicle Online edition ran no “Fred Weary charges dropped” headlined articles. Instead the Chronicle Online ran an editorial headlined, “Shock Prone: Incidents here and in California raise questions about whether police are too quick to discharge Tasers.” The editorial was published Friday, November 24, 2006. However, Weary’s charges were dropped on November 21.

For whatever reason the Chronicle removed Villafranca’s article about the Weary’s charges being dismissed from the online version of the paper. We are only left with a general Chronicle editorial so the writer could be protected from being divulged. Only Stephanie Hadley, in the online version of the Houston Chronicle, ran a bylined piece dealing with Weary’s dismissed charges. Here’s Hadley’s explanation for why the charges were dropped:

During the hearing, apparently the judge heard that the reason given for arresting Weary for resisting arrest is that he flinched when the handcuffs were being put on.

This is different than the HPD spokesman’s description of the events. The earlier Chronicle article said:

When one officer tried to place Weary in custody by placing one wrist behind the other, Weary “pushed the officer’s hands away,” [HPD spokesman] said.

As I mentioned in my earlier discussion of this situation:

There is case law that says that to demonstrate resisting arrest, there has to be an actual physical resistance to the arrest. So, pushing an officers arms away could be evidence of resistance, but flinching your arms away would not. (Kinda subtle, huh? Hey, I don’t make these rules, I am just telling you about them.)

I wrote that because there were differing versions of events that had been floating out there after the arrest, some saying he flinched and the other saying he pushed the officer.

So as I understood what happened, the judge heard the prosecution’s rendition of what happened, read case law presented to her on this subject, questioned the police officers, and then determined that on the basis of HPD’s version of events, the legal elements of the offense resisting arrest were absent. This means, the police did not have probable cause to arrest Weary for resisting arrest. Charges dismissed….

This is not a dismissal on a “sneaky legal technicality” or the like. HPD should never have arrested Weary in the first place for the resisting arrest charge.

So, the HPD’s lies caught up with them. But having the case dismissed due to conflicting police reports and the fact that there was no evidence of Weary having resisted arrest is apparently not good enough for the prosecutor’s office. According to Hadley:

…the prosecutors are still investigating to determine if Weary needs to be rearrested on other charges.

Though I doubt Weary will be rearrested, the failure for the case prosecutors to surrender or even capitulate in public is stunning. What is equally stunning is that only an AP article on SI.com exists to tell the general sporting the public that Fred Weary’s case was dismissed; no mentions on Fox Sports, no mentions on ESPN.com. No mentions on ESPN News, on Sportscenter, NFL Live, or Cold Pizza.

The largest sports media outlet so quick to use its cast members to vilify Fred Weary made nary a peep when they were found to be in error in their assessment of Weary and the case against him. As a result, I gather few people who avidly follow the NFL or sports in general know of these developments. And where is Scoop Jackson, Jemele Hill. or Steven A. Smith now? Where are these prominent black figures, these cast members at Disney Entertainment and Sports Programming Network who swear on their blackness? Hell, where is anyone from ESPN?

It’s a whiteout if I’ve ever seen one.

postscript: Dale Davis of the Detroit Pistons was acquitted of all charges stemming from a dispute at a Miami hotel. Davis, like Fred Weary ended up on the wrong side of a policeman’s taser. Unless someone else out there tackles this event and let’s me know about their efforts, I’ll try to get to it in the next 24 hours.

addendum: in the haze of my “Weariness”, I forgot this excellent post at Detroit Bad Boys detailing Davis’ acquittal.

Fred Weary: a Dismissed “Driving While Black” Court Case Equals a Media Whiteout

After practice on November 14, 2006, Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary was tasered by Houston police officer after, as reported by Armando Villafranca of the Houston Chronicle:

Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary is facing a possible charge of resisting arrest after Houston police said he refused to comply with orders during a traffic stop this afternoon, eventually using a Taser on him.

Weary was not injured in the Taser incident, said HPD spokesman John Cannon. Weary was then taken to city jail.

Cannon said police became suspicious of Weary while patrolling the South Main and South Loop area about 1 p.m., where they saw him in a Chevrolet Impala SS. Cannon said Weary “exhibited suspicious behavior” and kept “looking at officers on several occasions.” Police decided to follow the vehicle.

A separate article on DESPN.com (Disney Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) gave a slightly different version of the story:

According to the police report, the incident began when officers noticed a Chevy Impala SS driving in an area near Reliant Stadium where police are on alert due to criminal activity. They noticed the driver “looking very suspicious” as he looked back and forth at the police several times. Weary was pulled over after police followed the car and noticed that it did not have a front license plate.

And there is yet a third variant in this Villafranca piece written the following day:

Weary, 29, was southbound on the West Loop near the Southwest Freeway when he was stopped by a two-officer unit at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

Police, who had stopped Weary after he made an improper lane change, then noticed the front license plate was missing from his Chevrolet Impala SS.

John Cannon, HPD spokesman, said Weary had drawn the officers’ attention after acting suspiciously and “looking at (them) on several occasions.” (bold added).

At the time I wrote:

Just what is “acting suspiciously?” And when did it become grounds to be surveilled because you look at policemen? So, what came first, the “improper lane change,” or policemen driving either behind Weary, obviously checking out him and his vehicle?

The second article snippet begs the question, just how is the following possible?

Weary was pulled over after police followed the car and noticed that it did not have a front license plate.

This means police were behind Weary’s Impala yet somehow saw the front of his vehicle and saw that there was no front license plate. The HPD’s version of Weary’s being tasered stunk like ludefisk at a Minnesota state fair.

What equally smelled was the failure of DESPN to mention Weary’s arrest and tasering on DESPN News, Sportscenter, NFL Live, or Cold Pizza until two full days after the event. Perhaps the media whiteout had something to do with this blogpost in the Chronicle by Stephanie Hadley, a practicing attorney and wife of a former Harris County (Texas) assistant district attorney:

In Fred Weary’s case, he was driving an Impala near where he works, Reliant Stadium. He was deemed suspicious according to the police report because he was in a high crime area near Reliant Stadium, and he looked suspicious for looking at the police repeatedly.

Huh? If repeatedly looking at a police car makes you the object of suspicion, then I am guessing all of us are suspects. The police reportedly followed him from the Reliant area to a parking lot at 610 and Fournace. They pulled him over for an improper lane change. This is approximately 6 mile distance for those not familiar with Houston.

Personally, if a police car had followed me for 4-6 miles and then pulled me over, they would not hear any combativeness from me. Instead, I would be profusely apologizing for soiling my drawers. I don’t engage in illegal stuff, but geez, you get followed that long by the police, you have to feel a little wigged out.

I know a lot of people don’t want to turn things into racial stuff. And I am more hesitant than most. Just on its face, it sure looks like Weary became an object of suspicion because he was driving while black. Even if the arresting officers didn’t consciously think about race.

Do you think that police would follow Texans owner Bob McNair from Reliant to 610-Southwest Freeway in the middle of the afternoon?”

However, by November 16, the Disney cast members at its entertainment and sports programming network felt comfortable enough with the situation to deride Weary and his teammates who supported him. Skip Bayless said of course Weary’s team was going to support him, after all that’s what jocks do. He likened the support for Weary to the “thin blue line,” a phrase used by the police that means a thin blue line of police is all that separates law and order from chaos and anarchy. In this case, the line was formed by the players to protect the Houston organization from the media. Bayless and Mark Schlereth later in the afternoon of the 16th also evoked another phrase for Weary’s teammate’s alleged refusal to provide dirt on the offensive lineman known in the Texans organization and throughout Houston as a “good guy.” The phrase was, “the “wall of silence.”

Both Bayless and Schlereth, by their statements, implied that Weary was guilty as the police portrayed him. They implied that there was dirt in Weary’s past and his teammates were following the jock code by refusing to say anything negative about their “fallen” – in this case, from grace – team member.

For a week from the time of Weary’s arrest the general public, particularly in Texas was ready and willing to vilify Weary. The HPD were defended zealously and Weary was attacked for being yet another jock attempting to “get over” at the expense of fans. But a funny thing happened on the way to the media lynching of Fred Weary.

On November 20, the charges against him were dropped. Oddly, the Houston Chronicle Online edition ran no “Fred Weary charges dropped” headlined articles. Instead the Chronicle Online ran an editorial headlined, “Shock Prone: Incidents here and in California raise questions about whether police are too quick to discharge Tasers.” The editorial was published Friday, November 24, 2006. However, Weary’s charges were dropped on November 21.

For whatever reason the Chronicle removed Villafranca’s article about the Weary’s charges being dismissed from the online version of the paper. We are only left with a general Chronicle editorial so the writer could be protected from being divulged. Only Stephanie Hadley, in the online version of the Houston Chronicle, ran a bylined piece dealing with Weary’s dismissed charges. Here’s Hadley’s explanation for why the charges were dropped:

During the hearing, apparently the judge heard that the reason given for arresting Weary for resisting arrest is that he flinched when the handcuffs were being put on.

This is different than the HPD spokesman’s description of the events. The earlier Chronicle article said:

When one officer tried to place Weary in custody by placing one wrist behind the other, Weary “pushed the officer’s hands away,” [HPD spokesman] said.

As I mentioned in my earlier discussion of this situation:

There is case law that says that to demonstrate resisting arrest, there has to be an actual physical resistance to the arrest. So, pushing an officers arms away could be evidence of resistance, but flinching your arms away would not. (Kinda subtle, huh? Hey, I don’t make these rules, I am just telling you about them.)

I wrote that because there were differing versions of events that had been floating out there after the arrest, some saying he flinched and the other saying he pushed the officer.

So as I understood what happened, the judge heard the prosecution’s rendition of what happened, read case law presented to her on this subject, questioned the police officers, and then determined that on the basis of HPD’s version of events, the legal elements of the offense resisting arrest were absent. This means, the police did not have probable cause to arrest Weary for resisting arrest. Charges dismissed….

This is not a dismissal on a “sneaky legal technicality” or the like. HPD should never have arrested Weary in the first place for the resisting arrest charge.

So, the HPD’s lies caught up with them. But having the case dismissed due to conflicting police reports and the fact that there was no evidence of Weary having resisted arrest is apparently not good enough for the prosecutor’s office. According to Hadley:

…the prosecutors are still investigating to determine if Weary needs to be rearrested on other charges.

Though I doubt Weary will be rearrested, the failure for the case prosecutors to surrender or even capitulate in public is stunning. What is equally stunning is that only an AP article on SI.com exists to tell the general sporting the public that Fred Weary’s case was dismissed; no mentions on Fox Sports, no mentions on ESPN.com. No mentions on ESPN News, on Sportscenter, NFL Live, or Cold Pizza.

The largest sports media outlet so quick to use its cast members to vilify Fred Weary made nary a peep when they were found to be in error in their assessment of Weary and the case against him. As a result, I gather few people who avidly follow the NFL or sports in general know of these developments. And where is Scoop Jackson, Jemele Hill. or Steven A. Smith now? Where are these prominent black figures, these cast members at Disney Entertainment and Sports Programming Network who swear on their blackness? Hell, where is anyone from ESPN?

It’s a whiteout if I’ve ever seen one.

postscript: Dale Davis of the Detroit Pistons was acquitted of all charges stemming from a dispute at a Miami hotel. Davis, like Fred Weary ended up on the wrong side of a policeman’s taser. Unless someone else out there tackles this event and let’s me know about their efforts, I’ll try to get to it in the next 24 hours.

addendum: in the haze of my “Weariness”, I forgot this excellent post at Detroit Bad Boys detailing Davis’ acquittal.

Tommy Boy Leaves BC; Bernie at the U? No Way; Will Brady Quinn Pull A Hammy?

* According to Associated Press reports, Tom O’Brien is moving. The lucky Irishman is leaving “Up South” at Boston College and heading down south to coach N.C. State’s football team. It’s ironic that O’Brien is remaining in the ACC and will coach regularly against his former team. O’Brien, a revered figure on B.C.’s campus, is known around the country as the Irish Mack Brown (until Mack entered the Vince Young era, that is), always able to steal a win from his program. The initial reaction by the Boston press to the pending announcement of O’Brien’s hiring by the Wolfpack has already been laudatory, but muted as witnessed by this excerpt from a Boston Globe article by Mark Blaudschun:

There is also some feeling within BC circles that the coach has done what he can at the school and it is time for O’Brien — who rebuilt the program and repaired its reputation after two tumultuous and losing seasons under Dan Henning, to move on to a new challenge, and time for BC to give its football program a fresh face.

What? I’d wager that there will be no O’Briens in effigy around the B.C. campus as a reaction to, what would be seen at any other university as a mutinous defection. You see students at the old college Up South will tell you that they’re too busy with constructing unwarranted effigies of Eagles basketball coach, Al Skinner, to be concerned with their “Paddy O'” jetting from town.

* There’s no way in Hades that Bernie Kosar is getting the Miami, Fl. job. Bernie loves being Bernie too much to tarnish his national image as “unathletic folk-hero done good.”

* Notre Dame’s resident Subway sandwich test subject Charlie Weis says he’s prepping his team to deal with LSU’s speed. To accomplish that all Weis needs to do is videotape a Notre Dame practice and show the team the video at 1 1/2 times faster the actual practice speed – which, come to think of it, is how USC must have appeared to Notre Dame, too.

A note to Weis and potential Irish recruits: Jimmy Clausen deciding to attend Notre Dame is not a win for the Irish over USC. Clausen’s not stupid. Only a fool would want to back up Mark Sanchez – you know the guy, most coveted high school QB in recent memory, 6’4″ 225, rocket laser arm – for three years after John David Booty leaves the Trojans.

* I wonder if Brady Quinn is going to conveniently “pull a hammy” so he doesn’t have to attend the Heisman Trophy presentation to Ohio State’s Troy Smith.