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Listen, I don't care whether or not you "believe" that my family got together and burned a painting of NBF, or that we are adamantly opposed to any form of racism - your beliefs don't alter reality one iota. By the way, if you google images of NBF, you can see that the burning image is of him. Just for the record.
I'm not "hell bent on trying to discredit this guy" - his public social media feed is out there for anyone to peruse - have you looked at it?
Speaking of past experiences, this guy does a lot of traveling, to what seems to be a lot of very high end locales, restaurants, hotels, etc. His posted experiences don't give any sort of impression of leading a downtrodden life rife with racist incidents. He seems to be living a very adventurous, prosperous life. But you're right - who knows when it comes to social media? Every bit of it can be faked or doctored.
Too...me...and my opinion does not really matter in the big scheme of things, you spend way too much time talking about how inter-racial your family is. It’s like you are overcompensating for something. I don't spend time talking about how "black" my family is. Even if your family has no racial diversity whatsoever....that does not mean you are racist and because it has diversity is not proof that you are not.
Why would I investigate this persons social media accounts? Does the security guard have a social media account...what about the Hotel Manager? Did you attempt to investigate them with as much vigor as you attempted to investigate the black guy?
Last edited by Indentured Servant; 12-30-2018 at 09:41 AM..
I have mixed feelings about this story. I don't think Massey handled the situation the best after he was initially approached. It seems like pride took over and he was so angry about potentially being racially profiled that he didn't want to cooperate, which could have easily ended the misunderstanding. In many of these incidents with blacks, particularly police officers, pride from being potentially racially profiled takes over, and they refuse to give basic information like ID, address, room number (in this case), etc., and what could have been a minor inconvenience ends up being a huge situation (sometimes deadly when police are involved).
However, as a white person, I don't fully understand the humiliation and impact that these situations have on blacks, and it may be a natural reaction for when they think they are wronged.
I digress; in this incident, although I don't think Massey handled it well, at the point he showed his key, the situation should have been over. The manager should have also spoken to him first before calling the cops. They are in the hospitality/customer service industry, so they should have given the customer the benefit of the doubt, and certainly not kicked him out after it was verified he was a guest. I think they were upset with how difficult he was and just decided to further humiliate him, and kick him out.
Seeing the vibe the guy gave off, it most likely did. I've lived in both Baltimore and New Orleans, I've been exposed to plenty of people like this. This guy has a very ghetto vibe from the video, just saying.
I grew up in NYC, and with that, you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s speculation on your part, nothing more.
I have mixed feelings about this story. I don't think Massey handled the situation the best after he was initially approached. It seems like pride took over and he was so angry about potentially being racially profiled that he didn't want to cooperate, which could have easily ended the misunderstanding. In many of these incidents with blacks, particularly police officers, pride from being potentially racially profiled takes over, and they refuse to give basic information like ID, address, room number (in this case), etc., and what could have been a minor inconvenience ends up being a huge situation (sometimes deadly when police are involved).
However, as a white person, I don't fully understand the humiliation and impact that these situations have on blacks, and it may be a natural reaction for when they think they are wronged.
I digress; in this incident, although I don't think Massey handled it well, at the point he showed his key, the situation should have been over. The manager should have also spoken to him first before calling the cops. They are in the hospitality/customer service industry, so they should have given the customer the benefit of the doubt, and certainly not kicked him out after it was verified he was a guest. I think they were upset with how difficult he was and just decided to further humiliate him, and kick him out.
Sure Massey was initially insulted he was approached for sitting in the lobby of a hotel he was a paying guest. I can't imagine being made to feel like you aren't suppose to be somewhere on a regular basis. It isn't right that the initial approach was that he wasn't suppose to be there.
How many of us have ever been approached wandering around our hotels? Very few........I never have. Being a blonde hair woman -- pffft....I could be robbing the little canteen and the first reaction would not be to assume I'm stealing. It's sad but true.
Having said that -- once Massey confirmed he was a guest, the security guard should have apologized, and given up.
Seeing the vibe the guy gave off, it most likely did. I've lived in both Baltimore and New Orleans, I've been exposed to plenty of people like this. This guy has a very ghetto vibe from the video, just saying.
Ghetto vibe because he's insulted that he's assumed to be loitering.
Once the officer arrived and it was determined he was a paying guest, the matter should have been dismissed.
The security guard was caught being racist and his ego was hurt so he made the officer kick the guy out.
I've been in a million hotel lobbies - -with no key -- loitering -- and not one person has approached me.
This security guard most definitely approached this guy based on profiling. He deserved to lose his job,
The officer should be reprimanded as well for actions that clearly indicated he did not resolve the problem fairly.
Quote:
A police report describes Massey as very angry and loud. Once they arrived, the police officers told Massey to go ahead and check out of the hotel because the dispute escalated.
An officer told Massey outside the hotel that he had no way of knowing if the incident was fueled by racism, but that Massey should follow up with his complaints with hotel management so he wouldn’t have to be arrested for trespassing.
Massey then declined a ride to another hotel and took a Lyft to the Sheraton near the airport, according to the videos.
“It just goes to show you that racism is still alive and well man,” Massey said from his room at the Sheraton that night. “This was a real incident where I could’ve gone to jail if I responded in a different way.”
As has been pointed out, personal anecdotes can't be proven and really don't mean anything but since they're being thrown out there, I'll just add that as a white woman, I HAVE been approached by hotel staff and asked if I was a guest before. I didn't think anything of it - just said yes and gave them my name and that was that. I figured they have a job to do and I was grateful they were doing it.
One more note - about profiling. Yep, law enforcement does it. Security does it. Anyone who says otherwise is lying, or at least VERY naive. If you don't believe me, just try behaving inappropriately the next time you're in line at the airport.
As has been stated (with links) repeatedly on this (at this point ridiculous) thread, this guy was very casually dressed, had his feet up on the sofa, was on the phone, didn't offer any evidence (till the manager had been called) that he was a guest, only said that he was and he didn't remember his room number, became irritable and snapped at the security guard (not too smart there, bud - I've learned it's best to be polite to and cooperative with anyone wearing a uniform), it was late at night, and the hotel has a problem with vagrancy in the hotel lobby, which is why they hired a security guard.
Is Earl a racist? Maybe he is. Maybe he deserved to be fired, after an internal investigation was done. I hope he DID deserve to be fired because if he didn't, that's really a travesty of justice. But with the facts that I've been able to find, I don't know whether or not his actions were racist.
Sure Massey was initially insulted he was approached for sitting in the lobby of a hotel he was a paying guest. I can't imagine being made to feel like you aren't suppose to be somewhere on a regular basis. It isn't right that the initial approach was that he wasn't suppose to be there.
How many of us have ever been approached wandering around our hotels? Very few........I never have. Being a blonde hair woman -- pffft....I could be robbing the little canteen and the first reaction would not be to assume I'm stealing. It's sad but true.
Having said that -- once Massey confirmed he was a guest, the security guard should have apologized, and given up.
This here white lady HAS been asked by hotel staff before if I was a guest. I don't know what would have happened if I'd robbed the canteen! LOL
I agree that once Massey showed the staff his key, that should have been enough proof that he was a paying guest. However, he didn't initially show Earl his key. Nor did he give Earl his name to verify. All he said before Earl called the manager was that he was a guest and that he didn't remember his room number - and he also expressed "irritation" (not sure how he expressed it) with his phone call being interrupted.
By the time he did show anyone his room key, he began filming and the situation had deteriorated. I do think that the manager, who was also fired, should have been able to defuse this situation. But we really don't know how heated it got prior to Massey starting to film it. We don't know who said what and no one is talking specifically about that time period. Not the hotel staff, not the police, and not Massey.
I have mixed feelings about this story. I don't think Massey handled the situation the best after he was initially approached. It seems like pride took over and he was so angry about potentially being racially profiled that he didn't want to cooperate, which could have easily ended the misunderstanding. In many of these incidents with blacks, particularly police officers, pride from being potentially racially profiled takes over, and they refuse to give basic information like ID, address, room number (in this case), etc., and what could have been a minor inconvenience ends up being a huge situation (sometimes deadly when police are involved).
However, as a white person, I don't fully understand the humiliation and impact that these situations have on blacks, and it may be a natural reaction for when they think they are wronged.
I digress; in this incident, although I don't think Massey handled it well, at the point he showed his key, the situation should have been over. The manager should have also spoken to him first before calling the cops. They are in the hospitality/customer service industry, so they should have given the customer the benefit of the doubt, and certainly not kicked him out after it was verified he was a guest. I think they were upset with how difficult he was and just decided to further humiliate him, and kick him out.
I agree with a lot of this post. That being said, as has been pointed out via links earlier, Massey apparently didn't show anyone his key till the manager was called over. That's pretty important information. He also apparently didn't give his name - thus giving no evidence that he was indeed actually a guest. This hotel has a vagrancy problem and this is why they hired a security guard in the first place.
By the time the incident became so heated - the police report clearly states that by the time they got there Massey was very loud and angry - and apparently it was the police who asked Massey to check out (according to the police report).
But I agree that part of the hotel manager's job is to be diplomatic and to try to defuse this sort of scenario. Maybe he could have done a better job with that. Maybe he deserves to be fired. I don't know - I'll trust the Doubletree in that regard. It will be interesting to see if either Earl or the manager are rehired after the full internal investigation - though not so interesting to me that I intend to try to follow this story. It's a flash in the pan. Massey will nearly certainly settle out of court for some large sum from Doubletree, his attorneys will get a big cut and their fifteen minutes of fame and maybe some business in the future, and we'll all forget about this story in a few days.
The police report saying he was loud.......meh -- really -- you are going to just assume the police didn't change their report once they realized the ridiculous nature of their actions.
Even if he was loud and rude......so what.
It happens in dealing with customers.
The officer, security guard and manager should have apologized and just let the man go.
No matter how loud Massey was before he showed his key -- it was all over then and the security guard needs to move away.
Also --- Massey clearly says -- you have cameras -- look at them. Not sure he would encourage that kind of action if he felt he was out of line.
The police report saying he was loud.......meh -- really -- you are going to just assume the police didn't change their report once they realized the ridiculous nature of their actions.
Even if he was loud and rude......so what.
It happens in dealing with customers.
The officer, security guard and manager should have apologized and just let the man go.
No matter how loud Massey was before he showed his key -- it was all over then and the security guard needs to move away.
Also --- Massey clearly says -- you have cameras -- look at them. Not sure he would encourage that kind of action if he felt he was out of line.
Yes, I will believe the official police report over a snippet of video and some social media posts by Massey.
No, I don't think that it's likely that the police went back and lied in their report, which is against the law.
As a frequent hotel guest, I don't want anything like that happening in the lobby of the hotel I'm staying at. Not any of it - not from guests, not from security guards, not from the manager - none of it.
And yes, I've stated repeatedly that I thought, based on the very limited information we have, that the manager should have defused this situation. That being said, I don't know - and neither do you, since no one including Massey is telling us - what was said before Massey started filming. This is pertinent missing information. There's a lot of missing information.
Oh well, the manager and the security guard are fired. Maybe they deserved it, maybe they mishandled the situation. It's not like Doubletree can fire Massey, and it's highly unlikely that he'll ever stay at a Doubletree again. He'll just take the settlement they give him, and his attorneys will take their share.
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