Were the cops who detained Will and Carlton racist?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
robert-macc — 9 years ago(July 22, 2016 09:29 PM)
I don't think they were racist. They were just arrogant and corrupt.
Or it was a mistake, but racism was hardly the reason for it.
I think Will blew it out of proportion though Carlton was naive to cops being good. -
stevenackerman69 — 9 years ago(July 29, 2016 06:23 AM)
Well, they had a racist side to them. Maybe they were more prejudiced because they saw two blacks driving a car that they thought they shouldn't be driving. The thing is that Carlton sort of made it worse with his dumb answers.
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stevenackerman69 — 9 years ago(August 06, 2016 09:43 AM)
Exactly. The thing was they shouldn't have been stopped at all. Of course, Carlton saying to the cops this wasn't his car wasn't very smart either, because it planted in their minds the idea that they stole the car.
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ElChompiras — 9 years ago(August 14, 2016 09:49 PM)
Of course, Carlton saying to the cops this wasn't his car wasn't very smart either, because it planted in their minds the idea that they stole the car.
Then what to say? The cars was not theirs in the first place. -
Lisaluv1 — 9 years ago(August 07, 2016 07:33 PM)
I believe the main cop gave off that theory only near the end when the parents came. He was offset to Phil and Viv but once Mr Furth stepped in his attitude was changed. As if he would give more respect to a white person vs that of anyone else.
Also wanted to comment how Phil argued that the cops allowed minors to confess to a crime w/out parents around. Perhaps during this season of the show they were over 18. But looking back at scene ~ they did give them chance to make phone calls which would have been (in normal situation) to either a guardian and/or lawyer. -
mikeyg24 — 9 years ago(September 16, 2016 08:33 PM)
I believe the main cop gave off that theory only near the end when the parents came. He was offset to Phil and Viv but once Mr Furth stepped in
A decent point but could one argue he was being polite to someone whose car he believed to have been stolen and recovered?
We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow
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Movie_Buff_2 — 9 years ago(December 19, 2016 01:31 PM)
When I first watched this, back in the 90's (right around political correctness age), I used to think the cops were racist, and it was (if you pardon the bad pun) black-and-white. But now, if I remember correctly, weren't they only going like 2-3 miles an hour? On a major road? If I were a cop, I might suspect something as well. At the very least, I would pull them over to see what they were doing, and this is regardless of skin color.
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willkins-jason — 9 years ago(November 11, 2016 12:03 AM)
There was implied racism without a doubt. Will didn't overreact at all. Growing up in Philadelphia, he probably saw things like that all the time and knew the games cops played when it came to stopping black people. Carlton was sheltered and a firm believer in the system, and he couldn't come to terms with the fact that on that night, the system failed. It happened to Uncle Phil too.
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furienna — 9 years ago(November 12, 2016 12:45 PM)
I find it weird that some people seem to believe that those cops
weren't
racist. It is pretty obvious that if two white teenagers had been driving that car at the time and the same place, they would never have arrested them like that. One of them was also very rude to Uncle Phil, until he understood that he was a lawyer.
Intelligence and purity. -
pypsqweek — 9 years ago(December 19, 2016 08:07 PM)
Carlton's question was left up to the viewer to draw their own conclusion at a time when several prominent athletes and famous people were being pulled over for no reason by police. In some cases, the cops made them feel like they were pulled over based on their race or the fact that they were black and drove a nice cars in a neighborhood which made the cops suspicious about them. One in which cops would deny. Thus, this would prompt people to decide if they would pull over a car and why. It seems to me that if you saw two people driving around, you're more inclined to pull them over if they were doing something suspicious, like speeding or driving funny and not doing absolutely nothing.