One other way to look at this narrative is "Facebook provides bicycles as an employee benefit. They are to be used only by employees. When someone took them off campus, Facebook assumed theft and notified the local police. When they discovered that the person was in fact a Facebook employee and entitled to the use of the bicycle, they dropped the charges."
You can still argue about the legitimacy of private corporate-owned property as an employee benefit at all, along with the potential racial profiling that led people to assume that a Hispanic man was not a Facebook employee. But I'm not sure that their actions would've been all that different if it had been a white brogrammer that took the bike home - they'd probably call the police, the police would investigate, and if it was found to be an employee, the charges would be dropped.
As a white dude who has had many experiences with cops, I can tell you that if a police officer asked me if I stole Facebook bike I was riding, and I replied, "no, I'm an employee," they might ask for some kind of evidence before letting me move on with my life.
I've seen how different my friends of color are treated by cops everywhere in the US, and pretending that's not a thing is either ignorant or disingenuous.
Another data point related, from another white dude that has had many experiences.
Color may indeed be a factor in some situations, however I have found that, to be an issue, that is heavily dependent on location, time of day, and when combined with other factors such as clothing, tattoos, and many other signals.
You or I might or not get asked for proof of fbook employment with color being a factor in that, sure - however I do believe that other factors would weigh on that choice even more. Compare two made up people - one with a pocket protector, a patagonia vest, some khakis, dress shoes.. another has sagging jeans, tattoos, a snoop dogg tshirt (or willie nelson for that matter), whatever... with attributes like those, I would bet that the other factors would have more to do with the choice to verify than just color.
This is not to say that there are not bad cops in the world who only go by things that they should not - and I certainly strongly believe we need more different training, and checkups with our law enforcers in this country (and the world) 100% -
I can say that many other factors are at play when most cops try to summarize things - time of day and location, along with other signifiers are something that usually play more of a role in decisions.
These things are not always good indicators of good guy / bad guy - its just something that plays out to be helpful in more situations than not.
I also do not agree with the 'everywhere in the US' statement - things are very different in my neck of the woods when you drive only 30 minutes - and they change immensely when you drive another 30. One could experience all kinds of different treatment based on things like color, type of car, type of clothing, choice in music, ways of speaking, all sorts of things, and that treatment could change every 30 minutes all day long, and you wouldn't even cover but a small percentage of this country.
So your 7-paragraph argument is to say, "The issue is not as black and white as purely color and is more nuanced depending on many other factors" ?
I mean, duh. The argument is that color is a large percentage of the end result, and that doesn't change just "because there are many other contributing factors you didn't mention".
2 - I did not think it was an argument - just putting some considerations out there. I don't know you and your experiences, it appears to that me pointing out some things was more intended for other audiences though. Would be great if everyone knew 'duh... ...there are many other contributing factors' -
sadly though, I find more and more people influenced by their LED screens to determine the reality of America out there. Whether it's people from other countries reading this thread or other 'news' - or school kids that have not traveled this large diverse country - even people I have engaged with living in the cities - there are things spouted out, and believed, that are not a 'large percentage' - yet it's touted as being true.
I believe you, I, and others in much of the USA are more likely to be viewed with suspicion, followed, harassed or whatever based upon socio-economic 'signals' - than color, or even voice accent.
Yes, there are 'many other contributing factors you didn't mention' - I am glad you realize that, I am hoping that other people who read similar things are also presented this information - those who already know seem to understand it - yet they often fail to mention it when sharing with others that may not know the full scope of how things really are.
It may not change the end result for you and me, but it certainly can change other people's perception who don't have the same understanding as you seem to have, which could be many other people being influenced / affected by such public statements.
I'm not sure what colour your "friends of colour" are, but if we assume black, I'm sure a properly dressed black person (which is what I'd expect from a Facebook employee) won't receive as much scrutiny as one that wears baggy pants.
You can still argue about the legitimacy of private corporate-owned property as an employee benefit at all, along with the potential racial profiling that led people to assume that a Hispanic man was not a Facebook employee. But I'm not sure that their actions would've been all that different if it had been a white brogrammer that took the bike home - they'd probably call the police, the police would investigate, and if it was found to be an employee, the charges would be dropped.