My roommate Ian walked out our front door into South Central. He was an Americorps volunteer, wearing a t-shirt and jeans and carrying nothing.
The police car pulled up as he was walking across our front lawn. "Get on the ground!"
Ian looked at the officer incredulously and started to get down. He questioned what was going on since he hadn't done anything.
"We saw you throw something on the ground. Get down!"
Ian laid down on the ground on his stomach. The police came over, handcuffed him, and searched him. "What did you throw down?"
Ian replied, "I didn't throw anything down. I didn't have anything in my hand at all."
After failing to find anything, the police questioned what he was doing in the area, then uncuffed and released him.
Ian wasn't carrying anything, wasn't doing anything suspicious, was walking on his own front lawn. Do police ever handcuff you when you're just walking in your front yard? I have little doubt that the police harassed Ian because he was White, and he was a neighborhood where they didn't expect to see White people.
Two years earlier, I had walked out of my home in Inglewood to drive to the store. As I left my house I saw a police car approaching. My immediate thought was, "Great, now they're probably going to hassle me." I buckled my seatbelt before starting the car, pulled out carefully, followed the traffic laws to a T. It didn't matter. One block away the cop car turned its lights on and pulled me over.
I tried to speak to the officer when he came up to my door, but didn't get the chance. Before I could say anything, he yelled at me, "Get out of the car."
I opened the door to get out, and once the door opened he reached in and pulled me out by the arm. He put me up against the side of the car and searched me. The other officer who was with him asked if he could search the car, and I let him, since I obviously had nothing there.
"Where are you from?" the officer who had searched me asked.
"You saw me," I told him. "That apartment I just walked out of."
"No, where are you from," he demanded.
"That is my home, that's where I live," I replied defiantly, with emphasis.
"What do you do?" the officer asked with more hesitation.
"I'm a school teacher. I teach at a school right here," I threw in his face.
"You fit the description of someone we were looking for," the officers claimed as they let me go.
"Yeah, right, I'm sure you're getting all sorts of calls about nicely dressed 6'1" young White men in the heart of Inglewood today," I thought as I continued on to my destination. Once again, I'm certain that I was stopped not because of any actual evidence of wrongdoing, but because the color of my skin didn't fit who they thought should be around that neighborhood.
Those aren't the only stories like that. In another neighborhood in inner LA I was stopped twice while walking on the sidewalk, told to hold my arms above my head and spread my legs out, and searched right there on the street. The policeman was almost shocked when I told him I was an Inglewood resident. "Really?" I still remember him asking incredulously. "Really?" he repeated.
Racial profiling is illegal. It violates the Constitution's guarantees of equal protection under the law. It violates the Constitution's protection against unreasonable search and seizure. It pisses people off. It alienates entire communities from the police. And yet it keeps happening all the time.
Now, when I tell stories of White people getting profiled in Black neighborhoods, the story sounds a little funny. It isn't the biggest inconvenience in the world. But that's because I, as a White man, am only racially profiled when I'm in Black neighborhoods, a place White people rarely tread. Black people, on the other hand, are racially profiled in their own Black neighborhoods AND in White neighborhoods, in middle-class suburbs and wealthy business districts, on the roads, on the sidewalks, and in front of their own schools. That's their experience nearly everywhere they go.
It's the experience of Los Angeles film producer Charles Belk, arrested in Beverly Hills and detained by police for 6 hours because he "matched the description" of a robbery, despite having an obvious alibi and not looking anything like the actual robber, whose face was recorded on video. New York City college student Trayvon Christian, detained by police because he had bought a belt at Barney's. Aspiring music video producer Joshua Rivers, who had $16,000 stolen from him by DEA agents and his dreams ruined because he "fit the profile" of a drug trafficker. Yale college student Charles Blow, held up at gunpoint because he "fit the description" of a suspect. Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., reported to police by neighbors for getting into his own home and then arrested inside for supposedly "disturbing the peace" when questioning the officer. Retired Major League Baseball player Doug Blanville, told by an officer to explain his presence in his own driveway in Hartford. Current NBA player Thabo Sefolosha, who was followed by police, knocked to the ground, and had his leg broken when he was on the sidewalk after police officers responded to an unrelated stabbing at a club. New Guinean immigrant Amadou Dillo, shot 41 times by police after an unexplained stop because police thought his wallet was a gun. Former Hall of Fame Laker and businessman Jamaal Wilkes, stopped and handcuffed by police while driving his Trans Am because his license tag was "about to expire". University of Wisconsin law professor Calvin Warren, stopped and questioned by campus police because he had a goatee. And on and on and on, hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of people across America.
It's the experience of the Black people of Ferguson and the Black and Latino people of New York City and the Black people in Iowa and minorities in possibly every state in America.
And we wonder why Black people in many communities don't trust the police. We wonder why, when seeing the universal issues of excessive force and constitutional violations and other problems that I've detailed in previous entries, the pain seems to fall primarily on people of color.
I want to tell one more story that is very personal for me. One day I was sitting at the kitchen table with an intimate family member, whose husband had been a career officer and the chief of police for a small California town. The conversation turned to her late husband, and for some reason she started talking about the negative relationship he had had with a Black resident in the town. "That guy Leroy was always causing trouble, always accusing us of racism. But we weren't racist towards Black people. We were racist towards Mexicans though. They were dirty, always hanging around not doing any work."
I listened stunned, stunned that he had been a racist police chief and stunned that she had admitted it. I wonder how many other times these conversations happen at family dinner tables around America, how many other times the secrets heard are kept in silence, how many people have suffered due to the racial suspicions of those who operate with the force of law.
I wonder how much longer it will go on, and what it will take to change.
The police car pulled up as he was walking across our front lawn. "Get on the ground!"
Ian looked at the officer incredulously and started to get down. He questioned what was going on since he hadn't done anything.
"We saw you throw something on the ground. Get down!"
Ian laid down on the ground on his stomach. The police came over, handcuffed him, and searched him. "What did you throw down?"
Ian replied, "I didn't throw anything down. I didn't have anything in my hand at all."
After failing to find anything, the police questioned what he was doing in the area, then uncuffed and released him.
Ian wasn't carrying anything, wasn't doing anything suspicious, was walking on his own front lawn. Do police ever handcuff you when you're just walking in your front yard? I have little doubt that the police harassed Ian because he was White, and he was a neighborhood where they didn't expect to see White people.
Two years earlier, I had walked out of my home in Inglewood to drive to the store. As I left my house I saw a police car approaching. My immediate thought was, "Great, now they're probably going to hassle me." I buckled my seatbelt before starting the car, pulled out carefully, followed the traffic laws to a T. It didn't matter. One block away the cop car turned its lights on and pulled me over.
I tried to speak to the officer when he came up to my door, but didn't get the chance. Before I could say anything, he yelled at me, "Get out of the car."
I opened the door to get out, and once the door opened he reached in and pulled me out by the arm. He put me up against the side of the car and searched me. The other officer who was with him asked if he could search the car, and I let him, since I obviously had nothing there.
"Where are you from?" the officer who had searched me asked.
"You saw me," I told him. "That apartment I just walked out of."
"No, where are you from," he demanded.
"That is my home, that's where I live," I replied defiantly, with emphasis.
"What do you do?" the officer asked with more hesitation.
"I'm a school teacher. I teach at a school right here," I threw in his face.
"You fit the description of someone we were looking for," the officers claimed as they let me go.
"Yeah, right, I'm sure you're getting all sorts of calls about nicely dressed 6'1" young White men in the heart of Inglewood today," I thought as I continued on to my destination. Once again, I'm certain that I was stopped not because of any actual evidence of wrongdoing, but because the color of my skin didn't fit who they thought should be around that neighborhood.
Those aren't the only stories like that. In another neighborhood in inner LA I was stopped twice while walking on the sidewalk, told to hold my arms above my head and spread my legs out, and searched right there on the street. The policeman was almost shocked when I told him I was an Inglewood resident. "Really?" I still remember him asking incredulously. "Really?" he repeated.
Racial profiling is illegal. It violates the Constitution's guarantees of equal protection under the law. It violates the Constitution's protection against unreasonable search and seizure. It pisses people off. It alienates entire communities from the police. And yet it keeps happening all the time.
Now, when I tell stories of White people getting profiled in Black neighborhoods, the story sounds a little funny. It isn't the biggest inconvenience in the world. But that's because I, as a White man, am only racially profiled when I'm in Black neighborhoods, a place White people rarely tread. Black people, on the other hand, are racially profiled in their own Black neighborhoods AND in White neighborhoods, in middle-class suburbs and wealthy business districts, on the roads, on the sidewalks, and in front of their own schools. That's their experience nearly everywhere they go.
It's the experience of Los Angeles film producer Charles Belk, arrested in Beverly Hills and detained by police for 6 hours because he "matched the description" of a robbery, despite having an obvious alibi and not looking anything like the actual robber, whose face was recorded on video. New York City college student Trayvon Christian, detained by police because he had bought a belt at Barney's. Aspiring music video producer Joshua Rivers, who had $16,000 stolen from him by DEA agents and his dreams ruined because he "fit the profile" of a drug trafficker. Yale college student Charles Blow, held up at gunpoint because he "fit the description" of a suspect. Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., reported to police by neighbors for getting into his own home and then arrested inside for supposedly "disturbing the peace" when questioning the officer. Retired Major League Baseball player Doug Blanville, told by an officer to explain his presence in his own driveway in Hartford. Current NBA player Thabo Sefolosha, who was followed by police, knocked to the ground, and had his leg broken when he was on the sidewalk after police officers responded to an unrelated stabbing at a club. New Guinean immigrant Amadou Dillo, shot 41 times by police after an unexplained stop because police thought his wallet was a gun. Former Hall of Fame Laker and businessman Jamaal Wilkes, stopped and handcuffed by police while driving his Trans Am because his license tag was "about to expire". University of Wisconsin law professor Calvin Warren, stopped and questioned by campus police because he had a goatee. And on and on and on, hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of people across America.
It's the experience of the Black people of Ferguson and the Black and Latino people of New York City and the Black people in Iowa and minorities in possibly every state in America.
And we wonder why Black people in many communities don't trust the police. We wonder why, when seeing the universal issues of excessive force and constitutional violations and other problems that I've detailed in previous entries, the pain seems to fall primarily on people of color.
I want to tell one more story that is very personal for me. One day I was sitting at the kitchen table with an intimate family member, whose husband had been a career officer and the chief of police for a small California town. The conversation turned to her late husband, and for some reason she started talking about the negative relationship he had had with a Black resident in the town. "That guy Leroy was always causing trouble, always accusing us of racism. But we weren't racist towards Black people. We were racist towards Mexicans though. They were dirty, always hanging around not doing any work."
I listened stunned, stunned that he had been a racist police chief and stunned that she had admitted it. I wonder how many other times these conversations happen at family dinner tables around America, how many other times the secrets heard are kept in silence, how many people have suffered due to the racial suspicions of those who operate with the force of law.
I wonder how much longer it will go on, and what it will take to change.
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