As I write this, I'm thinking back to 10 years ago when I was snatched up by the police because I 'fit the description'. I was on 143rd and Convent Avenue hanging out with some friends. I must have been there for about 6 hours straight. I finally decided to go home.
I made my way downstairs and just as I opened the door to the street, two cop cars pulled up on the curb. The officers riding shotgun jumped out with weapons drawn. At this time in my life I was just getting used to getting patted down atleast once a week, but I never had guns pulled on me by cops.
So, I'm instructed to put my hands above my head and kneel on the ground. In seconds, I'm cuffed and frisked. By this time, my friends from upstairs came downstairs. They tried to ask the cops why I was being arrested but...you know how the police do..."This is none of your business", yadda, yadda, yadda.
I'm tossed up in the car and driven to the City College campus where something major must have taken place. I figured all this out by the ambulances. I'm pulled out of the car and taken to the back of one of the ambulances.
Inside the ambulance, I see a kid about my age (23) bleeding from his head and his chest. I find out he's been shot twice. The kid sits up and the cop says "Is this the guy who shot you?" This is the defining moment right here. What happens next determines whether I go to Central Booking or home.
WTF! The kid passes out. Somebody shake homie 'cause I didn't shoot him.
He passed out for about 2 minutes but it seemed like forever. He sits back up, and looks me dead in my face with a puzzled look. Finally, he says "It wasn't him." The cop asks him again. He says "It wasn't him" and passes out one more time. Whew! The cuffs are removed.
The cops give me a ride back to where they picked me up at. On the way back I asked them why they picked me. "You fit the description."
- Black male
- 18 - 36
- blue jeans
- brown leather jacket.
Who doesn't fit that description.
the stupid thing about cops snatching up dudes who "fit the description" is that it's not even good police work. I've gotten patted down too many times to remember, and they never found anything on on me.
However, when they sweep up random young Black men I'm sure they find some of them in the middle of doing something illegal. But they would find the same thing if they went after young White men! So the results they get give them a false sense of success, and helps to justify their racism.
You know what? I'm black and never "fit a description." but,
I was questioned by a police officer when i was younger because he seen me on my bike, so he assuemed maybe it was stolen. So he stopped me and asked me.
I was also pulled over once by the police because I was lost and I went down a dead end street, but the street didn't have a sign saying it was a dead end. Since he stopped me, he went ahead and ran my plates and the id's of everybody i had in the car, then he called the drug dogs in to search my car.
I think the problem with police is that we have too many. I don't have a problem with paying taxes, and tax raises for good police men and women, but good doesn't mean more, good means better trained and better equipped. Somebody in the legislature needs to learn that.
You know what? Im not black, but apparently still fit the description of people breaking into cars... just cos i was wearing a hoody.
I can't say I know what it's like to be racially profiled in the way you're describing, but it really makes me sick. I have a friend whose big bro is in a narcotics unit and I've heard stories from him how when he's on patrol he just goes into the black or hispanic neighborhood and essentially does his best to make people nervous. If he sees anyone driving a nice car he pulls them over, if he sees anyone standing on the corner he will go over to them and interrogate them just to see if someone will react to this and maybe tip their hand to him. I really don't think this kind of police work is worth the money my parents pay the government. THe funny thing is that me and my friend smoke a ton of weed and if his brother ever found out how often we'd be %$#@ed....
Yes, this happens to me all the time too. I was almost arrested LEAVING my girlfriend's house. I've been jumped for shoplifting by security guards while walking towards the INTERIOR of a grociery store. I've had 4 guns drawn on me in my living room for throwing a girlfriend down a flight of steps. I was SINGLE! How in the HELL are you gonna forget what flight of steps yo ass was thrown down??!?
to be Black in S. Central is a trip...
See? Exactly why I don't own a brown jacket.
But yeah, I deal with military police. And there's a BIG DIFFERENCE .... they wear different colors.
*shrug* But that's one of those hush-hush things we're 'not supposed to talk about' ...
I would have filed a complaint - it works sometimes!! ya think that is bad you should come to Georgia!!! It's REAL bad.
One of the funniest moments ever happened to me when I was walking home from a bible study. A pair of cops stop me and my brother to search our bags for drugs and weapons...and what do they find? The Good Book!!! I was thisclose to making a smart ass remark, but the memory of Abner Louima is never far from my mind when I see 5-0... But man, it would have almost been worth the beating...
If you are black in America passing thru some of those down south states late night with nothing but woods. Watch out! What i don't understand about cop is if you all have so much training. Why is the majority of the time when you shot someone your attent is to kill. I'm so surprise there haven't been a revolution!!!!!
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