On our walk over to some friend's house today I was stopped on this street by a police officer.
He told me how there have been a lot of recent break-ins in our area and someone last week was hurt. To keep my cell phone on me and never ever hesitate to call 911 if I see anything suspicious. Their suspects: young, black, male.
I said thanks and rechecked in my mind if I had locked everything. Yup.
Then I look up.
Who do I see about 50 meters away?
A young black male.
Of course the officer stops him.
I walked past as the young man was being patted down, asked a lot of questions, and his bag searched. I looked at his face and heard his voice, he was a sweet boy, and he was scared and embarrassed.
I got to the end of the street and I got very emotional.
That was not fair.
The officer was doing his job, I know. He saw a person that fit the profile and investigated, but still, it was really hard for me to see I guess.
Cause the truth is, my kids will probably never have that issue.
And this boy's run in with the police will most likely not be his last.
And that's not fair.
And that's not fair.
5 comments:
Couldn't have been said any better- it isn't fair.
Glad you could come hang- it's always fun :).
The question is...if the suspect was a young white male would every one fitting that description in the area be detained?....
oh that breaks my heart too. Definitely makes me reevaluate my thoughts, stereotypes, and pre-judgements.
So sad. So not fair. I don't know if you've felt this since moving there, but when I was vacationing in the area a few years ago, I was in awe of how much segregation still exists there. It was like going back in time.
I know it doesn't seem fair, but the kid was in the neighborhood where these break ins have happened, they all happened during the day, and he fit the description. It is not like the cop is patting down every "young black male" in every neighborhood all over town. Who know, maybe the cop was nice about it and if he looked through his bag, the kid had to have given the cop the a-okay to do so. My brother in-law got pulled over all the time just for looking like a hippie in this town. So who knows maybe some day if your girls look like hippies it could be their world too.
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