I was watching a random episode of the TV show cops the other day. Said cops pulled up next to a black guy. They tell him that they want to "have a conversation" with him. From the viewer's perspective, there was no reason to stop him.
The kid was scared and ran, and that led to an obligatory police chase. They caught him and handcuffed him. They narrate for us about him fleeing and therefore must have done something, and he had a lot of money on him. It's a bad neighborhood - it's a place for drugs.
The police don't find any drugs on him, so they head out to literally beat the bushes to find some. Of course, they do find a bag of weed.
The policeman appears a little excited and says something to the effect of "This ought to be enough to put him in jail for a long time based on his prior convictions." (keep in mind that WE don't know anything about these convictions or how the officer knows this).
They talk to the kid and they say things like "You know if you hadn't run this never would've happened. We would've just talked to you for a minute. You made it worse for yourself because you were fleeing the police."
He argues the drugs aren't his, but they clap back and say he ran, and its an abandoned apartment complex. They must be yours!
As they continued, the rhetoric sounded more and more like any story where a black individual is harassed by the all white police force. They were speaking to him in a confrontational way, trying to get a reaction, or to railroad him in some way.
Its certainly possible there was more to the story that got edited out. And context may matter. But it was easy to see that this wasn't quite right.
The reality is this poor guy had to stand there and take it from police. They gave him a false choice, of either "not running" and being accosted, or running and hoping for the best.
Based on how he carried himself, one might assume he won't be able to afford a lawyer. He might very well plead guilty and wind up spending time in jail, continuing this sad cycle.
The tones. The language. The subtle intimidation. The whole thing about Black Lives Matter was just encapsulated in those few minutes of TV.
But remember that we are capable of being better than this. And we should strive to be. |