cops air astonishment about whites calling 911 on black neighbors. "it's not illegal to be black"

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3071957/It-s-not-illegal-black-Cops-complain-online-white-people-getting-freaked-black-neighbors-wasting-police-time-911-calls.html

It's not illegal to be black': Cops complain online about white people getting 'freaked out' by their black neighbors and wasting police time with 911 calls
One officer was called to investigate two black people jump-starting a car
Another cop was dispatched to confront a black man fishing in a pond
Woman dialed 911 after seeing 'mean-looking Middle Easterner' on street


A black person fishing in a community pond, two black people jump-starting a car and ‘someone from the Middle East looking mean’ – these are all ‘suspicious’ scenes that have prompted members of the public to dial 911.
These calls were revealed by serving and former police officers who took to the internet to air their astonishment at white people panicking sometimes simply at the mere sight of someone with different racial lineage being nearby.
Dozens have joined an online discussion thread to share their experiences.
Scroll down for video

He wrote: ‘So I'm working last week and get dispatched to a call of 'Suspicious Activity.' Ya'll wanna know what the suspicious activity was? Someone walking around in the dark with a flashlight and crow bar? Nope. Someone walking into a bank with a full face mask on? Nope.

‘It was two black males who were jump starting a car at 930 in the morning. That was it. Nothing else. Someone called it in. People. People. People. If you're going to be a racist, stereotypical jerk... keep it to yourself.’

Shortly after the post went up, police officer Amipow revealed that he got a call ‘about someone illegally fishing in a community pond’.
One policeman described how he was ordered to investigate two black men jump starting a car in broad daylight

He continued: ‘Once I arrive, I see a middle aged black man fishing in the pond. He looks over when I pull up and immediately approaches me. He said, "Let me guess, my racist neighbors called again saying that I didn't live here."'




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3071957/It-s-not-illegal-black-Cops-complain-online-white-people-getting-freaked-black-neighbors-wasting-police-time-911-calls.html#ixzz3ZUDCpEJo

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. Many many white people are scared of ALL non white protestants. MANY

We see it all the time, EVERYWHERE


Actual fear, not made up.

[Enthusiast]

18. This fear is being intentionally stoked by Lying Fox News and right wing hate radio.

This country does not need these sources ramping up fear and suspicion.

[Dustlawyer]

35. I believe that most of the hyper-partisanship and, to a lesser degree, racism, has been

ginned up by the media intentionally to keep us distracted and blaming each other for the problems created by the one percent's theft of our full wages and our tax dollars. The media fails to report much, if at all the following:
The corporations and billionaire class have had the regulatory agencies gutted, underfunded, and run by the regulated industries former employees;
Corporations and billionaires do not pay taxes, or at least very little;
The Pentagon's budget is so bloated it is like a black hole for our tax dollars since the MIC gets every penny;
Man made Climate Change will soon be irreversible, but that inconveinence would hurt quarterly profits of the fossil fuel industry if it wasn't made into a debate. No mention of climate change can be made without mentioning that there is disagreement, if it had to be mentioned at all;
NSA spying on us all is a really big deal unless you are in the media; and
America has become an oligarchical Fascist state with no representative democracy as we judge the strength of our candidates by how much in bribes they have taken in for their fundraising efforts. We should not be surprised that no Wall Street power brokers went to jail or were even indicted for the 08 crash, Libor interest rate fixing, drug money laundering, or any other of a dozen fraudulent scams since Wall Street is the biggest donor of campaign bribes in the country.
I could have gone on for a long time, but what's the point. Most Democrats still think that voting for Hillary is great, even while shaking their heads at the poor deluded Fox viewers. They don't realize they are just as deluded. Is she better than any of the Republicans, sure! She will be socially liberal and throw us some bones, but she will always support the banks, MIC, Big Pharma, NSA, oil and coal companies...

[Enthusiast]

44. Agreed. This is why I am having great difficulty maintaining my enthusiasm.

Since 9/11 and the Iraq War TPTB are now fully aware how easily we can be distracted and hoodwinked. They are also fully aware how gullible we are as a society.

We are in a dangerous place, needless to say.

[cyndensco]

49. The fear may be stoked by fox...

but my friends, family, and I have discussed white people clutching their purses and double locking their doors LONG before fox existed.

It really is a burden realizing folk you don't even notice think you are out to get them.

[RedCappedBandit]

85. Yup.

The perpetuation of race, and racism, is much more active and intentional than I think many would like to acknowledge.

[yardwork]

91. Hate radio, yes.

[RiverNoord]

66. The thing that bugs the hell out of me is this:

We've seen urban riots over the past couple of years, especially, resulting from the deaths of young African American men at the hands of police. Each time, my passively racist father has talked about how 'they' are just harming 'themselves.' What he means, of course, is that every crime of some kind that is committed by someone of relatively recent African heritage (as compared to the rest of us, who all came from Africa at some point), reflects badly on ALL people of relatively recent African heritage.

My relatively recent ethnic heritage is Scandinavian. I have never - absolutely never - witnessed anyone suggesting that a crime committed by someone with Norwegian, Swedish or Danish ethnicity casts Scandinavian-Americans in a bad light.

However. my racist father is one of a great many people who help to convince African-Americans, Arab-Americans, Indian-Americans..., etc., that most people with light colored skin are probably racist. Meaning that, if I meet someone whose skin color is significantly darker than mine, I've likely got immediate strikes against me with respect to whether I might be liked, trusted, a potential friend, etc. And that is the thing that pisses me off.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

69. Excellent point, really. Makes you appreciate the most patient, peaceful and reasonable

societal group, the AfAm's.

If this was done TO a white population by a black population, holy hell would break out and it would not take HUNDREDS OF YEARS

[RiverNoord]

73. You're absolutely right.

I wonder how I'd look at the world and my place in it if I was an African American. I think that, if I had roughly the same sense of honor and dignity as the person I am (at least, so I believe), I'd be aggressively working for all manners of social justice, and not in any sort of nice way. Probably wouldn't live very long...

The patience of generations of African Americans has been just... incredible. To persevere through so much evil that has been inflicted on them by generations of light-skinned Americans - well, it's truly beyond my comprehension.

[Enthusiast]

87. +1!

[yardwork]

92. My supposedly progressive father talked the same way.

The older he got the worse it got. I could not reason with him. He seemed to revert to the beliefs of his community when he was a child, even though he had rejected that racism as a young adult.

Fears die hard, and that is why it's so important for all of us to acknowledge that racism is still a huge problem, call it out, shame people when they say and do racist things.

[gollygee]

2. Totally not surprised

Last edited Thu May 7, 2015, 07:56 PM - Edit history (1)

I had a neighbor say to me that she was uncomfortable because black and latino people were going to her garage sale. I said, "Well if you are having a garage sale, you have to expect people are going to come into your garage." She said she supposed so but still seemed uneasy. I had another neighbor who said she was uncomfortable when African American neighbors' son came home for spring break and was walking his dog. She wanted to call the police on him. The neighbor even recognized the dog and knew the neighbors were African American and of the right age to have a college aged kid, but still thought the kid was casing our neighborhood. I said, "It's his neighborhood too. He's home from spring break and walking his dog." But he wore corn rows and apparently that makes you in a gang and about to break into houses, even if you're studying engineering at Michigan State and just walking an adorable little dog.

[LoisB]

7. Did she refuse to sell any of her stuff to them? Probably not.

[gollygee]

55. Yeah she did. But she's a Democrat

Not correcting you - I know you didn't say anything about party affiliation. I just keep reading (in other threads and in this thread as well) that it's Republicans who do this and it isn't just them. This woman and her husband are strong Democrats and strong union supporters. They voted for Obama but are still afraid to have people of color at their garage sale. They grew up in a small all-white town near here that was traditionally a "sundown town."

The other woman who complained about the young man walking his dog when home for spring break is a Republican.

[yardwork]

93. This makes me so angry. This is what black parents deal with.

This is hateful stupid and wrong.

Thank you for posting this. I hope lots of people see and think about it.

[B2G]

3. Douchebags. nt

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Breathing while black is considered a crime to many white people. nt

[AgingAmerican]

5. In the 1980s my grandfather hired a black kid

...to trim a tree on some property below his house. Some woman who lived across the street call the cops on him. As if he was a criminal renegade tree trimmer. My grandpa went down and tore the neighbor a new one when the cop came to his door.

Cops do this shit too:

[tclambert]

77. "Hello, police? There's a minority youth stealing branches from my neighbor's trees."

"Right in broad daylight. I'm afraid to step out of my house. He must think he can get high smoking maple leaves. Oh, no! He looked over at my house. I think he saw me on the phone. Sent the SWAT team right away!"

[HappyinLA]

6. This could describe my sister in law

She's a military wife, and when they (she's married to my wife's brother) were stationed in Georgia she would tell us how when any person of color came to her front door she would grab the kids and hide until they went away.

[BrotherIvan]

17. Give me her address

I'd like to go over and say hi.

[historylovr]

52. Wow.

I hope she got over that real fast.

[NewJeffCT]

62. wow

how do you avoid people of color when you're in the military? Outside of the Marines, I think the percentage is a bit higher for persons of color than in the population at large?

[HappyinLA]

68. She's still like that

but they've been overseas for almost 15 years so she just rags on Europeans now. Apparently they all drink too much, are way to sexually liberated, and should all kiss her ass for the US saving them in WWII. Yes, she's like that.

The Dutch flat out freaked her out they were so "liberal" and happy. Now she's in Germany where it's a little better in her view. She hated the Italians but got along with the French.

She still complains about people of color, but it's pretty restricted to her anti-Mulsim bent now. And homosexuals, she straight up dislikes them too, no matter where they live.

[Mr Dixon]

75. SMH

This is someone you need to really help, before she spreads her fears to her kids .

[hifiguy]

8. Wanna bet that these callers

have Faux on 8-10 hours each day?

[BrotherIvan]

16. Winner

These people are fucking crazy.

[Enthusiast]

19. Sometimes they turn on Limbaugh for a while.

[hifiguy]

20. Good point.

And doubtless true.

[ProfessorGAC]

48. Yeah But Faux Is Still On

They just have the TV on mute.

[Hoyt]

76. No doubt, and Racist Limbaugh on their radios.

[heaven05]

9. it get's more serious than these incidents

bullets fly sometimes in the direction of those "black thug" threats, Tamir Rice comes to mind and I'm sure there are MANY other racist calls such as this just because the whites who do it want to see a modern lynching. This shit has been going on for ages. Until POC are accepted fully by "privileged" whites, more deaths, more beatings, because of racist hate are in store for POC, all ages, all sexes, all states.

[groundloop]

22. Don't forget the kid who dared to walk to the store and buy skittles wearing a hoodie

The only difference was that the jackass who called the cops wasn't content to leave it in their hands to 'investigate'. Yep, damned racist morons.

[Demeter]

10. It's not illegal to be a stupid bigot, either

more's the pity

[Blue_Tires]

11. I'm reminded of this story:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024407835

[freshwest]

15. The tragedy of 'living and dying while black' in America. What a horror story. Thanks for reminding

us just how serious this can get.

Like the young black lady knocking on a door for help when her car broke down.

Then she was dead, for nothing but the color of her skin. Guilty until proven... dead?

What an obscene carnival to live in a nation for hundreds of years, and the shooting gallery is always open.

[Trillo]

12. It's nosey neighbor syndrome.

I used to change my own car oil, actually I still do, I just don't drive as much so don't need to do it as frequently. I have always saved used motor oil to send to the recycler. I had a neighbor, same race as me, make complaints against me because I worked on my car. I was harrassed by someone representing some agency or another, but it's legal for me to do what I was doing in my own driveway. They didn't tell me my neighbor turned me in. However, after this harassment, I was talking to that particular neighbor one day after the incident, and mentioned how I save the oil, showed him where I save it, to take to the recycler later. His eyes got really big and bugged out, and he couldn't get away fast enough. He moved out a short time later.

Nosey neighbors really suck.

It must be nice to be rich enough that you can afford complete privacy for everything you do.

[Demeter]

63. I wish some of my neighbors would move out

I will be suing them next week

[Trillo]

70. Good luck in your lawsuit.

The guy moving out, in fact all of it, could have been unrelated, but it just seemed so weird. Perhaps the guy moved simply because he didn't like his landlord, that place rarely keeps folks for more than a year or a few years.

We had recently moved here from a big city into a much smaller town, but I had always worked on my own cars. From talking to neighbors afterward, apparently the town had had a problem with unlicensed mechanics running repair businesses from their homes and illegally disposing of fluids and such (poor people trying to make a living). There was apparently some kind of organized effort to locate such folks and shut them down. So, we moved in, and likely got caught up in the aftermath, nobody gave a damn that I was only working on my cars and not running a business repairing others' cars.

I'd really like to move away from here, this is the first "house" I've lived in where the neighbors stay for a year or maybe a little longer, every other "house" that we've lived in the neighbors were the same when we moved away as when we moved in, even one house we rented for as many as 15 years. But I have a feral TNR colony of cats I feed and water here, and I actually am in love with them.

Every time folks buy or sell a house, lots of folks make percentages and taxes are recalculated at the new sale value, so there's some financial incentives for local governments or banking corporations and real estate agents to make living anywhere unpleasant. Move from one bad place to another, it may not make much difference as far as authoritarian domination, but the professionals all got their cuts and the government had a chance to recalculate taxes on what is often an increased valuation (a new, higher sale price).

[Demeter]

72. It's a condo board

Right now I've got: violation of US constitution, election fraud and character damage...but the week isn't over, yet.

[Trillo]

80. CCR places are the worst. Or so I believe.

If you win your lawsuit, does that create case law that all other associations have to follow in the future?

[Demeter]

86. Only if I win!!

Part of the problem is this board thinks they are exempt from case law....if it conflicts with their "House Rules".

[PeaceNikki]

13. People suck.

[jtuck004]

28. +1 n/t

[Demeter]

64. My sister keeps trying to teach me that

I'm having a hard time believing it. But the more I see, the more I do believe that there's a screw loose in the American psyche, and it will destroy everything good in the USA.

[Trillo]

67. "Snitch on your neighbor", organized programs

Last edited Fri May 8, 2015, 12:32 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.google.com/search?&q=snitch+on+your+neighbor

I'm not sure when they started up, I think it could have been part of the War on Drugs originally, turn in your neighbor in who's a druggie and selling drugs to kids, I remember something about that in the news, maybe in the 1970s, maybe 1980s, but snitch on your neighbor programs change their focus from time to time....

[freshwest]

14. I see... black people! OMG! Daddy, er, Officer, make them go away! I'm scared!

Last edited Thu May 7, 2015, 10:24 PM - Edit history (1)

'Exhibit A' of the Open Carry mob who need to be armed to the teeth, all the time. Because the Big Bad Black Man in the White House is coming for them!

Good on the cops for calling out these whiney babies. People are losing their cookies over every single thing, wasting time. Admittedly, cops live in the same world with these scaredy cats, and see things wrong that are clearly not there, except in the fevered imagination of the public.

A whole generation started watching Disney in the fifties and never turned off the television to notice the world changed while living in a fantasy. I've known people who have been watching re-runs of old shows for fifty years, it's where they feel safe. It's why Reagan was elected. They've lost all those years, for a reality that never was.

C'mon out, all of those people put their pants on one leg at a time, just like you do. Oh, you say you don't do it that way. 'Kay, we'll discuss that on another day, children, just after I explain 'post-racial America' to you, LOL.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. They don't call just on black people.

Anyone that has a disagreement with them, like the neighbors they tend to run over metaphorically in their meetings.

[MosheFeingold]

23. I don't know who reported me

But I have been hassled by the TSA multiple times flying for "suspicious activity."

I believe the suspicious activity was "being a bearded Jewish man praying" as we've done for the better part of 3800 years.

They even ripped open my Tefillin (phylacteries).

[JI7]

29. they may have thought you were muslim also

[Baitball Blogger]

32. It's a definite pattern.

.

Bigotry and racism are definitely at play. But don't underestimate how they use the police to legitimize their fears, especially if they know they are taking intentional advantage of their neighbors. That's why we need to revamp the status quo in our communities. Too many crooked people get to call the shots.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

40. I've been in the extra screening line myself.

Where they stamp "SSSS" on your boarding pass. I think it means "Super Secret Special Screening". They won't tell us what that means. I've been in the line with my husband. We are both entirely too white, meaning "so pink we freckle and burn in the sun".

Everyone else in the extra screening line were brown men.

I wrote a letter to Homeland Security asking them why were we selected for extra screening. Nearly a year later the official answer I got was "we don't know".

I quit flying a while back because of the hassle.

[a la izquierda]

42. I get it too.

I figured it's the tattoos and frequent trips to Latin America.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

83. That's interesting.

I guess I'm about as vanilla-looking (for lack of a better word) as you could get.

I have no tats and no piercings other than the standard one-tiny-hole-in-each-ear for earrings. And my mother thought getting my ears pierced at the local department store at age 18 was just HORRIBLE. I can still hear her: "Why don't you go ahead and get your nose pierced? That's BARBARIC!!!" That was in the early 1970s. She didn't know that kids now get all sorts of holes in all sorts of places. She and my grandmother wore ugly button earrings that were clip ons.

End of rant about pierced ears.

[Helen Borg]

24. Seems like a civil war is imminent, honestly...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. "Home of the brave"......,

,.....my ass.

[kairos12]

81. We are not exactly the Londoners thumbing their nose at the blitz.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

82. Right after 9/11 there was a sentiment I admired....

"We're New Yorkers. We can take it."

[BlueJazz]

27. What if somebody you knew had a father that was fed-up with bogus 911 calls and has taken them...

..."Downtown" to look at the mug books (Computer) to identify the "Black person"...and made them stay there for hours...

yep

[yuiyoshida]

30. Blame Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and hate radio

for the indoctrination of stupid people.

[TransitJohn]

31. Trayvon was a victum of this aggressive racism

Fuck Zimmerman and other racists.

[hollysmom]

33. AGH, reminds me of one time when I reported someone whio happened to be black to the police.

they called me a racist and that stung, but there was only one person doing this (soliciting door to door without a permit is illegal in this town, you have to register with the police and get a paper, they just want to check people out first) - anyway one guy came to my door and I said I was not interested and he would not let me close the door on him, old style foot in door. I did not want to leave my door open and have a stranger in my house. I don't remember how I finally got my door closed, all I know is I asked for the paper and he said he did not have one and did not need one. I usually have a broom near the door to sweep the porch, so that might have been involved.
I guess my mistake was adding Black to the description, maybe if I just said a young man, I also said blue shirt but that might have been ok.

All I remember is having to listen to a policeman calling me a racist for reporting this. We have an integrated town and people do collect for charity of all skin colors, sizes and sexes and most gladly talk about their charity, but this was not a real charity call. I disconnected my door bell, people have to call before they visit now. so much easier,

[shanti]

78. i have a

'no soliciting' sign on my front door, yet people still assume it doesn't mean them. it's super annoying.

[hollysmom]

79. ha ha , can beat that, I went into a Michaels and casually asked the check out person if

the company donated supplies to charity groups (I had just received wrapping paper from Costco) and she went all no soliciting on me and threatened to call the police.
1) I did not see the sign,
2) all I did was ask, she could have said no and we could have checked out nicely, instead, I walked out without buying anything ever again. AC Moore was just a few blocks away.

[arcane1]

34. That whole Reddit thread is worth reading n/t

[malthaussen]

36. Not illegal, just capital.

That's funny, the police complaining about racial profiling.

-- Mal

[valerief]

37. I thought those scenarios were enough for cops to kill the "suspects." Cuz they fuckin' do! nt

[niyad]

38. and, while not as serious, let us not forget the alaska grifter, who quit school in hawaii

after one semester because of all the asians and pacific islanders (verified by her father)

[Duppers]

39. almost forgot Palin did that. nt

[secondwind]

41. Henry Gates. n/t

[smokey nj]

57. Yes. What got lost in the conversation about the confrontation betweenDr. Gates

and the cop was the fact that some Gladys Kravitz felt the need to call the police because Dr. Gates was engaged in the suspicious behavior of trying to get into his own home.

[Joe Chi Minh]

43. Morons. eom

[BumRushDaShow]

45. The police should fine them any time they do it.

This is the type of harassment that many of us talk about here on DU that points definitively to SOCIAL JUSTICE and has nothing to do with "income" or "class" or "economic justice" or the "banksters" or the "1%" or the "Kochs" or "TPP" or "NSA".

[redstatebluegirl]

46. Gated neighborhoods and private schools are full of them.

Racist white people continue to find ways to segregate themselves from anyone "different", black, latino, LGBT. Real Estate Agents and school admissions help them with this effort. After a while their kids have to go to a University, sorry these places of learning are NOT all white (although many of them try). Frats and Sororities take over for the gated community and you see what we saw at OU a couple of months ago.

It really is like the last moments of death, they are grasping at straws, anything to stay in "power", FOX and talk radio help them feel they are still there and the GOP gerrymanders to try and hold on but it will happen eventually.

[Buzz Clik]

47. This is the bottom line when one of the political parties...

... spends over a decade selling fear of everyone who doesn't look like you.

[gollygee]

50. More like hundreds of years

and not limited to one political party, though one has taken advantage of it in the past several decades with their "Southern Strategy."

[yellowcanine]

51. Woman dialed 911 after seeing 'mean-looking Middle Easterner'; To be fair, maybe she saw an Israeli?

Just sayin'

[malaise]

53. That poor Indian man who was visiting his relatives

and injured by cops because of racist neighbors and stupid cops is a classic example of this.
That said, M$Greedia and RW talk radio and TV are responsible for promoting racist attitudes 24/7

[ltheghost]

54. Yup...this happened to me last week

I decided it would be a good idea to run outside and try to lose a little weight. I made it maybe two blocks and got stopped by the police. I was the suspicious black man running through the neighborhood. I showed them my ID and had a conversation about where I was coming from. I told them I was trying to exercise and lose weight, the response was, "Stop being a smart ass and tell us what you were really doing?" Well, I smiled and asked to speak to a supervisor, along with my favorite, "Am I being detained?". I was let go in five minutes and went right back to running. Ordinary day for the black guy in a nice neighborhood. I'm not bitter or anything, I just know I live in a racist neighborhood in America. It comes with the territory. I don't expect them to change for the better or even leave me alone. I live knowing that I have to be extra cautious and careful because my life can be threatened at any moment if someone calls the wrong cop on me. But I live and survive. That is my key to living. LIVE!

[seabeyond]

58. why dont people get this? oh wait... cause they are bigots.

i cannot tell you how i would have my back up. but, then, self preservation, ya. we all keep in mind, it can mean life or death.

my son is living in new orleans, from the panhandle of texas. he was telling me, hanging around with groups of blacks (a majority in new orleans), he see the difference in reception from society, people. these are all athletes, university students, while black.

[seabeyond]

56. anyone want to argue white privilege and entitlement? privilege not to have cops called while fishin

entitlement to have cops check out the black man fishin'

[NYC Liberal]

59. 20/20 "What Would You Do?"

White teens vandalizing and breaking into a car in broad daylight? Dozens walk by; a single 911 call.

Black teens doing the same thing, to the same car, in the same parking lot? Ten 911 calls, multiple people confronting them, and plenty of outrage expressed to the cameras about protecting "our backyard."

(All the teens were actors.)

[Beowulf42]

60. The Real World

My aesthetics professor talked about life imitating art. Watch a few of the reality shows such as The First 48,etc. The suspects and criminals are black or colored in almost every case. So apparently, although in the majority, there are no white criminals. When you watch a cop show police do everything they can to evade following the law. Beat perps, become emotionally involved in their cases, conspire to trick their supervisors, who inevitably accede to the nefarious plan. They are near perfect examples for the on duty officers to copy. No warrants, lying to fool suspects. It goes on in almost every program. Every episode of NCIS Los Angeles there is a plot to explode a nuclear device at your local hospital. We are in a perpetual state of imaginary fear. What is on tv becomes the reality of our daily lives. If they keep us fearful they can then steal everything behind the wizard's screen. Remember, the rich don't want some of the money, they don't want most of the money, they want all of the money.

[Lee-Lee]

61. Saw it a lot when I was doing the job

Always made it a point to embarrass the shit out of them.

The dispatchers could always tell what was going on, so they made it a point to send a minority officer to the call so we could better shame the idiots- because when the officer who shows up isn't white that just took the wind out of their sales and let us embarrass them.

"So, sir, I talked with the gentleman and he was just walking to the store. Says he walks this way 2-3 times a week. I know I have seen him walking this way before. What exactly was he doing that was suspicious?"

"Well, he just looked suspicious"

"That doesn't exactly mean anything sir, for me to go stop someone going about their business I need a better reason for my report or it's going to say you called for no reason"

"Well he didn't look like he was from this neighborhood"

"Sir, people visit areas all along, and this is a public street. You can't be calling the police just beause a stranger is walking down the highway. This county is over 500 square miles and there are only 5 of us on duty per shift, if we have to go and bother everyone any time they go out of their neighborhood we won't be able to go after anyone actually breaking the law. If you see someone doing something that actually looks criminal, by all means call us. Just beause you don't know him or think he fits in is no reason to bother him or call us.

Now, he did look tired so I think I will go give him a lift to the store and to his house, unless I get another pointless call before I can get that done."

The Sheriff didn't mind that one bit as long as we could defend it to him- and getting people to quit wasting our time while making bigots feel like idiots was a win-win.

[Demeter]

65. Good story--you should send it to Reader's Digest

(Maybe they will go out of business, just so they don't have to publish it)

[Mr Dixon]

71. IMO

Yes this is the product of systematic conditioning, the majority (White people) have always been trained to fear anyone different (Minorities) and nothing has changed this is the reason that people stay divided while also been exploited by the rich, this has worked for centuries and you don’t change a formula that works.

If the day ever comes when white people realize that minorities are just trying to survive, that there is not some coalition out to kill all white people then the 1% lose their advantage. Dare I say that day is coming which is an indication of the ramped up police brutality IMO. The police are the gate keepers of the rich not the people.

[DallasNE]

74. Thanks Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Etc.

This is what hate radio creates. And Fox News is not far behind with spreading the hate.

[shrike]

84. This happened to my husband, and he's white

He was sitting outside a house, waiting for the owner. He was supposed to talk to him about a home repair job. Cop came up and asked what he was doing there. After he explained, the cop said, "Could you please move your car, sir." Apparently the neighbors were all wigged out about a man sitting in his car and called the police. So he drove around and around the block until the guy showed up.

I think people are just so damned paranoid ANYTHING wigs them out.

[vaberella]

89. I think you're marginalizing the situation.

This happens to ALL minority people. This is not about paranoia and I don't appreciate the way it's flippantly dismissed. What we are seeing that is finally able to be captured and what minorities have been screaming about from the fuckin' rooftops for centuries is the total mistreatment of who we are BECAUSE of our phenotype.

We are automatically the enemy, the suspicious one, the criminal, the suspect, or the whore. White women are not depicted as being hypersexualized while Black and Latina women are done so on a regular basis, while Asian women are the submissives. This is the problem and you're like --- "This happened to my husband." It is not the same thing! It will never be the same thing.

Your husbands situation as a White man in America will NEVER EVER EVER be comparable to the every day life of a Black man. NEVER! Very much like the every day life of a White woman will NEVER compare to my life as a Black woman in America.

[shrike]

94. Didn't mean to marginaliza

Just pointing out the general paranoia that seems to be sweeping this nation. Obviously my husband's experience as a white man is not comparable to that of a black man. But we as Americans are getting more and more scared of each other. It's sad.

[JonLP24]

88. What would you do?

Black teens sleeping in their vehicle in a park in a predominantly white suburb (before filming even which inspired the experiment) received 9-11 calls

White kids openly vandalizing a car is virtually ignored, black kids vandalizing quickly received confrontation & 911 calls with one with commenting with angry over them "coming to our backyard".

[Butterbean]

90. Ugh. My neighbor is almost like that, but she doesn't call the cops (thank God).

I call her Gladys Kravitz, because I swear to God every time somebody with melanin in their skin walks or drives through this neighborhood (which is a very mixed race neighborhood in the first place, so I don't get her hang ups...), she calls me and all the surrounding neighbors and tells us she's seen someone "suspicious" and to "be on our guard." I wonder if she calls the neighbor across the street who is a psychiatrist, and is a black woman? Probably not. The woman is so paranoid it's ridiculous. She's an elementary school teacher, too, which just blows me away.