Reading while black: Canadian man stopped by police after reading a book in his car

[Liberal_in_LA]

Louizandre Dauphin was having a tough week.

The Bathurst, New Brunswick, director of parks, recreation and tourism says he'd been thinking about the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police officers, and needed to get out of his apartment.

In an Instagram post, Dauphin wrote, "I decided to take a drive to the Stonehaven Wharf and sit by the water on this cold, rainy July day and try to pacify my mind by reading the works of Timothy Keller and C.S. Lewis."

On his drive back home, he was pulled over by an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"Thankfully, he is kind and respectful and asks me the usual questions; where I'm from and where I'm going," Dauphin wrote. "I tell him that I was at the Stonehaven Wharf reading a book pointing to the two books in the passenger seat. He smiles and says that a few citizens in Janeville called the police because of a suspicious black man in a white car was parked at the Wharf for a couple hours."

After verifying Dauphin's identity, the police officer let the former high school English teacher go.

"So, a black male, sitting in his car, reading a book is suspicious activity," Dauphin wrote. "Good to know. At this rate, I may never leave my home again." He ended the post (below) with the hashtag "#DangerousNegro.”

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-reading-while-black-20160712-snap-htmlstory.html

[zz-la]

1. As easy as it it to just blame the cop in this instance

An equal if not larger share of blame should also go to the people who called the cops in the first place. So many times it is just citizens who are even more racists than the cops that pull innocent people over for no other reason than their skin color. I wish we could find out who these people or the person was that called the police. I would certainly like to know. Perhaps putting these peoples names out in the public might have some kind deterrent for other racists idiots who think nothing of calling the cops on a black man that is doing nothing wrong.

They probably think it is funny that this man was hassled and who knows what else they may have imagined happening in their sick and twisted minds.

[Warpy]

5. Stupid morons called it in, the cop was obligated to check it out

Since it's Canada, he didn't pull his gun and scream "GET OUT OF THE CAR!!" at the poor guy.

Fault lies 100% with the assholes who called this in. What a world they live in, if "black man reading" is suspicious activity.

[Nay]

8. Exactly. The mountie is required to check it out, but here, obviously, the

officer knows how to treat a citizen and act like a human being.

[Stuart G]

2. What can one say????...nt

[JI7]

3. the "concerned ciTizens" again

[uponit7771]

6. Another racially biased stop by LEO, a person "reading" someone rises to the level of having to have

... an interaction with the person?!?!

I'm thinking this would be low on the priority list...

WTF man

[niyad]

9. "concerned citizens" called in to complain.

[Travis_0004]

7. Im white and have had cops check me out for suspicious activity while reading

They said that people in tge area have been dong drungs in their car in the past so they stopped to check it out. It was a short stop and he was on his way.