I'm Polite, Middle-Class and Harassed By Police. Here's Why.

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/im-polite-middle-class-and-harassed-police-heres-why

I was eighteen, but I remember it like it was yesterday. It was dark, and I was driving with my sister when I got pulled over by the police. We were visiting relatives in Mississippi and had just left our cousins’ house, heading back to an aunt’s house to meet up with our parents. My mother had let us go out for a drive in her car, a red Eddie Bauer Edition Ford Explorer. Driving in that car, I felt a certain level of freedom and prestige. So, being the teenagers that we were, music blasting, rehashing the night’s events with each other, my sister and I made our way back, feeling carefree.

We stopped at a stop sign, then proceeded to go forward when a police siren from across the street grew louder, as a squad car sped toward us. Not thinking that it was me they were after, I slowed down to let the cop car pass me. When the policeman turned on his horn and shot his light toward our car, I immediately froze. We were in the Deep South, two teenagers in my mother’s car, and there were no other cars on the street. Actually, there was no one else around, even on foot. Heart racing a mile a minute, and ignoring my mother’s advice that as a young woman I should never stop for anyone on a dark empty road alone, especially with my younger sister in the car, I pulled over.

One by one, in quick succession, other police cars showed up. All of a sudden, we were surrounded. By the time the initial officer had gotten to my car, there were at least five other cars surrounding my mother's Explorer.

A million thoughts raced through my head: What did we do wrong? Why did he pull us over? Is he going to make some thing up so we go to jail? Are they going to beat us? Are we going to die?

[Arkansas Granny]

1. The sentence that really stood out:

"Because working on diversity as an adult works on the leaf, not the root."

We do our children a great injustice when we don't teach them respect for the other inhabitants of their world.

[Thor_MN]

5. Agreed. It only works by not teaching bigotry to children.

And even then, it takes generations to go away, with the eventual death of those who grew up bigoted. My grandmother was one of the nicest people on the planet - and racist. She was a product of her era. She wouldn't have ever overtly tried to hurt anyone, but she would say things behind closed doors that gave away that she thought those with dark skin were "different." Filbert nuts had a different name at Gramma's house. My parents always told us not to use that name.

My parents (and I and my siblings) were affected by that "polite" racism. My nephews and niece were too young to be affected by Gramma's racism, but have been affected by my parent's and sibling's histories. I'd like to believe that I'm totally open minded, but I know that somewhere in there, there's generational junk that needs to go away.

I've seen a resurgence of hate with the Tea Party. I hope to hell it is death throes, but another generation of children is being affected by the crap that is going on.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. My former father-in-law was a good person and got along well with all the members of his community,

both black and white. However, he made a remark one day that has stuck with me for over 40 years. "I'm not prejudiced. I've known some good n*****s." He was completely sincere when he said that. It was/is a pervasive attitude in some parts of the country and raising children to think otherwise can be a real challenge.

[avebury]

2. K&R for exposure. nt

[ReRe]

3. K&R

Wow. That does get to the root of the problem. An excellent article that should be sent to every member of the three branches of our government! This should become an education law/act in our Education system immediately! Thanks xchrom.

[The Wizard]

4. The tipping point will be

when more people feel threatened rather than protected by police. Elections have consequences. In Ferguson, Mo. only 3% of the minority population came out to vote in local elections. Voting every four years in presidential elections is not enough.
About 10 % of the population controls the 90%. A small group of anarchists control the Republican Party, and as a result have the ability to paralyze the government. The Republicans are well versed in gaming the system and abuse the system at the expense of the majority. It's nothing more or less than election nullification. Unless Democrats get their base to come out for all elections the rabid right will continue to abuse the rest of the nation.

[MADem]

7. We are already at that point, I think.

I know some suburban old white and Hispanic ladies who are terrified of the po-po--they don't think they're here to help, they think they're here to bully.

When OLD people are scared of the cops, they've lost the bubble.

[pipoman]

6. I do believe that young black people are

Probably more often targeted like this nationally. That said, I was once arrested for a damaged muffler, another time was arrested for expired tag, and a few weeks ago was pulled over after dropping my wife off at a local bar to meet with friends. The reason the officer stated for pulling me over was "rolling through a stop sign" that I absolutely stopped at. ..it was a drunk check. When I went back to pick her up a few hours later I was followed from very near the bar for 3 miles.

I understand why black people are very sensitive to this sort of thing.

[fasttense]

9. It's horrible that young black men are targeted like this

And many young people of other races are also swept up in these "catch and release" police intimidation tactics. If the white man thinks it wont happen to him, he better take a good hard look at the harassment laws he is passing. Those fines and penalties, those arrests for minor traffic violations, those warrants issued for tardiness have NO skin color definition on them. They are more readily used on minorities and the poor but a good cop knows those laws apply to everyone except the uber rich.

[oberliner]

10. The article was written by a female

Just FYI