Miss Me With Your Compliance Talk
Two incidents highlight the discrepancy between Black and White police interactions
Another day brings more revelations that only infuriates Black people in America.
Two filmed police interactions with White people, one from Ohio and one from that bastion of police hypocrisy known as Minneapolis, demonstrate that lighter shaded people can do almost ANYTHING and live to tell about it. On the other hand, Black people’s mere existence puts them in peril when stopped by law enforcement.
A video gone viral from December of last year shows a White male arguing with the police in Genoa Township, Ohio. He has been stopped, the police has their guns drawn, and a handgun is visible on the driver’s front passenger seat.
For what seems like an eternity, he is allowed to argue with police about exiting his vehicle, even though he has a handgun at the ready. Eventually, he closes his car door, and drives off! After an off-camera chase (which apparently was lengthy), he was apprehended, and was taken alive and unharmed to the police station.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis (Hutchinson to be exact), a White male was shopping in a Menards when he got into a dispute with an employee involving facemasks. The shopper proceeded to attack the employee with a piece of lumber. The man left the store, and was stopped by police at a Wal-Mart.
In the video, there is a policeman talking to him through his car door, and another policeman armed with a semiautomatic weapon on the front passenger side of the car. The man refused police commands, drove off with the policeman hanging from his car door and hit the policeman with a hammer. Needless to say, the 61-year old man was taken alive and unharmed to the police station.
Does anyone believe that a Black person in either circumstance would still be alive?
Of course not.
If you’re a White person who says that Black people need only comply with police commands to ensure their safety, how do you respond to these videos?
Don’t expect Black people to always do what so many White people don’t do, yet live to tell about it.
Don’t tell me all I need to do is comply with the police.
Don’t tell me I will be alright if I’m a law-abiding citizen.
We know that’s not true.
Too many men and women in blue feel hostility and danger when they stop Black citizens.
But when they stop fellow Whites, even a gun on a seat or a hammer to the head is a small price to pray for the safe delivery of the perpetrator to the police station.