Your Worst Nightmare
Posted in life on August 21st, 2009
I’ve always said that if I ever got a gun and a badge became law enforcement officer employed by a from a local, State or Federal law enforcement agency i’d probably throw this statement around at a select few folks [I'm your worst nightmare, a n****er with a badge]. It’s from the movie 48hrs when Eddie Murphy was in the bar and was talking some white people at a bar trying to ascertain some information about a suspect. Not because i’d be corrupt, arrogant (okay, maybe a little) or self serving but for the very reason he pretty much eluded to. “It” invokes a different reaction in non-minorities in most situations…..like the one that took place last night.
Ok, so I had what i’d like to call my yearly “reality check” last night. That check being my little reminder to not get too comfortable with going un-harassed or profiled based on my skin color. No matter how covert it might appears to be, discrimination has never been abolished from America’s way of thinking/acting/reacting to other people.
This is about my experience tonight with a white cop as i’m leaving the GROCERY store. The very nice, relatively new store that I visit often. So, after loading in my groceries, I enter into and turn on my car, pull out and cut on my headlights because it’s around 8:15ish. (Mind you, this place is across the street from my house). So I pull out, and I almost immediately see a local LEO (law enforcement officer)….we lock eyes for a brief moment as my passengers side window is rolling down while i’m in the process of cutting a left turn.
He follows. Here we go. Instead of going home, I head to another grocery store looking for a specific item, and of course he follows. I pull around in front of the next store, cut a right, turn into the parking lot and pull into a space. But instead of pulling into the first, I continue to pull forward into the space that’s “in front” of the one i’m in. I guess he didn’t appreciate that because he immediately pulls in the space next to me and throws on all his lights.
A smile comes across my face. Composure set, attitude locked in, I exit my car with him behind still, lighting my car up like Christmas in the parking lot of the rather busy grocery store pushing quarter till 9pm.
He yells “Hey”
I fully exit the car, door in right hand, keys in the other.
He yells louder “Hey you”
My back is completely turned to him, shut the door and lock it. There are people looking.
He exits his car, yells louder “Hey, stop what you are doing”
I stop, and turn around with a stone, irritated look on my face. And his whole expression changes.
He says (verbatim) “Oh, uh, sorry about that sir. We had a situation earlier with a car that had MD tags and that was black like yours…”
I cut him off. Point to a black Prius with MD tags. “Oh you mean like that black car over there?”
“Well, yes. No. The report was for a sports-like car, and yours matches that. This is a really nice car though, did you do a lot of work to it?”
Ok, so why did the cop do a 180? Could it have been that maybe he had a sporadic change of heart? Realized his obvious and rather blunt profiling? Was there a glitch in the Matrix? Nope! It was the 5.11 Tactical Polo I had on from my 9hr work day with the federal agency logo of one of the contracts I’m on at my place of employment. Much like this one. Tie in the two phones on my hip and my work badge’s still dangling from my neck and it sums it up.
So I say: “Back up Officer [Last name], when you address someone by who’s name you don’t know you should treat that person with a measurable amount of respect. And say something along the lines of excuse me Sir, or Sir can I get your attention…you know, like you did AFTER you saw this badge and ID. ”
“Secondly, this is a four door sedan. Not even a “sports” one as you put it. So we both know your statement is bogus.”
The rest of the convo is summed up by me grilling the cop about the department, and barracks he’s assigned to. Who his lieutenant is, his badge number, his current status with I/A and what his arrest record looks like. He was stuttering and apologizing by the end of the conversation, asking me if I needed him for anything. I concluded with telling him that he’d be hearing something from my department soon. He (with a defeated, scared look) said ok, and muttered f*&k under his breath as he went back to his car.
As I got up to the door of the grocery store (we were already in the front of the parking lot), most of the people their clapped and even black people a few gave me dap. It was a bittersweet moment, that probably would’ve gone completely different if i didn’t have that polo on. Although i’ve had a many of experiences like this one, I’ve never had one where an external medium had such an impact and where the situation was so public.
Moral of this story? Uhhh….none? This is what it is for most black men in nice neighborhoods driving a nice car. Are we constantly harassed? No, not constantly. Are we given a second look or targeted more then other races? 100%. And that’s just reality that isn’t going to change, even with the most powerful man on earth being black and the racial barrier being “torn down”, this sort of behavior and mindset wont be changing anytime soon in black/white relations.
I will however be going to get a few more of those shirts from the client next week, believe that.
B.Price
