The video above is but the latest in a set of videos in which a black person has the police called on them for spurious reasons. In this case, this man is the head of an organization, was ferrying two kids in his car with the permission of the parents, and yet was followed by a white woman who called the police on him. Even though the children explained to the police that all was OK, they still called their mother. I suppose they had to just to cover all bases. Fortunately, the victim was filming the police so that there was a record available for the public. He was inconvenienced. The woman who called was excused on the ground that the police always want citizens on the watch for any oddness. I have strong suspicions that the same would not have been true if a black man would have called the police on a white woman ferrying two black children.
This post has nothing to do with the police. They had no choice but to check things out. I suspect they were embarrassed by the end of the encounter. This has to do with the epidemic of white people calling the police when a black person is doing something completely legal. For instance, recently there was a white person who called police on two black children mowing a lawn. There was the famous ex-pool manager calling the police on two blacks who were going into a neighborhood pool in which they had a right to be because they lived in that housing association and had cards. There are too many other incidents to cite.
What there has been being an open breakout of racist behavior in our society. It is camouflaged by a supposed concern for security, or by an enforcement of an establishment’s rules. Fortunately, enough managers and workers have been fired that this type of harassment is dying down. But, what is painless for the racist person is the reporting of the public presence of a black person in a place in which they supposedly do not belong. This type of the report to the police is painless for the reporter but painful, and maybe even lethally dangerous, to the innocent victim. Not the least is because, as seen in the video above, many times the identity of the reporting person is protected by the police. It will take a Freedom Of Information Act request to get that name from the reports.
So, the petty racist gets to cause problems with no consequence. They may even be hiding their petty racism from themselves by telling themselves that they are trying to keep others safe. It is a type of self-delusion common to this type of caller. Better yet for the caller, there is almost no law that could be written against them that would not also possibly keep a future witness to a real crime from calling the police. If a true witness has to fear a painful consequence, then a crime may not be reported. But, as said before, this gives free reign to the petty racist.
I do propose a law that states that–unless it is for clear witness protection purposes–the name of someone reporting this type of incident must be released. With enough exposure, petty racists may be driven back to the sewers from which they came.
Leave a Reply