So the latest police killing of an unarmed (black)
person—this time for a non-functioning tail light—spurred the usual
conversation about how utterly ridiculous, not to mention illegal, it is. One
aspect of the conversation was the victim’s profile—50 yrs old, dressed
normally, BLACK, etc. A side mention was made about how could someone with a
gun, who’d just used a taser be worried about someone like that—i.e. it’s not
like the victim looked “thuggish” (which still doesn’t wipe away one’s civil
rights and liberties—on paper at least).
Then I got to thinking about my personal appearance. My wife
will tell you I’m not the fanciest dressed; it’s more like people might toss
me spare change if only I had a receptacle held out. But there have been a
copule of times where I dressed like a straight up gangsta— loc's ("lokes") (at
night), saggin’ pants, lid, and the stroll. The only thing I was missing were
the Crip slips and corn rows.
It was Halloween-- actually 2 in a row due to my lack of
creativity. Both instances were a) as a Stanford student, b) on Stanford’s
campus, c) at Stanford parties, where d) I didn’t encounter any (university) policepersons. I wonder if
the situation would have been any different had I been walking through Palo
Alto (dressed like that) minding my business on a different night, or even on Halloween for that
matter.
Fast forward10 years to New Orleans—where I actually had a
gun pulled on me by police—where I was working as a Associate attorney at one of the
city’s (more formerly than current) hoity-toity law firms. How it happened is a
long and sad story of ignorance of the 3 cops who entered my house with a gun
drawn. But the question is, in suit pants and a t-shirt (in my own house)—the
oppressive NOLA climate compelled me to strip off the top, dress-shirt and tie
layer as soon as I got inside—did I look THAT much more threatening than when
dressed as a gangsta? Luckily, I didn't happen to walk out of the kitchen to greet said cops while holding a knife-- small or large-- I'd just used to cut a sandwich. Otherwise, I guarantee you I wouldn't be here to write this!
As I (luckily) didn’t encounter any police officers on those
Halloweens, I don’t have any incident to compare to my NOLA run in. But suffice it to say that if
I looked like a possible thief in my partial suit, who knows what the
translation/reaction in their minds would have been were I dressed like a thug?
I guess I’m just fortunate it wasn’t in my Stanford Halloween costume when those who serve and protect us busted into my house to serve and protect me from . . . . .myself??
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