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This is profiling only some must endure
Dorothy Bland is the Dean & Graduate Institute Director of the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. She has over 25 years of media experience as a reporter, editor, media/marketing consultant, and publisher.
Dorothy Bland had an experience in an affluent neighborhood many people who look like her are privy to. Many willfully choose not to see the reality. Many choose to willfully not empathize. She wrote about her experience in The Dallas Morning News.
Bland lives in a golf course community in Corinth, Texas. She walks 3 miles everyday in her community. On October 24th she had a late start delayed by rain. Dorothy like many who live in the suburbs jog and walk in the streets of the community. These community streets have very little traffic and many like mine do not even have sidewalks in most of the subdivisions. These are sleepy subdivision streets with very little traffic, not thoroughfares. I have watched many of my neighbors and many of the kids walk in the center of the streets. The police have never stopped them or signaled them to move to one side or the other. In fact people just calmly get out of the way of the cars and the cars are generally careful.
Dorothy Bland was not afforded that convenience. Two police officers stopped her and as a pretext they claimed it was for her safety. Of course if that was the case all the officer needed to do was pull up to the side of her and tell her for her safety she should walk on the other side of the road. They might even tell her that technically speaking she is in violation of the law. Of course in my Kingwood, Texas community, most of the community would be ticketed under a strict enforcement of said law.
Dorothy Bland informed the officers that she lived in the community. They then asked her for her I.D. She did not have it. They asked her for her name and date of birth. She provided that to them. In order to keep Dorothy safe, an inquisition was necessary. They looked her information up and let her go.
During the confrontation Ms. Bland took pictures of the officers and of the cruiser for evidence of the stop. During the dialogue one of the officers had an interesting exchange that should show the mindset of the officer. Dorothy Bland wrote the following,
To those officers, my education or property-owner status didn’t matter. One officer captured my address and date of birth.
I guess I was simply a brown face in an affluent neighborhood. I told the police I didn’t like to walk in the rain, and one of them told me, “My dog doesn’t like to walk in the rain.” Ouch!
While Dorothy Bland had a calm demeanor, it was evident that she was exasperated given her statements about being a law abiding citizen, being a taxpayer, and what she did afterward.
For anyone who doesn’t think racial profiling happens, I can assure you it does happen. For a sanity check, I stopped by the mayor’s house and asked him, “Do I look like a criminal?” Mayor Bill Heidemann said no and shook his head in disbelief. I appreciate the mayor being a good neighbor, but why should he need to verify that I am not a menace to society?
Dorothy Bland ends her piece on a positive note.
I refuse to let this incident ruin my life. As I was finishing my walk and listening to Urban Praise radio, I encountered an elderly white woman who asked if I would like some roses. She gave me a half-dozen roses. It was a random act of kindness and that’s why I call Janet Herbison of Gemini Peach and Rose Farm in Denton a good Samaritan. That evening I had dinner with neighbors.
The more often we talk and get to know people as humans, the stronger we will become as a nation. We are all part of the human race.
The police chief took exception to Dorothy Bland’s complaints.
Impeding traffic is a Class C misdemeanor, and it is our policy to ask for identification from people we encounter for this type violation. I am surprised by her comments as this was not a confrontational encounter but a display of professionalism and genuine concern for her safety. …
The citizens of Corinth as a whole are a highly educated population, and it is disappointing that one of our residents would attempt to make this a racial issue when clearly it is not.
The Chief claimed that it was the driver of a truck that had to nearly stop because she was in the street that prompted the stop. Of course based on past experience one knows one cannot take the word of police officers as video have continuously showed that police reports rarely matched the actual incident.
A similar incident occurred to a black judge in my Kingwood, Texas neighborhood. It cost the city $55,000 for profiling and inconveniencing a man just jogging. These events occur time and time again. Many refuse to see the incident through the eyes of the aggrieved. They claim it is a minor inconvenience. Well, it is more than an inconvenience. It is a stress. It is the reality that there is someone always watching your every move and can interrupt the natural flow of your life.
Many would say it is a burden one must endure because some commit more crimes than others Some even use FBI statistics to prove that fallacy. Police stop more people of color as a percentage of their population which skews the data that is used to reinforce a fallacy. Of course the definition of crime has a tone as well depending on the population. What gets you booked in one neighborhood gets a warning in another.
Profiling is real. Cameras are great in that it is showing the reality many have chosen to ignore because they claim to have never seen it. Will you believe your eyes? Some still won’t.
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