These events have been occurring for a long time. But with a racist President as the head of the government, it creates a deeper fear. The Trump Effect has given carte blanche to cops who have racist proclivities to fulfill their itch.
The Daily Camera reported the following.
According to a release, a Boulder police officer observed a man sitting in a partially enclosed patio area behind a “private property” sign in the 2300 block of Arapahoe Avenue at 8:30 a.m. Friday and asked if the man was allowed to be there. The man told the officer he lived and worked in the building, and gave the officer his school identification card, but the officer detained the man to investigate further.
The officer then made a request over the radio for additional assistance to respond, saying the man was uncooperative and unwilling to put down a blunt object. Several other officers, including a supervisor, responded. Police found the object the man was holding is a device used to pick up trash, and officers left the area.
The thing police officers or concerned neighbors, read racist neighbors, usually initiate these incidents. The results many times is a person of color getting undignified treatment, hurt, or killed.
The only way we are going to fix this issue is to place stiff penalties for anyone falsely accusing or harassing POCs for no reason. That is not a hard task, but it is necessary. It continues to be too easy for racists to scratch their itch at the expense, inconvenience, and many times the lives of POCs. This type of events is getting old.
So what will be the outcome of this injustice? Well, people protested at the Boulder City Council. They drilled the police chief.
The Denver Post reported the following.
Audience members at the Boulder City Council meeting Tuesday held aloft trash grabbers and clacked them as Police Chief Greg Testa briefed council members about an incident in which officers confronted a black man who was picking up trash at his own house. …
“This is an extremely concerning issue, and one that we are taking very seriously,” Testa said, reading a prepared statement to council Tuesday. An internal affairs investigation is ongoing, and the initial responding officer is on administrative leave, he said.
POCs cannot, will not, must not, and should not trust the police in the aggregate until we make systemic change. This not only local but statewide and national. Your encounter with the police when you call on them or they call on you should be considered a clear and present danger and you must always in life preservation mode.
Ultimately, if we want a change, we are going to have to vote in politicians willing to take power away from the police. We must remind them they work for us and we pay them.
If anyone one thinks this event is just an isolated incident recall these that I have already written about.
- Trump Effect: San Francisco Police called on man for breaking into his own business
- Trump Effect: Police called on 12-yr-old black kid delivering newspapers
- Trump Effect: I’m more concerned about police behavior than racist ranter (VIDEO)
- Trump Effect: 2 Police Officers beat Latino man to a pulp for wearing T-shirt
- Letter from a white police officer concerned about the Trump effect (VIDEO)
Personal Note:
As a black man, I must say this type of incident is getting old. Having the police interfere with your life for just being is stressful to many. Just acquiescing to either their racist itch or that of an offending neighbor must end. The double standard in policing must end and all of you have a responsibility for being a part of the solution. After all, the police are but a reflection of all the evils in our society. As a professional, educated, business owning active black man, I continue to see the police in the aggregate as a clear and present danger and every thinking person of color must realize that. I try to have as little interface with the law as possible.
I was so impacted by a positive experience with a particular police officer in Houston, I wrote the blog post titled “Last night I had this encounter with a Houston police officer,” that everyone should read.