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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn Actor On The Way To A Family Funeral Was Surprised By The Words The Policeman Screamed At Him
http://www.upworthy.com/an-actor-on-the-way-to-a-family-funeral-was-surprised-by-the-words-the-policeman-screamed-at-him?c=upw1Wendell Pierce: And the fact is... The fact is while we have this very comfortable, colloquial debate about it, when the lights go out and I go out in the street and I get behind the wheel of my car, the most dangerous moment I ever have in my life is when a police officer pulls me over. Every black man in America knows that when that happens, there's actually a possibility his life may come to an end and that shouldn't happen. It actually happened to me in Louisiana, dressed as I am, going to my uncle's funeral, two toddlers in the back. I had just picked up my cousin from Chicago. A 100 degrees on the road in Louisiana, I'm pulled over and I sat there waiting for the cop to come. I have a habit of always taking my wallet out and putting it on the dash to make sure he doesn't think this is going for a gun. I sat there and sat there and sat there and I realized he hadn't come. Air conditioner on, 100 degrees and I look in the mirror and I see... That's all I heard.
As I turned down the window you hear, "Mother fucker get out that car, I'm gonna blow your fucking head off." Now he didn't have the training to say, "I'm going to come up to the car." I have to tell these toddlers, "Be cool. Everything's fine. Uncle Wendell's going to get out of the car. Everyone don't move." I put my hands up, get out the car, opened the door from outside. But I told the officer, "Why didn't you use your P. A.? Simple, get in your car..." "Well why didn't you get out of your car?" I said "I had the window's up, it's 100 degrees, and I had the air conditioner on. I can't hear you." That's poor training, that he didn't know that I wasn't going to be able to hear him in the car. He's going to fire. So it's that sort of incident that happens too often all the time, that white America has to understand that Wendell Allen in New Orleans, Mr. Garner in Staten Island, Michael Brown in Ohio, is a constant all over this country. And if we're going to sit here and pretend that we are post-racial, you have to realize that I can't afford for your belief or denial that my life isn't in danger
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)What did it for me was when he pantomimed the cop coming at him -- yelling and waving his gun.
"I look in my mirror and I see..."
As a white woman, I can't imagine what I would feel if I saw the same thing in my rear view, and given who I am, I probably never will.
tooeyeten
(1,074 posts)In America is most cities this is happening.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)Rozlee
(2,529 posts)Maybe as any woman, especially if you're poor. Cops also prey a great deal on females, especially poor females and minority females. As a poor Hispanic single mother, waiting at bus stops, there would be times when cops would cruise by and would stop and leer at me, asking me if I was alright, if 'that guy was bothering me,' etc., etc. My daughter was stalked for TEN YEARS by a cop. She dated him briefly for a month or so, then realized he was a jerk and dumped him. We reported his harassment to Internal Affairs, who declared it was a he said/she said situation and didn't do a damn thing. He had his buddies following the cars of guys she dated, reporting on her whereabouts and letting him know where she was at. She'd move and in no time, he'd learn where she was and be cruising by her place. Many of these guys are domestic terrorists. And far from stopping them, their PDs enable them. My daughter didn't get any peace until she moved away from the state when she got married.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Post-racial, lol. What a joke.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)a race war on American soil.
xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)what the hell does that mean anyway? After racial? It is meaningless. It probably was assembled by luntz, faxed over to faux snooze for their continual use.
calimary
(81,323 posts)So frustrating. "Post-racial." I will admit, though, that when Barack Obama was elected the first time, I allowed myself to entertain the thought that maybe, Just MAYBE, America had grown up a little, and gotten over it, and moved forward. I allowed myself to celebrate what appeared to be a first-class outward sign that we'd all finally, at long last, gotten beyond the race issue. MAN was that wrong! MAN was I wrong!!! No impersonal "mistakes were made" crap outta me. I made that mistake. Got it shocked out of me within the first weeks when I saw the kind of shit that this President was forced to deal with and deep-down, the opposition (at least it seemed to me) was deeply and systemically rooted in old, shitty, evil, awful racism. Racism that's not just some leftover. Racism that is alive and well and inflamed and cancerous and seems to be spreading like the fucking Ebola virus.
It's disgusting and depressing as hell. I wanted to believe that we had FINALLY gotten beyond our systemic racism. We'd just proved it, hadn't we? A SOLID and unrefutable majority voted this man into the Presidency. Knew he was black and still voted for him. Saw and knew he was black and it didn't matter.
And we haven't.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)was an insult to the dear memory of the Confederate States of America. Seriously.
calimary
(81,323 posts)Especially if the "dear memory of the Confederate States of America" is insulted. Good! The mere idea of the "Confederate States of America" is offensive to me.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Some of these idiots celebrate it by flying the flag. I live in Ohio and see the stars and bars in the back window of many pickup trucks. The only thing it signifies is racism.
betsuni
(25,544 posts)When I saw that episode and heard that story it was a hot day but I got the chills and shuddered, because it's so common.
MerryBlooms
(11,770 posts)"And if we're going to sit here and pretend that we are post-racial, you have to realize that I can't afford for your belief or denial that my life isn't in danger."
amen
LisaLynne
(14,554 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)That sentence speaks for me.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)And I mean the "liberals" who smugly pat themselves on the back for "not seeing race."
LisaLynne
(14,554 posts)And REALLY HEAR this.
pscot
(21,024 posts)The people who should hear it either can't hear it, refuse to hear it or are pre-disposed to see Pierce as the offending party. And there really seems to be no way to get through to them.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)and not wanting to understand.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)It won't surprise me when "that DU" shows up to say, "well ... if Pierce had just obeyed the officer, the officer would not have pulled his gun. Problem solved."
marble falls
(57,112 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)will never understand this terror because they won't face it, EVER, by virtue of their skin color. You're right sir, post racial is an illusion created by those whose privilege is everything and their conscious and unconscious oppression is denied, still, because of that privilege. America is irredeemably racist and I fear that it will never not be a major factor in the life of any minority in this country, especially black and brown minorities.
Feral Child
(2,086 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
knightmaar
(748 posts)... I thought only "a really stupid black man who wants to get shot" gets out of the car.
So now, if you get out of the car, you get shot for being aggressive and if you stay in the car, you get shot for not getting out?
It must so awesome being black in the U.S. that police have to compensate for the awesomeness this way just to even things up for white people.
malaise
(269,063 posts)Post-racist my ass
vlyons
(10,252 posts)and I always smile and tell the cop (I call him "Officer, Sir" that my Daddy was also a cop, which is true. The highway patrol is generally better trained and more polite than cops is small rural towns. The ones in small towns wear flak jackets and sometimes seem very annoyed and arrogant.
JustAnotherGen
(31,828 posts)When they point their gun at you too?
vlyons
(10,252 posts)but if it did that would be the perfect time. I'd rather be humble and eat crow than eat bullets.
JustAnotherGen
(31,828 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)For some folks, anyway.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)Yes, I don't smile but say innocently, "What did I do?" I have been stopped for speeding in my small town just outside of Atlanta three times, but never got a ticket, just a warning to watch my speed.
yardwork
(61,654 posts)... screaming that they're going to blow your head off.
It's important for those of us who have more options to recognize that not everybody is given those options.
This man didn't have the chance to look at the officer and smile.
Tumbulu
(6,291 posts)and have been stopped 2 x's in the past 8 years. Both times I was SCREAMED at by really angry white policemen. The first stop I was given a ticket for turning left at 9:59 am at a place that said no left turns from 7-10 am......plus I was screamed at- "what are you doing here?! " As though they thought that I was someone else....I had no idea why I wasn't supposed to be driving down a public road- and I do drive a bit slow, but not slow enough to be screamed at!. And my watch is 5 minutes fast so that I get to places on time......
The second time I was out on a country road between the town and my farm. Had just been helping with the shearing of sheep and my back was all seized up. I did an incomplete stop at a 4 way stop with no one on any of the other roads. But the highway patrolman just went off at me- how come he did not see my head turn to the left or right (hmm, you move 225 sheep through shoots for 2 days and let's see who easily you can turn your head!) how dare I not come to a complete stop! I had my daughter with me and she got really scared.
After these too incidents, which I believe were triggered by my very white hair, I said to myself "if they are this violent in speech to me- what are they doing to the poor people from Mexico and the African Americans?"
I am just aghast at the amping up of the violence of the police. And I am from a liberal county in N CA, no less.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)But for a lot of people, smiling and talking up the cop don't work. Some (I won't generalize -- yet -- and say "all" cops nowadays work from the presumption that everyone (especially minorities) are out to get them. Therefore, no presumption of innocence.
If you haven't already, watch the Maher clip, and then ask yourself honestly if a smile and a hail-fellow-well-met attitude would have worked with this actor and his nephews.
vlyons
(10,252 posts)remember, my Daddy was a cop, and he was definitely a racist. How well I remember his cop buddies commentary about how they beat up on "wire heads." Disgusting. I was a teen-ager then (mid-60s) and quite embarrassed by such remarks. But I was way too afraid of my Dad to say anything. My point is that it's always a good idea to be extremely courteous to everyone, especially cops. Most of them are good people, but some of them have power issues. And if I get stopped, I don't want to discover which is which after it's too late.
A cop can arrest you for any damn reason, or no reason at all.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)Take the example of the guy who was shot at the gas station for no good reason -- he was polite as the day is long and all it got him were bullets in the gut.
There is a violent, aggressive attitude by cops toward some in the community. That's the problem.
Parents shouldn't have to have "the talk" with their kids about how to deal with people who are supposedly public servants, in society to protect and assist.
And I would amend your last sentence to read, "A cop can SHOOT you for any damn reason, or no reason at all." That was what was going through Wendell Pierce's mind that day he was stopped.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)The fact there are more guns than people is not forgotten by those that have to face those 300,000,000 plus and counting guns every day, even as it is forgotten by everyone else.
Concealed, open carry, legal, illegal, responsible,irresponsible, sane, insane, pistol, rifle, shotgun, imitation, sniper, assault, military, semi auto, full auto, armor piercing, body shredding, the folks all have guns.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)'The folks all have guns'. The folks. All of them have guns. They. Them. The other. The folks. They all have guns. Like the gun Michael Brown had?
The gentleman telling his story in the OP was unarmed as well. For fuck sake.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)armed to the teeth and armed at any moment unknown to police, has to be part of the equation when discussing police conduct?
I am 99% with the OP on the stated facts, but there are always two sides to a story, I need to hear the other side, even if the other side is a ludicrous side, it informs the debate, but that is just me.
The general atmosphere of gun loving and violence loving America is one I would not care much to serve and protect without a healthy dose of paranoia.
Let me patrol Canada or the UK any day over NRA controlled America.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)shouldn't "those that have to face those 300,000,000 plus and counting guns every day" be more "on alert" when stopping white males?
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)if all those guns represented a real threat, shouldn't we have seen a huge spike in police shootings?
Yours is a bullshit excuse for police abuse of minorities.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)more to think about beyond the instant noodle outrage.
hack89
(39,171 posts)or in this case, in the face of evidence that says the opposite, then don't be surprised if folks wonder if you are simply pushing a personal agenda.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Wow.
I think the point Pierce and most of the outraged posters are saying is this conduct isn't "instant", no "noodlish" ... it is persist and real for people of color.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Well, that's... unexpected.
hack89
(39,171 posts)Have you ever seen disparage minorities?
Tumbulu
(6,291 posts)I think a very big way to reduce police violence would be to disarm the population at large. Then the police would not all need to be arms either.
It would be a win win.
I do think that police hatred/fear or minorities is irrefutable and absolutely needs to be changed.
I would love to see unregulated guns removed from society at large. I think it would be significant.
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)we will remain a racist society.
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)Skin color is a feature that should mean no more than eye or hair color, but our society seems to be eons from embracing that simple fact. In the meantime, it does no good to pretend that the mere labeling is the problem. It's much more ingrained than that.
uponit7771
(90,347 posts)...differences IMHO
tblue37
(65,409 posts)thread a few days ago, to illustrate how cops often approach even obviously upstanding black men as though they are dangerous criminals in situations where they would be polite to a white person.
The screaming, cursing, and manhandling of black citizens by cops is their default behavior, not something they do only when the person they are interacting with is a dangerous lowlife criminal, whereas if the person is white, the cop's demeanor is usually not that aggressive and disrespectful unless the person *looks* like a dangerous person--or at least like someone so poor that they could not possibly get after the cop legally for abusing them.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)if you don't obey you will die. That's extreme for other than know dangerous criminals. This case is a good example. "Mother fucker get out that car, I'm gonna blow your fucking head off." Clearly the policeman believes that he has the right to blow the head off this "mother fucker" for simply not complying to his order. This officer should be fired and if not, made to continue his job without a weapon for 6 months.
Solly Mack
(90,773 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)Although I have never been mistreated by the police to the extent Wendell Davis and all Black Americans have been, I'm Asian American, and to the police in Los Angeles, I'm money.
Asian Americans have gotten the stigma that we're bad drivers with deep pockets. My son, who is the product of a White and Asian but who looks White, did a stint in parking enforcement in some small Mall a few years back (he has the right height and bulk). Anyway, he regularly came in contact with police officers who had no clue he was half Asian, so they let their guard down.
They told him that if he wanted to meet his quota (although they deny there is such a thing - yeah, right) he should shadow Asian drivers. He was told that Asians are horrible drivers but they have deep pockets and they always pay up.
My personal experience with racial profiling goes like this: when I was leaving the parking lot of a local Stater Bros in our neighborhood, I saw a B&W squad car parked along the street near where I exited. I leave the parking lot and begin to drive, but as I do, I see the squad pull away from the curb. Thinking nothing of it (never had a ticket in my life and have never been pulled over), I continue to drive while I listen to some music. Then I glance in my rearview and see the squad car right behind me. Curious - and unwilling to claim paranoia - I take a longer route to get home and ... they follow - all the way to my house where they finally parked across the street in front of our neighbors' house.
I pull up on my driveway, park, and get out. I look curiously at them with an expression (which they might nor might not have seen) of confusion. Instead of driving off, the cop behind the wheel lowered his window and gives me this big fat smirk. He seemed to want to let me know, "Yes, we've been following you." Till this day, that has bothered me - and that's been about ten years ago.
For some years now, Latinos are regularly pulled over for no reason whatsoever. There is definitely racial profiling going on, but there's a different reason for pulling over Blacks, Latinos, and Asians.
Blacks are pulled over to harass and purely out of racism.
Latinos are pulled over to intimidate - so they know who's the boss in town.
Asians are pulled over for quick payouts.
When President Clinton came out to lobby for more funds for more police officers, long before my personal experience, I instinctively asked myself, WHY? Why would any non-White American want more bullies to harass them on the streets?
ladjf
(17,320 posts)Citizens need the protection of a ProCam device on their person at all times. However, if the cops were to discover the camera, odds are more likely that they would become violent.
TeeYiYi
(8,028 posts)...that racism is a relentless, every day scourge for blacks in America.
There is nothing that triggers debilitating fear in me more quickly than the sight of cop lights in my rear view mirror; so disturbing in fact, that I have no doubt that one day it might cause a heart attack in me.
Here's the thing... I'm white. I have blonde hair, blue eyes AND I'm female. So, if cops scare me this bad, I can only try to imagine the fear my black brothers and sisters must feel.
This video is a good reminder that something so frightening to me, would be more than 1000 times worse if I were black.
TYY
Response to TeeYiYi (Reply #31)
Name removed Message auto-removed
rock
(13,218 posts)and currently doing a bang-up job on "Ray Donovan"!
progressoid
(49,991 posts)This isn't just about training officers to pull people over correctly. This is about training officers (and the rest of America for that matter) not to see every Black man as a criminal packing a TEC-9.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)If there is a known situation of gunfire they need to send in a special unit and only that one unit gets guns. Sorry, but they brought it on themselves.
locdlib
(176 posts)When racist chickenshit officers are trained by racist chickenshit trainers, shit like this happens. These racist shitty, little fraidy-cat officers pull people over for no reason, and when officer chickenshit racist who is also a fraidy-cat realizes he has no reason for stopping a person for driving other than the fact that the driver is black, well, officer chickenshit then resorts to brute force and violence. It's a formula that never, ever fails: chickenshit/racist officer trainers + chickenshit racist/officer wannabe = chickenshit law enforcement. Until some major changes are made in this shitty country, shit like this will keep happening.
demigoddess
(6,641 posts)ashamed to be white. And now that I am too old to run out there and protest I am sorry not to be able to. This stuff should not go on in our country.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They say it with the idea that it's silly to keep things like Affirmative Action and Voting Rights on the books.
Now with Obama in the White House we see racism is alive and well.
It's just a smaller portion of the population.
A minority.
And because they see their ideas are unpopular they are in a panic. The Right has come to associate racism as a part of Southern culture and heritage and they feel it's something they need to preserve along with tea parties in dresses composed of concentric rings to make women look like their mode of transport is the same as a Dalek.
uponit7771
(90,347 posts)... if I do remain as calm or even calmer so I don't get killed
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)and all the poor judgment, aggression and violence that goes with it is becoming a serious health problem in many police departments. Part of the solution is to not give them military weapons, is to require routine drug testing and psychological evaluations.
Tumbulu
(6,291 posts)has made it very clear that we are anything BUT post racist! We seem to be having some sort of resurgence of it, in such a terrible way.
marew
(1,588 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,366 posts)Thanks for the thread, eridani.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)pay for them. Every citizen needs to know that someone is watching those who "serve and protect" because we all pay their salaries.
butterfly77
(17,609 posts)mountain grammy
(26,626 posts)We all have to talk about this all the time, all the time, whether people are listening or not. We have to keep it out in the open, or, I swear, people will start to "disappear."
And google the show.. he responded in another discussion regarding violence. His response will send chills down your spine. About an era where people didn't talk about it and did disappear.
BlueMTexpat
(15,370 posts)I loved him in "The Wire" and again in "Treme." I haven't seen his more recent work, but if it is to the same high standard, we are all blessed to have him.
That such a treasure would ever have to be so afraid in the land of his birth says volumes about how far America still has to go. Yes, STILL. In the 21st century, no less ...!
ProfessorGAC
(65,078 posts)I thought he was absolutely great because he did is so calmly and matter of factly. This is what happened, here's what i think he did wrong, and here's why i think it's systemic.
There is no good argument against his point.
still_one
(92,233 posts)absolutely NO Excuse for that.
ecstatic
(32,712 posts)Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and Michael Vick (about 30 seconds into the clip).
Chemisse
(30,813 posts)We need to hear of so many incidents that we will be compelled to fix the problem.
Police training, constant accountability via cameras, and an independent group to oversee police forces and dole out consequences.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)Terrifying.
And he is exactly right.
'Post-racial' America is a RW myth.