So being a white dude a lot of people that know me, the white ones, tend to be perturbed when I tend to veer more on the side of those that rioted in #Baltimore, not that I agree with the actual act of destroying property and causing mayhem, in that think cops have been murdering people of color for decades and covering it up; especially in the south. The reason I veer on the side is that I myself have actually experienced racial profiling by the police; in this case the North Charleston Police Department.
I used to have a friends with benefits relationship with a black girl whom is still a friend of mine to this day. She has been my friend even when she has seen me at my worst. She is probably one of the most kind hearted people you will ever meet.
One day I was hanging out with her and her younger brother at her place and we were all hungry. I offered to go to Taco Bell and her brother wanted to come. I drove us over there and we got three meals with three drinks. I got back on Dorchester Rd and almost immediately I saw blue lights. I pulled into the nearest gas station, put my car in park, cut off the engine, and got all of the necessary paper work ready in order to show full cooperation with the officers. They came up on my drivers side and asked for my papers which I handed to them. So far nothing out of the ordinary.
That's when two other NCPD patrol cars pulled up. This had me quite confused. I had. and still have, a clean record and I wasn't speeding. I also used my turn signals properly when pulling out of the Taco Bell. Thats when officers came up on both sides and start grilling me on what my business in this part of town was. That's when one of the officers asked, "Well why do you have 3 drinks?"
I thought the question was pretty absurd so I responded with, "Well officer there are three hungry people in this equation and the three of us are also thirsty hence the three drinks." They were Mountain Dew baja blasts. Eventually they let us go with a warning for a busted tail light. Honestly I was quite confused and a little angry about it. It's not like that pointed a gun in my face or broke my neck but I still felt like my rights had been impinged upon.
Later that night I was working security, ironically, at a downtown bar when I told someone what happened. He said, "Dude they were profiling you. You're a 23 year old white guy riding around with a 13 year old black kid. They probably thought you were trying to sell him drugs."
This blew my mind and quite honestly changed my opinion of cops ever since. It's also kind of why don't agree with the riots in Baltimore but I understand and can't really blame a bunch of urban youths for rising up against a police department that wouldn't lose sleep over killing them and covering it up. Not all cops are like that but enough are like that to where it's a major problem.
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