Today I saw white privilege in action --Update [View all]

[mnhtnbb]

Update Tuesday morning.

As far as I can tell, the black man who was handcuffed by the police--one officer doing the handcuffing and a second officer standing behind him watching--was not arrested. A local Raleigh TV station keeps a blog of arrest record/mug shots by date and county in the immediate viewing area. I just finished checking the arrests for Wake County yesterday and the man I saw being handcuffed at the location is not listed in the arrests yesterday.

https://www.wral.com/wake-county-nc-arrest-photos/8981628/

If you move your cursor over the mug shot, it brings up the arresting record information, including the address where the arrest occurred.

It looked to me like a routine traffic stop with a lot of police power. Driving while black? Mistaken identity?


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Background: I'm a 68 yo white female. Retired. Have lived all over the country since I was born in NY, grew up in NJ, moved to CA as a teen, and migrated east from L.A. in the late 80's through Missouri and Nebraska because my husband and I didn't want to raise kids in Los Angeles. Ended up in North Carolina in 2000.

So, I've been around. I've seen things

Today I was driving from downtown Raleigh, where I live, to Cameron Village--about 10 minutes away on surface streets--to run some errands. The woman in front of me and I pulled up to a stoplight. There are multiple signs indicating NO RIGHT TURN ON RED posted at the intersection. A police car pulls up in the left lane beside us. I could see it coming...and she did it! The white woman in front of me turned right--on the red light--in spite of the multiple signs stating not to do so. I thought, how fun, the cop is going to put on his lights, pull in front of me, and go after her. The thought of it made me chuckle, because I see so many people violating rules of the road that I loved the idea this woman was going to get caught.

Wrong. The cop did NOTHING. WTF? Blatant violation of the posted signs and he did NOTHING! There is no way he didn't see it. She was white. Did that have something to do with it?

Later this afternoon Snowy and I were out for our 4 pm walk. I saw two police cars--lights flashing--with a car pulled over. I didn't see the police pull the car over so have no idea why it was pulled over. Traffic violation? BOLO on the car? Running warrants after a traffic stop? Have no idea. But there were two cops on the stop.

But guess what? They got a black man out of the car and handcuffed him. No resistance. He was cooperative. There were plenty of people around to whip out cell phones had it gotten difficult.

But it made me think about the white woman who earlier in the day--not four blocks away--who violated a traffic sign RIGHT NEXT TO A POLICE CAR and NOTHING happened to her. She just went on her merry way. No Sandra Bland treatment for her.