Systematic racism is alive and well in America.
I live in a gentrifying black neighborhood (Bed-Stuy), and as I was coming home from work today I witnessed a moped rider being run off the street into parked cars by a white SUV. A blue striped white SUV. And the moped rider was my neighbor’s son, who with his friends tinkers with and welds together homemade mopeds. And sometimes rides them around the block, at reasonable and safe speeds, signaling, always going the correct way down the streets etc. OH SHIT.
Four cops jumped out of the SUV [which had neither siren nor lights on] once he’d been forced into a parked car, tackled him, and arrested him, then confiscated his motorbike. A pile of other cops came to watch, including an unmarked car with two plainclothes police and a big van to haul away the bike.
I caught the whole thing on video as soon as I realized what was going on [and yes, you should film, any time you see a person of color being harassed by the police]. Seriously, the escalation of force and arrest was unnecessary and did nothing to make my neighborhood safer. Had this kid been white, he’d have been pulled over with siren/lights and let off with a warning. Instead, he was ridden off the road, tackled, and hauled off for arrest.
The racism of broken windows, caught in action. And we wonder why there are so few black engineers. Because when they tinker and experiment, they’re locked up and given criminal records.
A Pun Involving Travel 