Original Post Date
2011-02-21 09:13 AM
Original Body
On Sunday morning 1-9-11 about six -thirty AM, I left the Bread of Life Mission to sell real Change papers. As I was heading to the Starbucks coffee shop, Iwas startled like a moose by bright shining lights. There was at least four police cars shining bright lights on me.
A officer called out over the mega-phone, "Stop, put your hands up over your head." I thought, "I just woke up, I'm still drowsy from sleep." Then I thought of all the people who made the wrong decesion by not responding to the police quick enough and ended up shot. I felt threaten, vunerable, and helpless. I put my hands over my head. Several officers came foward and said I fitted the profile of some one who had committed a crime. I responded "I spent the night at the Bread of Life Mission and just was on my way to catch the bus to go to sell Real Change papers at the Safeway store in Queen Anne.
They searched me carefully and then they said , " You can put your hands down now." I said, "thanks." I took a deep breath as my heart was beating like a bass drum ........boom.....boom.....boom! The whole thing seen like a bad, bad dream, but the truth is , it was real.
I thought to my self "How could this happen to me , I got a clean record , never been in trouble with the law. I been raising funds for chartible causes, most of my life. If it can happen to me it can happen to any one."
The whole thing is that I will never know where tis thing started from . I can only live my life the way I been doing for the last 57 years, trying to do the right thing and helping others.
More communities, churches and other organizations could be of better help by informing the public what to do when stopped by the police, to keep peace.
Luckily , my parents taught me about this subject when I was young.
Here are some information that I researched over the internet:
In 2009 in the United States of America, 92.7% of prisoners were males. Blacks accounted for 38% of the prison population, despite making up just 12.4 % of the total civilian population. The incarceration of black males is over six times the rate of white males, and 2.6 times the rate for hispanics males.
Police profiling is recognized as a gllobal poverty issue. Even Amnesty International identifies "the poor , the young and minorities" as a "powerlees group" targeted by the police.
Profiled people has been working to stop police profiling through education. For example, the Native American Advisory Council's mission is "to create relationships between the Seattle Police Department and the Native American, Alaska Native and First Nations People in order to provide mutual effective avenues of communication, education and respect between or respective communities." Organizations have been developed with the sole purpose of stopping police profiling and keeping their communities safe. Right now, we are still not safe. But we can keep fighting.
The community can save the community through information and education.