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Yesterday the Morning News published a column by UNT journalism dean Dorothy Bland, in which she claims to have been stopped for “walking while black” in her own Corinth neighborhood:
Knowing that the police officers are typically armed with guns and are a lot bigger than my 5 feet, 4 inches, I had no interest in my life’s story playing out like Trayvon Martin’s death. I stopped and asked the two officers if there was a problem; I don’t remember getting a decent answer before one of the officers asked me where I lived and for identification.
Given the number of unreasonable encounters between white cops and black citizens that have been discussed on the national stage in the couple years, including the McKinney pool party incident in June, it’s understandable why Bland would be on guard when the two officers flagged her down.
Before watching the video (see it above), I was prepared to be outraged once again at another brazen display of racism on the part of law enforcement. But you know what? As the Corinth police chief says in the DMN‘s published response to Bland’s column, this does seem to be a case where the officers were prompted to stop Bland to warn her because she’d already nearly been (unknowingly) hit by a truck during her walk. And though Highland Park is the only municipality that I’ve ever seen actually enforce it, it’s against state law for pedestrians to walk in the road in an area where a sidewalk is present. (As is the case on this street.)
Where the cops go too far is in bothering to ask Bland for her identification. She’s right: who carries an ID while out for a morning run? Did her impeding of traffic really necessitate that step? If that’s the department’s standard procedure for an incident like this, as the chief claims, then I imagine most citizens of Corinth would prefer the department revise its procedures.
Its plain from the manner in which Bland asks to take their pictures and her tone of voice that she’s been rendered uncomfortable by this encounter, regardless whether the cops’ intentions were good. Smarter policing would allow for an officer to read the emotional tension in a situation like this, say “screw it” to standard procedures, and wish Ms. Bland a nice day.
We don’t want cops, through blind adherence to policy, to stop acting like humans.
