JAYWALKING WHILE BLACK

Before you watch the video link below, I want to tell you a story

I was on a military base jaywalking as a kid. A military officer at the guard shack called us over. He asked us why we were walking in the street. I was nervous about getting in trouble -- more like petrified. I wasn't a particularly brave kid. We told him we were walking in the street because the old snow on the sidewalk and the old snow to the SIDE was now ice. We were slipping and falling trying to walk on it. It was easier to walk in fresh snow on the street. 

He took our names down anyway. 

I told my parents when I got home to prevent ME getting into trouble. 

Turned out my father was mad at the cop. All that cop did was talk and ask for our names...I tried to defend the cop saying he was polite. My father was still pissed. I didn't understand what a cop writing your name down might mean at the time. I might have been 14 years old.

Cop apologized the next day AND THE SIDEWALKS had been cleaned. Sidewalks stayed cleaned the entire winter. 

Now I'm trying to imagine how differently that would have gone if the cop had tried to grab us. Some or all of us would have run. (And back in the 70s we'd have gotten away because they wore boots that weren't  very flexible at the ankle and all that crap they had to wear --including the gun-- bouncing up and down slowed them down too.)

Cops pile on a crying black kid for Jay Walking

I'm certain a number of military police would have accosted us in various situations if they didn't KNOW for sure that somebody's father, who outranks them, wouldn't nail them to the wall if they stepped a toe out of line with the children living on post. 

Off post? Civilian police appear to know that they are the KINGS of all they survey. It shouldn't be that way. They shouldn't be able to touch anybody they want to without a good  reason. And jaywalking ain't it. 

It is natural to lean away from someone reaching out to put their hands on you. I can't imagine I wouldn't move away from hands coming toward me for no reason. Jaywalking is a talking offense. Jaywalking is a "Can you come over here and let me talk to you, please" --JUST LIKE THAT COP spoke to me that day back when I was a kid.

Again, if hands would have come out at me at the same time? As a kid, I might run. As an adult I wouldn't run. As an adult there might be a lean or a lunge or two away from the cop before it dawned on me to be still....but this is counter intuitive. A physical attack makes you move away. As an adult I can do it - after a moment or two. But a cop with a hair trigger temper would have bashed my skull in already. 

There isn't a reason to put hands on somebody for jaywalking unless you are attempting to generate a resisting arrest charge. 

This video is supposedly from 9 15 15 at San Joaquin RTD Downtown Transit Center (DTC) or maybe Stockton. I don't know if the commentary is entirely true. But I'd like you to investigate. 

It does appear that the person that filmed the video thought that this kid kept walking (scared) but I STILL don't like the fact that the baton came out and a half dozen or more officers showed up. This was handled BADLY And now, I'm trying to imagine how this crying kid would have been handled if the woman screaming "He's a kid!!!" in the background hadn't been there. 

I am also having a hard time imagining this happening to some white kid in Bel Air.

Please investigate.

I don't know the person who originally posted this. So I'm cautious. But I a similar link to this video to Huff Post, LA Times, and Governor Jerry Brown. I want to know what happened, where it happened, when it happened FOR SURE, and if this kid has a record of resisting arrest now.

This kid's behavior was not perfect according to the commentary provided by the person who filmed it. But perfection is NOT required to avoid this bullsh** when you're white. It shouldn't be required when you're black either.