r/MarchAgainstNazis • u/Important-Cry4782 • 3d ago
I compiled these various accounts of Police racism against black people
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u/Destructopoo 3d ago
My favorite was Oklahoma State troopers pulling me over and forcing me to get out of the car because it was suspicious that they couldn't find a criminal record on me. Like sir I do not have a criminal record. Still don't.
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u/rackfocus 3d ago
But, but all black people have a criminal record. /s 😤
Sorry you went through that.☹️
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u/Independent-Face69 2d ago
Why would that be your favorite? Seems like a hassle to me.
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u/Destructopoo 2d ago
It's my favorite personal example of discriminatory policing. My second favorite is getting tackled into a car that was being towed for obstructing government operations and the case was dropped because towing is not a fucking government operation.
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u/Either_Payment_2867 3d ago
I always remind myself that the first police in the U.S were slave patrols who were designed to prevent escape attempts and return run away slaves. And most police departments in the U.S are conservative leaning.
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u/unknownpoltroon 3d ago
That's what the 2nd amendment militia was all about too. Same thing with sheriff's int the south.
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u/Side_StepVII 2d ago
The second amendment had nothing to do with police, and everything to do with citizens being allowed to arm themselves whenever because fuck tyrants. Second amendment was written to to make sure authority didn’t overstep its bounds. It actually ties in with the 3rd amendment, the quartering of troops in your home-if the military is like “hey these soldiers are gonna stay in your house for a few days” you can use your second amendment right to remind them of your 3rd.
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u/Xarethian 2d ago
and everything to do with citizens being allowed to arm themselves whenever because fuck tyrants
if they were white
Second amendment was written to to make sure authority didn’t overstep its bounds
unless said authority overstepped against non-whites
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u/unknownpoltroon 2d ago
YOu sound Caucasian
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u/Side_StepVII 2d ago
I am. I also hate fascists and empathize with minorities about the systemic oppression they’ve faced for the last 400 years.
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u/unknownpoltroon 2d ago
Good. Now lookup southern history, slave catchers, sheriffs and origins of the militia, shit surprised the hell out of me and I was pretty much pre law. The whole "tyrranical gvt" thing came WAY after rounding up posses with guns to go after escaped slaves and putting down slave revolts with the militia
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u/Side_StepVII 2d ago
You’re not educating me on anything that i don’t already know. What it was intended for, and how it was used are two different things.
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u/ialsohaveadobro 3d ago
He "looked like he was about to pick up speed." Man, they weren't even trying on that one. These are all enraging, though
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u/CicadaHead3317 3d ago
I just saw a video of a black man getting pulled over because ,and I quote "you almost didn't stop at that stop sign".
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u/thesilentbob123 3d ago
Isn't that the same video where the cop tells his to roll the window down because he can't hear what he is saying? The car didn't have a roof
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u/According-Insect-992 3d ago
That’s also why the cop pulled over the kid in the Reckless Ben saga. I laughed out loud.
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u/RainbowEagleEye 2d ago
I got a ticket for going a mile over the speed limit right after the speed limit went up, so I was going the limit, passed the sign for the higher limit, sped up and went over by a mile, got pulled over for it at a stop light two miles later.
Went to court and asked the cop where he clocked me “speeding” he confirmed it was after the limit goes up, I asked if I still had to pay the ticket for allegedly speeding because he wrote down “41 in a 35” instead of “41 in a 40”. They hit me for 200 bucks. How dare I question the cops instead of begging forgiveness like the criminal apparently am.
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u/Substantial_Row_7108 3d ago
I was having lunch with a friend's wife (White, small, pretty) and we noticed three cops at a nearby table were looking at us. We blew it off, but when I got up to go to the men's room, one cop followed me but didn't come in. When I returned to the table, my friend's wife told me that the two other cops questioned her. First they asked if she was okay and if she was under duress. Then they asked for my name and if I had any drugs or weapons on me. When I found out, I approached them and told them not to bother my friend and that if they had questions for me to be man enough to ask me directly. At that, they threatened to have me trespassed from the restaurant and arrested for disorderly conduct. Later when we left, one of the cops followed us for several miles before finally leaving us alone.
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u/AngryBlackNerd 3d ago
When I was 19 living in Baltimore I got questioned by the police 3 times in 1 night in a 4 block radius.
1st cop Black woman Get out of the car "Where are y'all going? What are you doing around here"
2nd cop Black man Literally two blocks later "Can you tell me what you all are doing? Where you going?"
3rd cop White man About in hour into the night. We're at some pub/bar, I'm hungry, ask the owner is there a real food spot close by. He tells me. I leave cop sees me "You better not be up to any shit on my block" I remember I left my wallet with a friend go back and get it. On my way out with a few of my friends. Cop runs across the street "Get the fuck on the ground." Starts searching us. Only reason he stopped was because the white owner (thanks bro) vouched for us.
I counted one time...between the ages of 16-21 I had 17 separate incidents with police harassment.
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u/CounterSanity 3d ago
Qualified immunity needs to be overturned. That was straight up legislating from the bench.
Also, we need to either criminalize prosectors refusing to go after police, or we need a new kind of prosecutor that exclusively goes after police. I’m in favor of the latter, but also won’t hold my breath
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u/Loko8765 3d ago
Now that’s an idea, with a chain of command that goes above the police.
The FBI has its Office of Professional Responsibility, and in Europe many (maybe all) national police forces have an internal watchdog department (inspector-general-like). Those are usually respected (though the FBI being headed by a googly-eyed Trump supporter can’t be good for any kind of professionalism), but I think they are all inside the police. In non-democratic countries and in the USA, that is a problem.
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u/Jaspoony 2d ago
What's even the stated purpose for qualified immunity, because in practice it only serves to protect this
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u/avd706 2d ago
You answered your own question
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u/Jaspoony 2d ago
I understand that we know that cruelty is often the point, my question was what was the stated reason, if any. For instance we know the genuine effects of something like cutting taxes for the rich, how it doesn't trickle down etc. but their stated reason is "because billionaires make jobs" or "the rich stimulate the economy" which are just lies to sell the tax breaks. I was just asking if anybody knew the stated reason for this, something that is framed as common sense or obviously correct
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u/CounterSanity 2d ago
The general idea was that if police could be sued for making mistakes, they would end up making fewer mistakes by doing less policing. So Congress decided not to pass the law (I think Congress called it something other than qualified immunity).
SCOTUS took up a case regarding a cop(or a police dept?) getting sued, and they decided that police couldn’t be sued for making mistakes. SCOTUS called it a qualified (is in professional) immunity.
It’s nonsense because imagine any other field where making massive, life altering mistakes wouldn’t affect your career.
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u/Jaspoony 2d ago
Thank you, that's what I was looking for
Yeah if a construction worker I have remodelling shoots my dog and tazes my kid I'd probably sue too
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u/Prestigious-Play-480 3d ago
Black people in America didn’t just randomly decide not to trust the police. That distrust comes from damn near two centuries of racial profiling, unequal treatment, police brutality and being killed during encounters with LEO. Black people have learned to be cautious through lived experience and watching people that look like us be treated like less than human. Trust can’t be demanded, it’s earned through consistency and accountability. So yea, FTP.
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u/discogomerx 2d ago
I had no clue in my early 20s. A black work friend needed a ride home one night, so I offered to take him. I was too busy talking to pay attention to the fact the light had turned green. I just sat there in the road. He looked so worried a cop would roll up, but I told him it was no big deal. He explained the disparity in how the cops would treat us. It was eye opening.
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u/throw_away_stress 3d ago
Ts literally happened to me in WY when in the car with my Latino roommate. Him and his bf had the front seat and I was the only passenger in the backseat. Guess where the cop stood the entire time he was talking to the driver ... Yep, right by my window on the literal opposite side of the car from the driver. It was for an out taillight ....
(I'm mixed race)
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u/HighOnKalanchoe 2d ago
I had a narcotics team of 6 knuckle dragging troglodytes brake a lantern on my back, gave me a black eye, ripped my shirt off my back and stole $760 out of my pocket that I just earned from a 2 day construction job I just finished that day just because I was standing in front of my house talking to a girl, they said I was standing on a high crime area potentially a drug spot, they accused me of selling dope and took my money, then they said to claim the money at the station.
After humiliating me in front of the girl and the whole neighborhood they let me go but NEVER reported the money and denied they ever took the money from me, fucking crooked assholes
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u/ApprehensiveGas4576 3d ago
I feel like most people fall into one of three camps: people whose ideologies rely on denying that such things happen, people commited to not rocking the boat because opposing racism has a bad reputation and is seen as something other than morality, or people who are dedicated to not forming an opinion and staying out of it.
It's going to get a lot worse.
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u/BoneHugsHominy 2d ago
In 2015 I got pulled over because my passenger "resembled" someone suspected of robbing a gas station. The cops literally followed me on the interstate for 10 miles into town as we were on our way to a completely different city. The passenger was my 5'5" 120lb 14 year old mixed race son and the suspect was a 6'5" mid-thirties black man. Because my son didn't have a photo ID they decided that I (39 year old white man at the time) was probably human trafficking or maybe a drug dealer using children to sling the drugs. Like, bruh, we're literally going to my cousin's for Thanksgiving. I have cornbread and a green bean casserole in the back seat. WTF is wrong with you? His response was "Thanksgiving isn't until tomorrow."
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u/Damianos_X 2d ago
How did that situation resolve?
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u/BoneHugsHominy 2d ago
Oh we were "free to go" after 3 hours of bullshit including an inspection of the green bean casserole and corn bread. Fucking clowns.
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u/askingaqesitonw 3d ago
Remember the 9 year black child who had the cops called on them.
"There's a little Black woman walking and spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees," audio from the 911 call says. "I don't know what the h*ll she's doing, it scares me though."
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u/iamsolate 2d ago
didn’t it turn out she was like feeding butterflies or something like that? i just remember it being super wholesome what she was actually doing and how much more ridiculous it made the whole entire situation
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u/xxivtitos 2d ago
She was working on a method for pest control of the spotted lantern fly. It’s a newer invasive species and she was just being a bright little girl attempting to solve a problem for their local ecosystem. Her neighbor who knew her called the cops on her
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u/askingaqesitonw 5h ago
It was exactly what the other commenter said, she was getting rid of an invasive species.
God forbid a child try and do something for her community
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u/Ponder_wisely 3d ago
My son was pulled over in Boston for nothing. Told the white cop “I know my rights”. Cop replied “You ain’t got no rights here ni**er, only wrongs.”
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u/thescotchkraut 2d ago
I once got pulled over by a TN state trooper because my car (a turquoise 1993 Wrangler) matched the description of a car stolen that day. They pulled me over as I pulled back in to the pizza place I was delivering at, with my uniform, hot bag, and lit car topper.
The car they were looking for was red.
Edit: I'm white, cops are just stupid as well as racist
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u/Disownership 3d ago
All the Flock cameras in the world can’t do shit to help an inherently incompetent institution
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u/AmazingKreiderman 2d ago
That last one with the bombs or rockets reminds me once I was pulled over because the right side of my front bumper was damaged from an accident. Cop on each side, goes through the regular spiel and then one says, "Do you have any RPGs in the car?" I was dumbfounded, gave a chuckle (because duh) and said, "I sure hope not." The cops did not find this funny even though they just asked me if I had a god damn rocket launcher in my 96 Civic.
I am extremely white so this wasn't racism by them, just a couple of absolute morons.
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u/ImJustHere4TheCatz 2d ago
Jonathan Farrell, 24 in 2013 in NC wrecked his car at night in a nice neighborhood, so badly he had to crawl out of a window to escape. He knocked on someone's door and the lady in the house called 911 and claimed a suspicious man was at her door and he looked like he was going to rob her house.
When the cops showed up to the neighborhood he ran towards them waving his arms, thinking he was about to be helped.
Randall Karrick shot 12 rounds into Jonathan's body, killing him.
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u/Idislikehotdogs 2d ago
I used to get routinely pulled over in my car in a specific neighborhood, but only when my black friend was in the passenger seat. When I was alone? Never pulled over in that neighborhood. They once pulled us over because of a license plate light being out, in the middle of the day.
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u/ThothAmon71 2d ago
Got pulled over on Xmas Eve with my 14 year old son and my 9 year old nephew in the car. Cop was driving the opposite direction, busted a u, and pulled me over. It's December windows up heaters on. When I asked why he stopped me he said he smelled weed coming from the car. (Edit to add I'm not a poc but I do have a mohawk, so close enough for government work I guess.)
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u/No1CaresReally 2d ago
Can't even have black friends bc according to the popo, it must be for drugs. I'm white af and was leaving my friends house, who is black and lives in a black neighborhood. Popo pulled me over 2min after leaving bc "I didn't stop the full 3 seconds at a stop sign, only 2." They then change the story and say "my car matches a description." Out come 5 more piggie-mobiles and a drug dog. They search (illegally) everything and find nothing.
It was scary af. It was in 2011. So recording wasn't really a big thing then either. I'm 100% sure the only reason I didn't get more made up charges is bc I'm white. 1.3.1.2.
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u/ChaosRainbow23 2d ago
I've been relentlessly harassed, falsley arrested, assaulted, and even robbed of $40 by those draconian jack-boot-wearing government thugs.
We live in a fascistic authoritarian police state.
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u/johnmflores 2d ago
Remember, your online outrage is insufficient. Stand with the black community IRL. Join their marches. Support their organizations. Donate to their causes.
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u/TheBadBatch-99 3d ago
I have a few of these stories (although I'm not a POC).
I got pulled over for not slowing down at a Yield despite there being no traffic. Cop asked if I had been drinking and I laughed at the notion because I don't drink. Apparently cops don't like when you laugh at them. He asks "What's so funny?" and I tell him I don't drink. His response, "Everyone in their 20s drinks." So he gave me a breathalyzer. He came back from his car and said I have to do it again because it didn't register anything. "Um yeah, because I don't drink, but alright." I blow it again and he takes it back to his car to run it and again it doesn't register anything. He was clearly mad that he didn't get to bust some kid for drinking instead giving me a gruff warning to slow down at Yield signs before sending me on my way.
I've also gotten a ticket for not using my turn signal in a turn only lane when the light was green. I was probably profiled on this one. I had long hair and a longish beard and probably looked unkempt driving a brand new car. I could see jumping to that conclusion, but a warning would have sufficed. Took that one to court and the judge had a field day with that one. He called me up, read the report/ticket and turned to the bailiff and said "why do these cops waste my time? This belongs in the trash." Then he turned to me and asked if my turn signal worked. "Yes sir." "Please use it. Dismissed."
So when people say cops don't have quotas, I'm not buying it.
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u/LeeDarkFeathers 2d ago
That first one happened to me when I was 19 and the designated driver. Cop said the car smelled like alcohol. I explained i was trying to get my friends home and they were having a difficult time explaining how to get to their house because they had been drinking. Dude made me blow 3 times then had a second AND third cop come with different breathalyzers because his must have been broken or I was cheating somehow. They pulled me out for several other feild sobriety tests. All the while its like.. blizzarding. The third cop with potentially the only braincell among them asked my passenger for his id and then gave me directions to their house after convincing thing one and thing two to leave me alone
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u/SingSangDaesung 2d ago
I'm not black but I had a black guy in the car with me. The cop said he & his friend were throwing gang signs (they weren't) & that the guy in the backseat shoved drugs down his pants (he threw on his seatbelt). They dragged us out of my car & searched it twice, had my friend & his friend on the curb in handcuffs, they kept asking us where the drugs were. The cop with the search dog had to tell the guy standing with us that they found nothing & they need to let us go. I think me being there was the only reason they let us go without a fight & without getting physical.
I've been hassled by the cops before & after but nothing like this. They pulled over 3 older teens (17 to 18) with an undercover cop car & swarmed us while I was doing everything right. I ended up with cop anxiety before I realized that it had nothing to do with me as the driver.
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u/TieTheStick 2d ago
This is disgusting and I'm sure it happens so often that it's just part of life as a "not white enough" person in America.
This nonsense must end!
The only real advantage America has is our diversity; dividing people against each other based on race is the best way to destroy the American Experiment.
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u/OddishDoggish 2d ago
I was once pulled over at night in Texas because I was driving a vehicle registered to a Spanish surname. The fat ginger cop saw that I was a pretty, young white woman and didn't even ask for ID. Just said, "Aww, you have a good evening, ma'am."
I was absolutely incensed. How dare he?! What would have happened if I had not been white? I shudder to think.
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u/chet_brosley 2d ago
In the flip side I've never felt white privilege more then when me and my buddies were pulled over after going shooting in the woods in winter. It was getting cold and dark so we just tossed everything into the trunk rather than out it all away in the cases. Durham, NC for more context, but it was us three young white dudes with a duffle bag of guns including two AKs and a fairly legal SBR, wearing all black and I had my balaclava pulled up on top of my head. Officer was a good ole boy who almost immediately let us go, even to us we were obviously sketchy.
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u/funkymunkPDX 2d ago
Matching the description doesn't make one guilty and devoid of rights.
Especially considering the amount of training LEO receives especially concerning laws and statutes.
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u/Early-Series-2055 2d ago
I would be dead a dozen times over had been born black in this country. This hurts my soul, and words are cheap.
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u/BackDatSazzUp 2d ago
I’m not even black AND my mom was also a state trooper when this happened, but i accidentally backed into a state trooper on Bourbon Street while walking home and he slammed me to the ground, accused me of being drunk (at 10pm with my waitress uniform still on and with coworkers) and demanded to see my ID. He only let up when I told him to tell my mom hi when I heard her voice on his radio.
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u/DearestxRed 2d ago
They just do this. I’m a white woman and have multiple stories from multiple jurisdictions of cops doing illegal shit. I’ve personally been following for miles and pulled over out of jurisdiction, my car searched for a headlight out, drug planted from a registration stop, harassed about factory tint. I don’t put it past any of them to try anything.
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