My son Greg Jr. was stopped by two White Police Officers on Friday, November 2, 2007, at 10:30 p.m. last night while driving a 2007 $35,000.00 Red GT Convertible Ford Mustang in the “hood”.  He was surprised. He said “but Dad I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” I asked him if the policemen were rude to him. He said that they were very polite. He said that they told him that he was driving suspiciously. Right, he was driving while black.

A few years ago I had a vehicle stolen out of my driveway by a young black teenager. Let’s face it racial profiling is a tactic of stopping someone because of the color of his skin and a suspicion that he is engaging in some type of criminal activity. It is quite often conducted with a traffic stop, or can be done randomly based on the type of car driven, the number of people in the car and the race of the people in the car. 

I told Greg Jr. that anytime he encounters a police officer he should always be polite. Police officers routinely deal with the scum of the earth. You have to quickly let them realize that you are not that type of person. We have to face the facts: African Americans commit 90% of the approximately 1,700,000 interracial crimes of violence that occur every year in America. African Americans are more than fifty times more likely to commit violent crimes against whites than vice versa. When they commit violent crimes they target whites more than half the time. 

It is not only police officers who practice racial profiling but others do as well. Taxi drivers for their own protection will avoid certain areas of a city because of its reputation of being a bad area. They will also drive past a black person and pick up a white person because it seems safer. 

Statistics show that blacks are 12% of the population yet comprise 56% of the arrests for murders in America, 42% of the arrests for rape, 61% of the arrests for robbery, 39% of the arrests for aggravated assault, and 40% of the arrests for burglary, 33% of the arrests for larceny, and 40% of  the arrests for motor vehicle theft. It is because of these statistics that policemen are looking at people of color more often than not. 

I could get angry jump up and down and call Chief Art Baylor, but I won’t. I may mention it to him in passing for no other reason than racial profiling is inherently wrong I don’t care what color the Police Chief may be. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution states that the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable search and seizures, shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath and Affirmation, and particularly describing the places to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.” I explained to Greg Jr. that if the White Policemen stopped him simply because he was a 16 year old Black kid driving a 2007 sports car then his civil rights were violated and he was the victim of racial discrimination.

 I will let this first occurrence pass. However if it happens again, HEADS WILL ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the words of my dad: “Stay away from the pig ears and fried pork chops.  Eat more fruits and vegetables.”