Unfortunately, I witnessed this type of thing first hand.
Back in the early 2000’s I worked for a small rather upstart tech firm specializing in setting up custom web based HRIS systems and electronic employer insurance enrollment (EDI files from the employers’ HRIS system to their insurance companies’). I was about 40 years old at the time and was one of the few “oldsters” working there.
When I first started working there, in an effort to better get to know my young co-workers, I went to a few Friday after work Happy Hours with some co-workers at a popular local pub.
One of my co-workers was a 30 something who was a senior software developer, young, bright, a college grad, very career orientated but friendly and funny (great sense of humor) and well-liked by everyone. Ben was black and yes, he had dreds, short and very neat dreds, but he did have dread locks.
One Friday after work he offered to buy a round of drinks for our table but when reaching for his bill fold, it wasn’t in his pocket. So he excused himself to go out to his car to look for it, thinking he must have left it on the console or on the passenger seat since he’d gone to a gas station just before coming to the pub.
It seemed he’d been gone for quite a while and someone joked that Ben must have run out on us rather than paying for a round, but that wasn’t the type of guy he was. So several of us walked outside to the parking lot look for him. We were actually worried that Ben might have gotten mugged in the parking lot.
We saw Ben spread eagle across the hood of his car by a cop. As we walked closer the cop yelled at us to stay back and we heard him radio in that he had a suspected car burglar or possible car thief.
What happened was the cop was doing a drive through of the parking lot, most likely looking for DUI’s when he saw Ben leaning in the passenger side of a late model BMW – a youngish looking black guy with dreds – a BMW…. he thought that looked suspicious. But when he pulled up and asked Ben for his ID, Ben explained he was looking for it in his car, tried to explain the situation when the cop told him to spread over the hood of the car while he called for backup. As we walked up, we heard the cop asking Ben if he had any weapons or drugs on him and saw he had his hand on his holstered pistol. Ben was compliant and respectful to the officer, answering “No Sir”.
We told the cop that we knew Ben, that he was with us, that we worked with him and yes, that was his car but he ignored us and kept telling us (all of us white BTW), to go back inside or else we’d get arrested too (which we didn’t). It wasn’t until another cop came and Ben was, after being patted down, allowed to retrieve his wallet and show his ID, license and registration. The cops left but with no apology.
Ben took it somewhat in stride as this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to him.
In addition to the number of times he’d been pulled over for very minor things like failure to signal or going 5 miles over the speed limit, he told us that a few months earlier he’d been out running early one Sunday morning through a housing development near his apartment complex. Ben was looking to buy a house at the time as he was engaged to be married and stopped at a house that had a for sale sign and recorded the address and listing agent’s phone number on his Blackberry so he could follow up when he got home.
A few blocks later a cop pulled up and asked to see Ben’s ID. He was out for a run, wearing running shorts and a tee and hadn’t taken his wallet with him. The cop detained him for some time and asked him all sorts of questions and had him stand at the back of his patrol car while he called in. The cop eventually let him go. Evidently someone reported seeing “a black man” who was suspicious looking and “casing a house”.
Ironically Ben, despite the dreds, was a Republican, had served in the Army Reserves and his older brother was a Maryland State Trooper.
