Posted on 10/31/2015 7:24:49 PM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
Dorothy Bland, dean of the journalism school at the University of North Texas, is used to taking a walk at daybreak. But rain delayed her exercise regimen until later Saturday morning when she began traversing the streets of her well-to-do Corinth neighborhood.
POLICE VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_OvluMqxI
But soon “flashing lights and sirens from a police vehicle†paused her walk, she wrote in a column for the Dallas Morning News.
Bland was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and she’s black.
“Like most African-Americans, I am familiar with the phrase ‘driving while black,’ but was I really being stopped for walking on the street in my own neighborhood?†she asked.
“Yes,†she answered. “In the words of Sal Ruibal, ‘Walking while black is a crime in many jurisdictions. May God have mercy on our nation.’â€
Bland said she asked the officers if there was a problem but didn’t “remember getting a decent answer before one of the officers asked me where I lived and for identification.â€
More from Bland:
I remember saying something like, “Around the corner. This is my neighborhood, and I’m a taxpayer who pays a lot of taxes.†As for the I.D. question, how many Americans typically carry I.D. with them on their morning walk? Do you realize I bought the hoodie I was wearing after completing the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education in 2014? Do you realize I have hosted gatherings for family, friends, faculty, staff and students in my home? Not once was a police officer called. To those officers, my education or property-owner status didn’t matter. One officer captured my address and date of birth.
Bland figured she “was simply a brown face in an affluent neighborhood. I told the police I didn’t like to walk in the rain, and one of them told me, ‘My dog doesn’t like to walk in the rain.’ Ouch!â€
She added that “for safety’s sake†she used her iPhone to take a photo of the officers and their patrol car’s license plate, as Bland didn’t want to end up like “the dozens of others who have died while in police custody.†Within hours after posting about the incident on Facebook, Bland said more than 100 friends spread the news across the country.
“You are now in the company of Henry Louis Gates and others with the same experience,†she said one of her former students wrote her. “We must stop racial profiling.â€
Bland added that she stopped by the mayor’s house and asked him, “Do I look like a criminal?†She continued, “Mayor Bill Heidemann said no and shook his head in disbelief. I appreciate the mayor being a good neighbor, but why should he need to verify that I am not a menace to society?â€
But after Corinth Police Chief Debra Walthall caught wind of the incident, she wrote a response, which was in the second part of the Dallas Morning News piece, and said that the encounter was about Bland’s safety, not race — and that dashcam video from the officer’s patrol car proves it.
There is a sidewalk... & she does look weird waving her hands arond. Very suspicious that she is the Dean of JOURNALISM!
There was no reason for them to stop her. I continue to support the police but doing things like this is not helping. I walk everyday in my neighborhood and never once was stopped by police.
Did you see the video? Apparently, she was near an intersecton although she DOES end up in the middle of the street?!?!
Let me guess, she was walking on the wrong side of the road, I.e., with her back to oncoming traffic. She should be happy that to those two officers, Black Lives Matter.
A fair question...Why weren’t you walking on the sideWALK?
Ma’am you are complete idiot.
I'm not 100% sure why they wanted to see her ID -- that's not improper, but I always think that's kind of authoritarian. But it has nothing to do with her race.
She gets attacked and assaulted on that street one of these mornings and she’ll be suing the P.D. for not providing full-time patrols in the upscale burbs for rich hysterical hoodied black brrritches.
Without watching the video could they tell she’s black from behind?
Don't you know who I am???
The full story on The Blaze states that she was walking down the middle of the street with earbuds blaring music in her ears when a pickup truck almost ran her over.
The cops then turned on their lights and asked for her identification since blocking traffic is a misdemeanor.
Yes, because blacks always walk down the middle of the street instead of on the sidewalk.
See “Brown, Michael, Ferguson MO.”
The cops were polite enough but there was no reason to ask for ID.
The “tea party crusaders” article links to an article at “the blaze”,
which finally sources the information at “the Dallas News”.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20151028-dorothy-bland-i-was-caught-walking-while-black.ece
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Which includes this response from the police:
Officers observed Ms. Bland walking in the roadway wearing earbuds and unaware that there was a pickup truck directly behind her that had to almost come to a complete stop to avoid hitting her.
The driver of the truck looked at the officers as they passed and held his hands in the air, which implied “aren’t you going to do something about this?†The officers turned around and drove behind Ms. Bland.
They activated their in-car video camera, which shows her again walking in the roadway impeding traffic. They activated their emergency lights — no siren was ever sounded — they exited their patrol vehicle and contacted Ms. Bland.
They immediately advised Ms. Bland about the pickup truck and the fact that it was safer for her to walk against traffic so she could see the cars and jump out of the way if necessary. The interaction between Ms. Bland and the officers was very cordial and brief.
Ms. Bland had been observed earlier by these same officers, but she was not in the street and impeding traffic, so she was not contacted.
Impeding traffic is a Class C misdemeanor, and it is our policy to ask for identification from people we encounter for this type violation. I am surprised by her comments as this was not a confrontational encounter but a display of professionalism and genuine concern for her safety.
Please review the video and I’m sure you will agree the officers’ intent was simply to keep her safe. Ms. Bland never contacted the police department to voice her concerns regarding this encounter and has not returned my phone message left at the number provided by the mayor.
True about ID. I guess it was good they were polite or she could be dead right now. Sorry but that is actually getting close to the truth. That 5 percent “bad apple” cops is really doing a ton of damage to the cops reputation in general.
“...how many Americans typically carry I.D. with them on their morning walk?”
I carry one almost everywhere. What’s anyone supposed to do if she’s hit by a car, has a seizure, or becomes unconscious for any other reason and they need to know who she is, to start to find out who to contact?
“She added that ‘for safety’s sake’ she used her iPhone to take a photo...”
She can take her phone but can’t take ID?
It is illegal and dangerous to walk in the street when a sidewalk is both provided and usable.
I live in the suburbs and always see people walking on quiet roads in the same manner as this woman and I’ve never heard of or seen a police officer stop and ask anyone for ID.
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