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.
I saw the video from the getgo. She was given the reason as soon as the police approached. She was walking on the wrong side of the road, and as she was apatently wearing ear buds, she was oblivious to traffic behind her, and impeding traffic and endangering herself.
The cop’s were fairly polite.
Do they do this where sidewalks are provided?
Thought the “(whatever)-while-black” stuff went out in the 90’s...
From where is she ‘degreed’? My hubby (dean) comes across morons who have these ‘mail order internet degrees’ all the time,
Say what?
Take the time to read what was posted to you in post Post #16 by Repeal The 17th. "Bad apple" cops are not part of this encounter.
I watched this earlier and read part of her article.She lied.She said they had the sirens on.A driver complained about her so they just warned her and checked to see if she was local.End of story.
Exactly.
“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”
I called the police out to my place because I saw a prowler with a gun. When the policeman came out, he asked to see MY ID.
ADA means they get ramps at every corner. No having to lift over the curb.
As for the rest - they prefer being run over by an inattentive car driver? So they’re breaking the law AND stupid?
You need to learn to walk slowly, with instead of against traffic, and hassle drivers. Then maybe you, too, can be stopped by the cops.
But it looks like you are buying into ‘Black Lies Matter’.
Have you been stopped for walking in the road? I haven’t.
That department has a 100% no exceptions ask for ID policy. This avoids the usual race baiting claims that “YOU ONLY ID PEOPLE WHO LOOK BLACK/HISPANIC/NONWHITE”.
This whole incident is a case study in why all police interactions should be recorded - this may have just saved these cops’ careers and hopefully torpedoed this woman’s career in academia.
Apparently, you didn’t watch the video.
No, because I walk on the sidewalks. And I certainly have enough sense to not hassle guys in pickup trucks while afoot.
Guy in the truck should have gotten fairly close to her and blasted the horn. See how good those earbuds really were, and how loud she had the ‘music’ turned up.
Do you walk on the wrong side of the road, veer into the middle of the road, and purposely not used sidewalks while waving your arms in an effort to draw attention to yourself? She was fishing for the police “check” and probably knew that they cruised this street at this time of day.
Don’t try to distract cop haters and the ‘Black lies matter’ crowd with facts. You are just wasting your time.
I do it too, on back roads with no sidewalk I walk facing traffic until a car comes towards me, then I cross over checking to see if the other lane is busy. Then I cross back as the car passes. She had sidewalks, and should have been using one or the other. She was fishing for a tale to tell.
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