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.
So she is a liar with an agenda? Are we shocked?
On YouTube there’s a video of guys in a car with a train horn hooked up. People react.
I have a solution for this.
If everything is about race - before long - everything is going to be about race.
The entire world seems to be losing its mind...
This American does, all the time. I slip my DL out of my wallet and into my pants pocket before every walk and hike. It's just common sense in case you get hurt, hit by a car, or get sick. I want to be sure emergency teams can reach my wife in an emergency.
This sounds more like a case of Walking While Stupid or Walking With a Big Black Chip on Your Shoulder.
Did you watch the video? They were concerned because she was walking on the wrong side of the street facing away from oncoming traffic. That is what they said from the very beginning. They had come up behind her and she hadn’t noticed them, nor had she noticed a truck that had had to stop behind her to avoid hitting her as she veered out towards the center of the street. They were right to stop her and she was very defensive instead of responding to their courteous concern.
I have stopped to caution a neighbor on my street for the same thing. The sun blinded me momentarily and I had a scare when he came up suddenly on a dip in the road. Its not safe to walk on the side of the road in the same direction as the traffic and she should have already known that but when she needed to be reminded she should have thanked them.
I watch the video and I couldn’t tell she was black until the cops got out of the car and she turned around.
It’s not an offense that calls for producing ID to the police.
Trolling For Trouble
File this one along with “Muslim Clock Boy” in the Trolling For Trouble file.
It was a citeable offense.
They chose to let her off with a warning.
MBA from GWU. Strange a Dean would not have a doctorate.
Do you personally know anyone who has ever been stopped and asked for ID because they were jogging in the road?
I carry ID when I’m out and about for two reasons, required when driving and if walking & I drop dead, my family gets notified, plus I don’t end up unclaimed at the morgue.
If the police have a valid reason to stop you they have the right to your name and date of birth to ID you.
Since could have cited Ms. Bland for a pedestrian violation...i.e. a ticket....they had the right to ID her.
They were polite, explained why tjey were stopping her, they were calm, they were friendly.....
They were doing their job.
Actually there was every reason to stop her....she was a danger to herself and others. Walking in the middle of the street is not only stupid and childish it can be a sign of mental illness. I have seen tweeters approached by police to assess the situation many times.
As a driver I don’t want some crazy ass person wandering around on the roads (try the side walk okay?) waiting to get hit so they can sue some one.
I worked in a neighorhood that folks always walked in the street and hardly ever used the sidewalks....drove me crazy.
I asked a guy once from the window of my car “how come you don’t use the sidewalk?”
“There are a mess of spiderwebs over the sidewalk”
Felt it was the most reasonable reason I had ever heard.....e even though I didn’t believe him.
Its a rejection of society’s standards and rules for behavior which is common nowadays.
Although I don’t think that is why Ms Bland was doing it in this video..she was just jammin to tunes and getting her walk in.
I had no problem with them talking to her. They were initially polite and she was initially polite. What was the point of asking for ID?
She was walking in a traffic lane with earbuds in. The cops observed her impeding a truck. That’s a class c misdemeaner. The driver of the truck saw the cops, threw his hands up in a wtf motion. Cops turned around came up behind her with lights.
Cops usually check for ID when they witness a crime. They should. What if the person was wanted for felony mass murders and the cops didn’t check? That has happened. They were supposed to check. And they did.
She was comitting a crime and now pulled the race card. Which makes her an asshole, and everyone who supports her is the same. Babies banging on high chairs.
It does seem to be strange that she couldn’t walk on the sidewalk... Makes me wonder if it was a setup.
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