I read the article Micaiah sent to everyone and posted on our blog about the Black scholar who was arrested. He was arrested because he was reported to have been breaking into someone's home. When the police arrived was when they finally learned that the so-called burglar was the home-owner. Even though he had a key to get into the house, the White lady who called the police figured that he, probably, stole the keys from the home-owner and used it to break in. As was stated in the article, non-Whites are often portrayed to be dangerous, and, thus, end up behind bars for crimes they've never committed. Even when alleged charges are dropped, as was the case with Michael Jackson, and the prisoner's released, non-Whites are marked for life for the crime they were alleged to have committed. The family and/or the public treat that victim as if he/she was the criminal. In turn, his/her career is affected. They're fired from their jobs, or, in Michael's case, are badly publicized to the point that the public and/or family turns on them. Such alienation doesn't stop with the victim, however. Their immediate and extended families, and descendants are affected as well. they are mistreated and are told horror stories about their dad or mother, aunt or uncle, sister or brother, grandma or grandpa, etc. It gets to the point that everyone wants to believe the lie rather than the truth.
I remember an incident four years ago here at our home. It was about 9:00 at night when Micaiah and I heard a family altercation taking place at our next-door neighbor's house. The sound of shouting and swearing finally ceased an hour later, so we thought that the altercation had been resolved or dropped altogether for awhile. The next thing we knew, we heard a man's voice say to someone else, "I'm gonna get you, Bitch" as they proceeded to run down the sidewalk past our house. Fearing that the man was preparing to hurt the person, Micaiah retrieved his Beebe gun, which looks like a real pistol, while I retrieved my cell phone to call 911. Micaiah stood at our front entryway with the screen door closed with gun in hand while reporting the incident outside our house to 911 dispatch. Meanwhile, we saw the couple trace their way back to their house, passing our house once again. Suddenly, the line went dead. We figured that 911 wrote down our report, so we decided to pour ourselves some coffee while waiting for the police to arrive. The next thing we knew, Micaiah saw some bright spotlights shining on our house and I heard strange whispering outside our back door. I figured that the police had gotten the wrong address, so I offered to walk with Micaiah down to where the squad cars were located. As soon as Micaiah returned to the front entryway, he heard someone say, "there he is" followed by commands to come out of our house with our hands up in the air. Our house was entirely surrounded with a SWAT team. Confused with what was going on, I followed the instructions while they allowed Micaiah to drive his wheelchair slowly and carefully out onto our front porch. As we were exiting, the female cop recognized us, acknowledging that she had stopped traffic for us numerous times before. At that, the SWAT team lowered their guns while the female cop searched us thoroughly. Apparently, the woman who was being chased called 911 while we were on the phone with 911, stating that they saw a "Black man with a gun standing in the entryway" and that she was fearing for her and her son's safety. When the line went dead while Micaiah was on the phone, Dispatch wrote down the woman's report and disregarded ours altogether. So, when the police responded, they were going by what Dispatch told them. What it boiled down to was that we were portrayed to be dangerous, not ones who were out to protect someone and hold a perpetrator at bay until the police arrived. Since the female cop instructed us to not use our gun unless the perpetrator is coming into our house, we now don't react when we hear someone sounding like they're threatening to hurt someone.
A few weeks after that incident, one of our neighbors called the police to report a burglary. The neighbor must have insinuated that Micaiah and I may have been the culprits because the cop who responded came to our house to ask us some questions. We didn't know anything about the attempted burglary, as it had happened in the middle of the night and the force of entry was in the rear of our neighbor's house. Since the cop who responded was the same one on duty when we were almost arrested, he believed us when we told them that the neighbor often had many people over on weekends for drinking parties and that some of those people could've been the culprit.
what it all boils down to in the end is that Micaiah and I watch what we do and say. We also don't get involved with anybody personally or superficially unless they are close friends of ours.
Makedah bat Leah.
