Back in NYC a neighbor called the police on my place

[eleny]

A black friend was visiting. I let him in downstairs at the front door of a three family house. I'm as white as it gets and 5'7" tall. Hard to miss me standing at the front door. A neighbor was walking her dog and saw my friend enter the house. The neighbor is the same ethnic nationality as me, knows my family and knew I lived there - I grew up around the corner. She called my landlord downstairs and told them that a black man entered the house with a key. The landlord called the police.

By then, my friend and I were sitting in the kitchen eating a meal and the police opened the door to my apartment and started to walk in. I jumped up, yelled "No!" as I was making it towards the door to my apartment. They backed away and the whole thing was over.

Crazy mother fucking landlord was pissed that I had a black friend and told me so the next day. I waved my lease at them and that was that. I moved as soon as the lease was up.

That was 1974 and things haven't changed. Gates has every reason to be pissed and show it, too. I applaud him.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. They walked in -

if that's not horrifying, I don't know what is.

No, nothing has changed. The big laughs I got when Obama was elected and the vapid talking heads declared an end to racism in America were just as loud when I heard their astonishment at the news of what happened to Gates.

It happens every day, every damn day. TWB - thriving while black.

Gates is gonna make such a giant stink about this, it will turn out to be the best thing, perhaps, that might have happened in a long, long time.

But the bigots? It won't change a thing for them. I am convinced that racism is a disease that cannot be cured, in spite of "American History X," which was a great movie. I just don't buy it, as a rule.

I told my young - under 40 - friends during the campaign that we were going to see racism in so many guises, they would be amazed. They thought I was overstating it.

And now they're watching all this crap that keeps getting flung around about Obama, about Skip Gates, about how things really haven't changed, and they're telling me I'm a wise old lady.

Yeah, it took a real giant intellect to figure out that our country is racist...........................

[eleny]

2. Yup, walked right the fuck in without a single knock on the door

I agree with you. I expected the raging hyenas to emerge out from under their rocks and they have.

[orleans]

6. you yelled "no!" and they backed out? i'm surprised it was that simple. n/t

[eleny]

10. Yes, they backed out into the hallway

I asked them what the heck they wanted. They explained that they got a call about a black guy entering the house with his own key.

God knows why it went so simple. As I said down thread I wasn't supposed to be there and it caught them by surprise that I was in fact at home.

[tblue37]

11. But if he had his own key, wouldn't that imply that he had a right to be there? nt

[eleny]

14. Well of course that's how we think...

Evidently, people in my neighborhood back then and these days in Cambridge don't share our views.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

3. Outing subliminal racism at every opportunity needs to happen NOW!

My husband was on a chiropractors table having his spine minipulated when out of the blue this person
used the "n" word. This was a passive-aggressive hit because he knew his patient was in a vulnerable position.
My husband got off the table and informed him he was reporting him to the appropriate medical association.

We've all had these strange experiences, but now we have to call people out. No more excuses. No more writing it off
or assuming this mentality will die with the next generation.

[eleny]

4. It gave me some pleasure to wave my lease in my landlord's face the next morning

I wasn't going anywhere for a while and they could damned well make peace with that fact.

Good for your husband. It must have shocked the hell out of the chiro.

[abumbyanyothername]

5. A different race, a different encounter

I am riding my bike on Barrington (West LA) around 8:30 pm. This is in the spring and it is dark. A dark, mid-sized sedan comes up behind me and starts flashing a light on me. I look over my shoulder to see what is up. The passenger is waving me over, but that doesn't seem wise. These guys look like they are on something. He shows a badge and I pull over.

Immediately they start with aggressive questioning. "What's your name?" I tell them and show my license. "Where are you going?" Home. "Where have you been?" An AA meeting. "You were driving like a maniac. You don't have a light. You're required to have a light." I was riding carefully, but true I did not have a light. I am immediately compliant and submissive even though (especially because?) these guys seem to be cranked up on some kind of upper.

"What AA meeting? Where was it?" _____ Wilson's house (a home meeting of a friend of mine). Much laughing at this. They are in the process of writing me up, and I know I deserve it so mainly I am just trying to get it over with so I can get home. "How long have you been sober?" 27 years. More commentary and baiting.

Finally, "We can't give a guy with 27 years sobriety a ticket, can we?" They both agree. "You need to get a light."

"Yes sir." I am off without a ticket. (I got the light the next day.)

Police officers are generally assholes and authorities geeks. But I know of no way of dealing with them other than immediate, complete and absolute compliance.

It helps that I have not had to endure the constant harassment that I would receive at the hands of the police if I were black.

[eleny]

8. "complete and absolute compliance"

I couldn't do that. My immediate reaction was to put up my hand and yell. I probably got away with it because they entered my apartment illegally. They knew they were told a story that wasn't true. You see, I wasn't supposed to be there. My guess is that my presence surprised them.

[Hannah Bell]

7. Something similar happened to me. I was helping friends paint the inside of an empty rental.

They'd left, it was 9 pm, I was finishing up. I had the lights on & the front door open to get rid of paint fumes. The neighbors called the cops because the door was open so long - I guess.

The cop crept in through the open door without knocking (I was in another room) & scared me to death. Though I'm a woman, nearly 60, & was dirty from painting, surrounded by painting equipment, working in a completely empty house & could name not only the homeowners but some of the neighbors, I had to produce ID & have my license run. Pissed me off, & I was barely civil to the cop.

If I'd owned the home I would have been even less so.

On edit: pissed me off because 1) they didn't knock or yell out before entering though they could see the painting supplies though the door in the well-lit empty house, & 2) it was so obvious my story was true & they just ran my license to see if they could get me for something else.

This is a very good neighborhood too.

[eleny]

9. That's hair raising

You're busy working and the officer comes creeping in. Given the state of the place seems like different judgment could have been applied.

[janet118]

12. Racism is invisible to many whites . . .

I was one of them. I was always shocked when I got a glimpse of it at work or social events and figured it was "just a few bad apples."

Then, my son, who was about thirteen, was skateboarding with a black kid he knew who lived in a nearby housing project. They went to a place in town where white kids, including my son, had skateboarded many times. The police showed up almost immediately and rousted the two of them. The police officer was aggressive and mean and demanded to know where they lived and what they were doing there. He said they were not allowed to skate there and that they should go home right away or they would be taken to the police station.

My son wanted to talk back, assert his "rights," but his friend signaled him to calm down and told the police they would move along. He seemed used to this sort of thing. This is how African American boys are brought up - like we live in a police state.

My son and I both learned a lot that day. It's all about selective enforcement - and guess who's selected.

[KurtNYC]

13. I am sitting in Washington Square Park, I have been there 4 minutes

waiting for a friend to go to lunch. Cop walks up says
"Do you have ID on you?"
I say "yes" but I don't pull it yet.
"Can I see it?"
Now I reach into my pocket, pull my wallet, my driver's license and hand it over.
As meekly as I can ask "Did I do something?"
"How long have you been in the park?"
"5 minutes. Do I look like somebody?"
"Just relax" says the cop while he bends my licenses between his fingers. Then he gets on his radio, hands me back my license and walks away.

No explanation, nothing. I feel abused bc I was sitting in a public park not doing anyting remotely suspicious. And this happened yesterday.

[eleny]

15. I guess the Square is as good a place for intimidation as Woodhaven, Queens where I grew up

When I had parties in my place it was with people of all colors. One Saturday morning I went to my car and all four tires were flattened. Someone had unscrewed the air valve cap and removed the little spring thing and left all sitting by each tire. I never made the connection to my personal behavior of having friends of all colors. But after the police entered my apartment like they did many months later, it became clear. And I grew up around the corner.

When my lease was up I moved to a large apartment complex down on Flatlands Ave. in Brooklyn because it's integrated and lived there until I moved to Colorado for work purposes.

[gratuitous]

16. Oh, you naive libruls!

You should have watched the Today Show this morning. Matt Lauer explained the whole black/police thing in simple terms, and it all went away. See, Matt knows all about what it's like as a black man to be stopped and questions by the cops for no apparent reason, and he said that President Obama went too far and was too harsh in his press conference comments. Other white people agreed with Matt, so it's all solved now.

Move along. Racism dead. Country all shiny and happy again. KTHXBAI.

[eleny]

17. Oh, btw, Matt Lauer can go fuck himself, too