
This video of Texas cops stopping a black professor is a racial ‘Rorschach test’ - shawndumas
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/04/racism-by-whom-this-video-of-tex-cops-stopping-a-black-professor-is-a-racial-rorschach-test/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines
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ScottBurson
I watched the video, and I didn't see any evidence of racism. The officers
started right out asking her to walk on the other side of the street and/or to
use the sidewalk, for her own safety. I saw nothing disrespectful in their
words or their demeanor.

 _However_. I guess a lot of police departments have a standard policy of
asking anyone they stop and talk to to show ID, even if they're not issuing a
citation. I think this policy should be reconsidered. If their concern really
is for the person's safety and not that the person is a danger to others, then
perhaps they should skip asking for ID or at least not insist on it if the
person claims not to have it or does not wish to show it. There's something a
bit chilling about the idea that anyone out walking and minding their own
business could be stopped and asked for identification, and the very slight
interest that the police have in making a record of whom they spoke to does
not, to my mind, outweigh the interest of the people in not feeling like we
live in a police state.

(I'm not saying we actually _do_ live in a police state, only that this
practice makes it feel a little bit more like that than it otherwise would.)

