you.

the brother in south carolina was hella respectful, polite and compliant. in fact, he was too compliant. he responded, apparently, too swiftly to the officer's request for identification, and the cop snapped and fired 6 shots at him. dude is apologetic and incredulous yet still mad polite, bleeding, on the ground, and the cop thinks of nothing better to do than cuff him.

cops treat these tasers like cattle prods. oh, you upppity? zzzzzzAAPP!!!

shit ain't funny.

the backdrop to this is that they had already went to 100 after dude reached into his bag (pulled guns on him).

now, objectively, *maybe* its in the cop's self-interest to draw their weapon on some just in case shit (despite the fact that dude was complying with the officers at that point and there were kids in the car... ok, he's going into a bag). once dude came out with paper, as stated, the officer should have de-escalated and said, 'we intend no harm, but you can't take too many chances out here' or something like that.

the brother in the passenger seat is now shook because, from HIS perspective, he is being fully compliant and rewarded with it by having cops aiming guns at him. in light of all the national shit, of COURSE he is going to be leery about getting out of the car. it's their word against his. he is asking for a white shirt (i'm assuming a commanding officer) to help diffuse what he sees as an escalating situation.

and the cops get pissy and hostile.

mind you, all of this allegedly over seatbelts.

at the high school my daughter graduated from, in nc, the cops there would tase kids (usually black males. occasionally black females, and maybe once in a blue moon a white male) for stupid shit, like throwing a balled up piece of paper at lunch time.

they think this shit is normal. it is not.

the issue is not about compliance. it's about being black. how many black men have complied (reaching for wallet, reaching for phone), and been shot dead by cops because when they see us they see something else?

interactions with cops are a potentially fatal catch-22 for black people, regardless of compliance.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad