Pirate's Cove

Pro-tip: when making a claim of racism against the police, make sure they don’t have any sort of recording device

(Fox News) A Texas journalism professor’s explosive charge that police hassled her for “walking while black,” a claim lodged in a guest column in the state’s biggest newspaper, doesn’t square with the videotape, according to the police chief.

The incident occurred when Dorothy Bland, dean of the journalism school at the University of North Texas, was taking a power walk on the morning of Oct. 24 in her neighborhood in the northeast Texas town of Corinth. In a column in the Dallas Morning News four days later, the former newspaper editor described her encounter with two local cops in terms that put the police in a bad light.

“Flashing lights and sirens from a police vehicle interrupted a routine Saturday morning walk in my golf-course community in Corinth,” Bland writes in her column. “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?

Yes, yes she was being stopped for walking in her own neighborhood. But, not because she was Black. We’ll get to that answer in a moment. The Dallas Morning News piece shows her sliming the police as racists

Knowing that the police officers are typically armed with guns and are a lot bigger than my 5 feet, 4 inches, I had no interest in my life’s story playing out like Trayvon Martin’s death. I stopped and asked the two officers if there was a problem; I don’t remember getting a decent answer before one of the officers asked me where I lived and for identification.

Yes, she did get a decent answer

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.

I guess I 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!

Puts the police in a very bad light, wouldn’t you say?

For anyone who doesn’t think racial profiling happens, I can assure you it does happen. For a sanity check, I stopped by the mayor’s house and asked him, “Do I look like a criminal?” 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?

According to the definition of menace, she was being one, but not because of skin color

I refuse to let this incident ruin my life.

But, she did attempt to ruin the lives of the police. And that piece was updated with material from the Chief of Police, Debra Walthall, including a dashcam video

I appreciate the opportunity to respond to Ms. Bland’s comments. My officers, a field training officer and his recruit, observed Ms. Bland walking in the roadway wearing earbuds and unaware that there was a pickup truck directly behind her that had to almost come to a complete stop to avoid hitting her.

The driver of the truck looked at the officers as they passed and held his hands in the air, which implied “aren’t you going to do something about this?” The officers turned around and drove behind Ms. Bland.

They activated their in-car video camera, which shows her again walking in the roadway impeding traffic. They activated their emergency lights — no siren was ever sounded — they exited their patrol vehicle and contacted Ms. Bland.

The Chief goes on to note that Ms. Bland was actually in violation of the law, a class c misdemeanor for impeding traffic, and was putting her own life in danger. Hence the reason they asked for ID, as well. They simply told her about the truck, and asked her not to walk in the road. Perhaps she could use the sidewalks, which, according to the video, are on both sides of the narrow neighborhood road? When contacted by Fox News, Chief Walthall stated

“If we didn’t have the video, these officers would have serious allegations against them,” Walthall added. “It would be their word against hers. Every white officer that stops an African-American does not constitute racial profiling.”

Ms. Bland has not returned calls from the Chief, and never made a complaint to the police department. Instead of making a fake racist claim against the police, perhaps she should thank them for their professional and caring attempt to safeguard her well being.

Crossed at Right Wing News.