Would You Stop This Man?

I was recently stopped by the South Pasadena police. Why? Because I’m Latino. They said the reason they stopped me was because they had never seen me in the neighborhood. I’ve lived in South Pasadena for more than a year. I’ve never seen them before either, but what does that have to do with anything?

I suppose they could say they were just doing their job. I would tend to agree--if I was doing something suspicious. What was I doing? Walking. Just walking.

There was a guy across the street. Why didn’t they pull him aside and question him? Was it because he wasn’t 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 200 pounds, with long, braided hair, heavily tattooed and a Latino?

I suppose I look like a tough character. I’m an actor who happens to look a certain way in an effort to make a living. Is that a crime? The police should stop people who act like criminals, not who look like criminals.

Don’t you stop and look when the police pull someone over? Everyone does. I do. Only this time, I was that poor sap who everyone was staring at. Right there in front of the coffee house I often go to with my girlfriend to drink coffee, play checkers and enjoy the evening air. Right across the street from the library where I take my little girl so she can do her homework. Right near the corner where I camped out in my lawn chair to watch the Fourth of July parade. Right there, only a block from my apartment.

They made me give them information so they could check “my record”; nothing came back. If only they could check the records that would show how when I was in junior high school I wanted to be a cop. I went to the police academy and was an Explorer (I worked out of Hollenbeck Division). If only they could check the records and see how in high school I worked with the Guardian Angels, those red-bereted volunteers who patrol tough neighborhoods. Or how when I was in college--UCLA--I was a campus escort working with the college police, or when I was in the U.S. Army, during the Gulf War, how I was a security guard on my off-duty hours. If only they could check that.

I would like to think I have an empathy for the police and the rigors they face daily, but when you experience what happened to me, as many of us have, sympathy disappears. Is it any wonder they are losing people’s trust? The police motto is: “To Protect and Serve.” Who? Only people who look like they belong?

When they stopped me, there was a crime committed. It was not burglary, not grand theft auto. But those two police officers robbed me of my dignity.

When they sent me on my way, it was not with an apology but with the warning that I shouldn’t be surprised if I’m stopped again. Why shouldn’t I be surprised if the police stop me if I’m not doing anything wrong? Because I’m Latino and that’s the way it is? I don’t think so.

I will not go quietly into the night and accept this as right. To do so would let racism win. If I don’t do anything positive to change the negative, then I let myself, my country and my God down.

The presumption of guilt should be based on one’s actions, not on one’s skin color.

I could be angry and put that anger to destructive means, but to what end? I could hold a grudge and hate the cops, but what good would that do? If we as a people are going to get past this kind of thinking, then we need to understand where it comes from and make sure it doesn’t go with us where we’re going. That’s my plan. Why? Because I’m Latino.