Day 27: Even I Know a DWB When I See One

***program note***

This blog is unfinished. I did my best to fulfill my commitment, but the late hour, a couple of drinks and lack of sleep the previous night are working against me. I will finish it tomorrow. Commitment is hard . . . wait, that's a whole other blog.

Tonight I witnessed something that previously I had only heard about. It seems fitting considering that I now live in the South, which happens to be the most black/white obsessed place I have ever been. There are things in the world that we know are true and yet, without first hand knowledge they are just topics of conversation. It’s not until you actually see such things that you start to really question what it means. This is how I feel tonight after witnessing what I can only describe as a DWB offense. That’s right, I saw a pretty damn clear “driving while black” offense.

It started innocently enough. I had a long day and a few cocktails to top of the night. I was not drunk, by any means, and the nice weather prompted me to want to go for a drive. So here I am, driving alone, at night, a couple drink under my belt and I happen to be on an empty road just behind one other car. I hate to stereotype, but this car was a clear stereotype of what many young, black men tend to drive. It was a Cutless or some sort of boxy Buick, I didn’t pay that much attention. What I did notice, was that it was in pristine condition, was jacked up on fairly high tires and had really cool rims.

In Charlotte, the speed limit is only 35 pretty much anywhere within city limits. This kills me. I love to drive fast and I love to not stop or slow down, so the traffic and incredibly ridiculous speed limits KILL ME. Even so, I do recognize that late at night, especially after a drink or two, it’s best just to slow and play by the rules. So here I am, driving on a fairly deserted road following behind the only other care I’ve seen in a while. The driver of this car passed me just a few minutes earlier and when he did, I looked over and saw that he was a youngish, black male. While I was looking at him, I happened to see a police car out of the corner of my eye.

Being a woman that tends to drive 20 miles over the speed limit wherever I go, I ALWAYS see the cops and I tend to look for them and notice traffic patterns that might indicate a police presence. Tonight, because the road was empty, there really was not an opportunity to do this. So when I passed the cop, I immediately checked my speed and ensured that I was being careful. Because I just so happened to be going the speed limit, I knew that the car in front of me, which had only passed me a few minutes earlier, was also going the speed limit. For the next three minutes or so, all was well, then suddenly, the cop car came flying around me, cut me off and pulled the guy in front of me over.

I suppose, given my proclivity for speed and consumption of a couple of drinks, that I should have been grateful that it wasn’t me, however, I was actually quite annoyed. The other car and I had been driving along together for several minutes and neither of us was speeding, driving erratically, or doing anything that might warrant a police presence. So when I was passed up and the other car zeroed in on, I immediately got suspicious. I know for a fact we were not speeding. I know for a fact, he was not driving erratically, I know for a fact, that he was black.

Is it possible, the cop somehow saw the license plate and called it in or that the car was already listed as suspicious, sure, that is possible, thought unlikely. More realistically, is the possibility that the cop needed a quota, a “black” type car went past at 2am and the cop thought it was likely this kid had been drinking and since he was black, who knows what else. I cannot speak to the state of mine of either party, but I can say that I was there and he was fine.

I immediately pulled over and called the 311 line which is the local community action line. No one else seemed as concerned about what I view as an obviously racist occurrence. True, maybe the description for thi s car was already on the police radar. Ther is a number of possible things this guy could have been guilty of doing to get him pulled over. The only think I saw, however, was a black guy in a car, that let’s face it, looked like it was driven by a black guy. The information line gave me a different number to call to file a report. I’m going to follow up tomorrow during regular business hours, but something tells me that by then it will not matter.