I fit the description….
Last edited Sat Dec 5, 2015, 07:43 PM - Edit history (1)
Note: this is not by me but the gentleman in the photo and on the link. His title above for the short essay below.
http://artandeverythingafter.com/i-fit-the-description/
This is what I wore to work today.
On my way to get a burrito before work, I was detained by the police.
I noticed the police car in the public lot behind Centre Street. As I was walking away from my car, the cruiser followed me. I walked down Centre Street and was about to cross over to the burrito place and the officer got out of the car.
“Hey my man,” he said.
He unsnapped the holster of his gun.
I took my hands out of my pockets.
“Yes?” I said.
“Where you coming from?”
“Home.”
Where’s home?”
“Dedham.”
How’d you get here?”
“I drove.”
He was next to me now. Two other police cars pulled up. I was standing in from of the bank across the street from the burrito place. I was going to get lunch before I taught my 1:30 class. There were cops all around me.
I said nothing. I looked at the officer who addressed me. He was white, stocky, bearded.
“You weren’t over there, were you?” He pointed down Centre Street toward Hyde Square.
“No. I came from Dedham.”
“What’s your address?”
I told him.
“We had someone matching your description just try to break into a woman’s house.”
A second police officer stood next to me; white, tall, bearded. Two police cruisers passed and would continue to circle the block for the 35 minutes I was standing across the street from the burrito place.
“You fit the description,” the officer said. “Black male, knit hat, puffy coat. Do you have identification.”
“It’s in my wallet. May I reach into my pocket and get my wallet?”
“Yeah.”
I handed him my license. I told him it did not have my current address. He walked over to a police car. The other cop, taller, wearing sunglasses, told me that I fit the description of someone who broke into a woman’s house. Right down to the knit cap.
Barbara Sullivan made a knit cap for me. She knitted it in pinks and browns and blues and oranges and lime green. No one has a hat like this. It doesn’t fit any description that anyone would have. I looked at the second cop. I clasped my hands in front of me to stop them from shaking.
“For the record,” I said to the second cop, “I’m not a criminal. I’m a college professor.” I was wearing my faculty ID around my neck, clearly visible with my photo.
<SNIP>
For the rest of this amazing narrative please use the link at the top of the post.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...isn't the problem. It's wearing a hat and a jacket while black that's apparently a nationwide cause for alarm.
TYY 
And your coat doesn't look very puffy to me, either. I love the hat! I'm jealous of that, but not of what you had to go through.
Of course, I'm a 48-year-old white guy, but even unshaven, and unshowered, in need of a haircut, that has not happened to me. (Well, ok, I was pulled over a few times in high school, just because I drove a '72 Mach I Mustang, but that was still a very different stereotype situation.)
Take care, and thanks for sharing.
That said, I don't think I could pull off those shoes. They are cool, though. What are they?
I cannot imagine the pain and humiliation of being profiled simply because of the color of your skin. I can't believe this crap still happens. It breaks my heart.
As upsetting as this is, it is beautifully written and EVERYONE, needs to read it. I'm too disturbed just reading this to even continue typing. I have to stop and shed a few tears.
This is a horror story, I'm all sweaty and shaking. 
That's not the type of story you hear every day... Even though the same thing happens to someone every day. Not all of them walk away alive. Great story I'm glad you're not hurt.
Sounds suspicious to me -- especially the clothing part! Can you prove your innocence??
I grew up in Dedham. Back then it was similar to other parts of Boston which practiced covert segregation, if you catch my drift. Some were overt (Southie, Charlestown, West Roxbury, etc.)
Dedham is much more racially diverse 40 years later. Upward mobility with the ability to move to suburbs is available to more people from the city, including all minorities, which is a good thing. However, it doesn't sit well with some of the "zeitgeists".
The area where he was harassed is a section of Boston called Jamaica Plain, which has had a diverse population for decades, especially spanish-speaking minorities and people of color, with a lot of younger, eclectic, college-aged people who attend the local schools. He looks no different than any other person who may be walking the street .... but this is Boston which has its own unresolved, cultural lags and ghosts from the past. His story is quite believable, common and sad.
