My #CrimingWhileWhite Story

White-Crime

#CrimingWhileWhite  is a growing movement of white people sharing stories of how, when they were caught doing something illegal by police, they were treated with kid gloves compared to the way black people might be treated.

As more and more white people publicly admit that they aren’t always held to the same harsher standards that black people are, it will become increasingly difficult to dismiss institutionalized racism.

I have a couple of stories.

The first is about when I was a teen living in Torrance California. The year was 1985 and the Torrance Police Force, at least at that time, had a reputation for being hardasses.

I was with my friends on a Saturday night. There were several of us in a car and let’s just say that marijuana was involved. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has a unique aroma that is very easy to detect.

My white  friends and I were having a grand ol’ time laughing and acting like teens when we heard that dreaded noise: the sound of a police siren. My immediate reaction was terror and I was convinced that I would be spending the rest of my youth in juvenile detention. My heart was beating through my chest as the officer approached our vehicle – which still had a thin layer of detectable smoke.

The officer stuck his head inside the car and looked around in that way police do – he was establishing his menacing authority. This was it, my demise.  I knew it. He asked what we were doing – as if he couldn’t smell. I was in the back seat and I have no memory of who answered him or what they said. What I do remember is that after someone was brave enough to answer him, the officer continued to keep his head in the car and sniffed. He looked each one of us in the eyes. Those 15 or so seconds felt like an eternity.

Then, the officer told us to be careful and he left.  Just like that – poof, gone. He didn’t even mention the obvious odor that was lingering. He smelled it – we all knew it from his obvious sniffing motion.

Now, I am guessing that if that car were filled with a group of black teens under the same circumstances, the outcome would have been a completely different story.

***Note to any minors who may be reading this: I do NOT advocate teenagers smoking marijuana. It is illegal.  Don’t do it. Just say no. I never said that I was smoking it – I just said I was in a car while marijuana was being smoked.

My next story happened several years later. I was about 28-years-old and I was driving on a residential street in Beverly Hills, California. I was pretty much breaking every traffic law possible. I was going over the posted speed limit and I never came to full stops when I crossed intersections with stop signs. The music was blasting and I was blatantly disregarding the law.

I saw the cop car behind me and the flashing lights.  I was driving to work, so I was all dressed up and looking nice. I pulled over and the very cute, white male police officer approached my window and asked if I knew why he pulled me over. I smiled and guessed it was because I was only slightly going over the speed limit. He then began to count off all of my violations and specifically mentioned that there were children playing in the area. I sat there completely humiliated and waited for my ticket.

It was at that point that the handsome officer said to me, “”Today is my birthday and I am going to give YOU a present…” and he let me go with only a warning.

Again, if my skin were a different color, the outcome may have been drastically different. I will never know for sure, but ask any black person what the outcome was when they were pulled over by a white officer.

To be fair – I was once pulled over by a white female cop and not only did I get the ticket, she gave me all kinds of attitude. So, there is that.

Not all white police officers are racists or jerks. I am not sure what the percentage is, but I am guessing that most officers are fair and they do their jobs within the confines of the law. If you break the law, you should face whatever consequences are in place. Every once in a while, you might catch an officer in a good mood and you can squeak by with only a warning. But we have seen time and again that there is a systemic problem with racial inequality in law enforcement that must be addressed.

Do you have a #CrimingWhileWhite story? Share it, and let’s make it harder to dismiss inequality.

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Kimberley Johnson
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