I recently saw an informative video on Twitter where a black community leader, King Randall, was teaching black boys how to interact with cops during a traffic stop. He coached them through it step by step: pull over immediately, no running, open all your windows and turn on the dome light, take out your driver’s license, keep your hands on the driving wheel. Once the office approaches, no arguing or whining, no lying — remain calm.
I thought “Finally, this is exactly what we need from black leadership to improve outcomes during traffic stops.” So it must have been popular in the black community, right? Well, not exactly. For example, this reaction video claims he’s “brainwashing [the] children into being slaves.” King Randall explains in a video that the reception from many other black people was that people should assert their rights with the police officer, and engage in a shootout if necessary.
I was curious why black people say they have to have “the talk” with their children about police. My parents never had any such talk with me, but despite that, all of the advice in King Randall’s video had me nodding along “of course, that’s common sense.” It seems obvious that the way you treat someone who has authority and deadly weapons is with respect and zero unnecessary movement or loud noises.
My experience
I have been in just one traffic stop where I thought something could go wrong. The driver (we’ll call him Connor), was pulled over by an officer who was looking to make his assignment babysitting a speed trap more interesting. It was a Friday night on a lonesome road just outside a town of ~3000 in Colorado and Connor was going about seven over the speed limit.
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