What I say to people who say "If you don't want trouble, don't break the law!"

I’ve tried to write about this but there are certain things I cannot speak to. I cannot speak to another person’s experience. I can only point out how mine is different, how mine reflects a whole different background and range of experience.

If I think back to any part of my life and say “that was the worst day of my life,” I’m sure it pales next to someone else, someone different than me of another race or a different gender or gender identity.

But I’m offering up my thoughts. My narrow, parochial thoughts about police based on my own experience.

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Shockingly, I have never been arrested, never done anything blatantly illegal.

I’ve lived a dull life.

But from time to time I’ve still dealt with cops.

My privilege is that I have always gotten off with a warning. I have never had handcuffs put on me. I was never looked at askance and asked invasive questions. I’ve never had my car searched.

My privilege is that I’ve always been able to walk away. I’ve never had a police officer’s gun turned on me.

Oh, I know what someone might say: you didn’t run, you were cordial, you did what you were supposed to do and that’s why the cops didn’t get rough with you.

Well, maybe. I’m not saying that it’s always a matter of race (again, I’m just speaking narrowly to my experience). But I have always gotten the benefit of the doubt.

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Benefit of the doubt is when someone looks at you and does not automatically assume that you are up to something bad. There is no need to find fault with you. You can go about your business…

These are the encounters that people like me have with the police. That is my privilege. I did not work to get this privilege, it’s just automatic. And that is part of the problem. Because while it works for me, it does not work for everyone.

It is a benefit that white people get all the time and don’t realize it. Instead, we bitch about being pulled over in the first place. We tell the story later and our white friends sympathize. It works out great…If you’re white. Other people…not so much.

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The point is: you do not have to be a bad person to attract the attention of the police. When people say “well, if you don’t want trouble, don’t break the law!” they really need to look at themselves and be honest about it.

I’ve probably been pulled over about fifteen times in my life. A great many of those times were in one of my old and crappy cars, which usually had some sort of noticeable mechanical issue. I’ve been stopped and frisked while putting up a flyer for one of my shows. I’ve been pulled over after leading a cop on a chase when I didn’t even realize I was being chased by a cop and I didn’t even realize I had been riding somewhere I wasn’t supposed to.

None of these things were really “bad” things, they were just things that happened.

I might not have been breaking the law, or known that I was breaking the law. But I got pulled over nonetheless.

It’s what happened after that that is the difference between my experience and the experience of Black People in America today.