As a former resident of Washington, D.C., also known as "Chocolate City," it was not until I came to Los Angeles to attend Pepperdine College shortly after the Watts Riot of 1965 that I experienced the inner-city crackdown by an army of white police officers who patrolled Watts and other African-American communities in South Los Angeles. When it came to driving in South L.A. — whether residents were going shopping, to school or to work — it was a routine experience for African Americans to be stopped and questioned by police for one reason or another.
African Americans described the random stopping, questioning, ticketing or arrests as "police harassment." As the Los Angeles police department recruited and hired more white police officers, the term "racial profiling," became part of the "street talk" language of inner-city residents.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Racial Justice Program's Campaign Against Racial Profiling, the term "racial profiling" is used when "police treat persons as suspects because of their race, ethnicity, nationality or religion." The racial profiling experience continues when "police investigate, stop, frisk, search or use force against a person based on their racial characteristics instead of evidence of a person's criminal behavior. It often involves the stopping and searching of people of color for traffic violations, known as "DWB" or "driving while black or brown. Although normally associated with African Americans and Latinos, racial profiling and "DWB" have also become shorthand phrases for police stops of Asians, Native Americans, and, increasingly after 9/11, Arabs, Muslims and South Asians."
Although it has been more than four decades since the "Watts Riot," there is still racial profiling by the police in Los Angeles inner-city neighborhoods throughout the nation. The difference between the 1960's and 2009 is that most major metropolitan police departments are integrated and include not only a majority of whites but African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and officers of others ethnic identities, as well as women. It has been my experience that African-American police officers who are partnered with white police officers are just as guilty of racial profiling as the days when police departments were not integrated. Many police officers today consider themselves part of a "brotherhood" and the race of their partners is not as significant as their loyalties to their profession and commitment to protecting one another.
I was not surprised to watch the media coverage of the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., by white police officer, Sergeant James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police force, who was accompanied by fellow officers who were African Americans. What did surprise me was the public furor surrounding President Obama's comments in accusing the Cambridge police officers as "acting stupidly" in arresting Gates. My wife poked me in the side when she heard that, predicting that the president "should not have said that the Cambridge police officers were acting stupidly." When it comes to my wife making comments about politics and sports, I generally don't argue because of the old saying in my family that "an angry wife may not cook dinner." Later in the week, the president apologized for the comment and declared the white arresting officer was a good man. Obama invited the police officer and the professor to the White House for beers this week.
Well, my view on this controversy is certainly not in the mainstream of the majority of Americans who seem to believe that the president was "out of line" in accusing the police officers of "acting stupidly" in arresting Gates. I agree with civil rights leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who have called the arrest "an outrageous act of racial profiling." In my mind, if Gates had been white, the police would not have arrested him. The police officers were not only "acting stupidly" but racist in their actions, trumping up charges to justify arresting Gates. It was all about putting Gates "in his place" and letting him know that no rich "arrogant Black man" is going to get away with not giving the police "proper respect."
I learned my lesson on how to respect Los Angeles police officers during my second year at Pepperdine College. I was ordered to stop and pull over to the curb because my license-plate tag had expired. The next thing I knew, two police officers handcuffed and arrested me, and I was taken to L.A. County Jail until my bail was paid. It was the first and last time I spent the night in L.A. County Jail, a place that was and remains overcrowded with African Americans and Hispanic Americans as well as other ethnic minorities.
My "racial profiling experience" almost repeated itself recently when I arrived about an hour early to attend a Gospel concert at the city of Carson Community Center. I was parked on the Carson Community Center parking lot when a white female Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy looked over at me as she drove past. Suddenly the deputy stopped, backed the car up, rolled down the window and started questioning me. Very politely, I explained to the officer that I was waiting for a concert to begin. Then she asked my name and date of birth to check for any warrants.
As the deputy waited for the computer in her car to respond, she asked me about the expired tag on my license plate. I showed her my car extension registration slip that was in my glove department. I had nine days remaining before the registration extension time ran out. After the computer check showed no warrants, the deputy reminded me to be sure to pay the additional fees before the deadline, otherwise my car would be towed to the salvage yard. I thanked the Deputy for her advice and assured her that the matter would be taken care of in a timely manner. I did not see the deputy question anyone else on the Carson parking lot.
While there are some African Americans who may describe this random stop by the deputy as harassment, racial profiling, and a stupid waste of time, I thanked God that I had finally learned my lesson. I was not handcuffed, arrested and taken to jail. I did not "act stupidly" by failing to pay more than $300 to renew my car license tag.
Ronald Ellerbe is editor of Hub City News and columnist for LA Beez.
Collage by LA Beez
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