Police Encounters: Why My White Privilege Makes Them SO SO Different

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
06/14/2020 at 19:39 • Filed to: None

I am here to detail my stories of my own interactions with the police while driving . Now I try to be a law abiding citizen but then again I have made mistakes and dealt with the consequences. Being a white male though, has allowed me to never even worry about anything worse happening. I always took for granted that I wasnt going to be shot in a traffic stop simply for being the wrong color. Anyways, here are my stories.

#1: In high school, I was once pulled over for driving with no headlights. I was driving late at night in a friend’s car because they were drunk as hell and it was the responsible thing to do since I did not partake in any drinking. Unfortunately I didnt notice the lights were off because there was enough street lighting and the gauges were lit enough to see and it was not a familiar car. Cop pulls me over, asks why I have my headlights off, I show him that they work and that I am sorry , and then he just lets me go. Didnt even ask for ID or ask any questions.

#2: In college, I was driving along on I-84 headed toward Boston for an event with my fraternity. For reference, I was driving my ‘99 Honda Civic with 3 passengers, all of us white. The car had a messed up rear bumper that made it look a bit questionable I would say. Stupid me was cruising at about 85 mph in a 65. As soon as I crossed the state line from CT to MA, I was lit up by a state trooper and pulled over. I was acting SUPER suspect/nervous since I just felt bad for getting in trouble and really hadnt been pulled over before with people in the car. So I was shakey and overall real questionable. I did get a ticket but that was it. Officer asked why I looked nervous and I just said that I hadnt been pulled over like this before and that was that. No further questions.

#3: Later in college, I was driving in Hoboken, NJ near school and decided to make an illegal left turn from the right lane to avoid a long line of traffic. Whoop whoop hear comes a motorcycle cop right behind me as soon as I do this. I had made this turn more than once before like that, so I was asking for it. Again, I received a ticket for this as I had no decent excuse other than I was wrong. But yet again, no questions, heres your ticket.

#4: Just after graduation, I was working a full time job and was sent on travel to Norfolk, VA to take care of something down there about 6 hour drive from home. Well the car I was given as a rental had no cruise control (WHAT DAMN 2015 CAR COMES WITHOUT THAT??). Anyways, on my return trip I had left Virginia around 2100 so it was pretty late when I was passing through nowhere in Delaware. I was pulled over for doing 60 in a 50 (was 55 until that point) . I am driving a rental with NY plates, so it makes sense on that route. No hassle at all and no ticket, just told to slow down. Again didnt even take my license back to run it.

#5 : After school a few years, I was driving my Miata returning home from having just bought two knockoff red Bride seats across the state in NJ. I had been stuck behind a slow guy on a one lane each way road with a 55mph speed limit traveling about 52-54 for miles with no passing zone. As soon as a passing zone came about I dropped it into 3rd and went for a gratuitous pass at full throttle . In a Miata, this only meant I got up to about 70 anyways but of course there was a cop right there who then pulled me over. He was extremely friendly and just told me to slow down giving me no trouble, no hassle and no ticket.

——-

Why do these stories matter? If you were any person of color, especially black, then you would be flabergasted at how little trouble any of that has gotten me in. Particularly situation #2, imagine the car full of non-white people instead. How do you think that would have gone? Even if there was “minimal” hassle, there certainly would have been questions about drugs and a harsher demeanor. The worst outcome that I need to worry about as a white male is a ticket. Maybe a summons if I do it in Virginia, but still I am not going to get guns drawn on me or demanded to know where I am from and what am I doing in this neighborhood.

While sure, statistics on the internet are made to lie, this is just clear how different things are.

And this is in sharp contrast to the population distribution of color in the US.

I will conclude with some reading material and videos that are worth educating yourself with.

Here is an important piece, I am a very big fan of the Know Their Names idea as its essential that we do not forget a single one of them:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

“ Darrius Stewart was riding around with friends one night in July, sitting in the back seat of their faded blue Chevy Malibu, when a Memphis police officer noticed a missing headlight and signaled for them to stop.

The officer, Connor Schilling, asked everyone for identification, found two out-of-state warrants for Stewart, 19, and pulled him out of the car. A half-hour later, Stewart was dead.”

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

And for a much better researched set of statistics see this article. Not as flashy but much more conclusive than the graphs I shared above:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

And some videos I have recently watched which really spoke to me :

If you have made it this far, all I ask is that if you are white that you too think about how your privilege impacts you. I dont use much of social media, Oppo and reddit are about the only places I interact on the internet. So I am doing my part to do something about how frustrated I feel. I will also tell you to vote as well. It is the most impactful way we all can make a difference, regardless of color.

DISCUSSION (38)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 19:50

Yup.

Jayvincent > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 20:05

Same stories, different dates. I’ve been pulled over several times for illegal or sketchy driving activities, got nothing more than a warning each time. No ticket, no request to search my car, no wait here while I call for backup, no step out of the car please. Why? ordinary white dude living in New England. It’s not justice, it’s not fair, it’s not moral if the punishment isn’t proportional to the crime and it has to be unbiased.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 20:06

I have never been pulled over, thankfully, but as a white male this is important to know. Thank you.

AestheticsInMotion > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 20:07

As a delivery driver, I could run through someone’s yard without a second thought, go around the back, run through the bushes, etc . Half the time I did n’t even have any company logos on my clothing. Our black employees definitely do not have that luxury, and it’s unfortunate that getting them decked out in company gear is a very real safety issue that needs to be prioritized in our on-boarding process.

Anecdotally, I used to deliver directly to a warehouse manager of a major Japanese auto manufacturer. Literally every day I would see this guy. Occasionally I’d send someone else in my place, never any issues. Nice enough dude. Week one of training a new (black) employee, I send the guy into the dealership to handle the delivery. Notice a package he forgot, so I walk over to the trainee and warehouse manager, only to find the manager sticking out his chest and telling my trainee that he “always packs heat and shoots faster than a thrown punch, and that he’ll protect himself if he has to ”. Guess how many times that manager mentioned guns to me in all my months of delivering there ?

fhrblig > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 20:23

Yeah, I’ve had that privilege . There’s one incident I’ve thought about more and more over the past few years .

This happened to me b ack in the early 90' s when I was in high school. I’d come home one night I think from work, and was pulling up to my house just as I saw the cop car pull in behind me. I hadn’t noticed them at all, since they had no lights or sirens on. I got out of my car, and was getting my things out when he hit the spotlight on me. I started to walk toward him because I was young ( and stupid) and he barked at me to stay where I was over the loud speaker. He then asked if I lived at the house I just parked in front of and I told him yes, and asked if something was wrong. Turns out someone called them because they thought someone was breaking into one of the houses next door to us. Everything calmed down very quickly, and I went inside. Literally nothing happened, and I didn’t ever really give it another thought for years.

I’d never had any interaction with police ever, and I just started walking toward him. No matter who you are, that’s a really REALLY dumb thing to do. This cop wa s coming into a situation where all he knows is there’s a possible burglar, and here comes some guy starting toward him right as he put the spotlight on him. It was always very dark on our street, so he really didn’t have more than a second or two to even look at me. My honest thoughts at the time were “W ell, I haven’t done anything wrong, so I have nothing to worry about.”

“ Well, I haven’t done anything wrong, so I have nothing to worry about . ”

There was never any doubt in my mind about that . None. And I was right. He didn’t check my ID, there were no other questions, he let me go. Would a black man my age have had the same experience? I can’t say. I hope so. But I doubt it.

Nick Has an Exocet > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 20:25

You have had very different experience. Most of the times I’ve been pulled over, I’ve gotten either full criminal treatment (orders from the PA systems, hands where we can see them, keys on the dash) or roid rage screaming with a side of speeding ticket. One time I got pulled over for a second time in 2 weeks. The officer asked me if I’d recently been convicted of any traffic violations. I said no. He came back and said “YOUR FULL OF SHIT. I’M THINK I’M AN IDIOT?! YOU GOT SPEEDING A WEEK AGO. HERE’S A TICKET FOR THE ABSOLUTE FULLEST OF WHAT I COULD GIVE YOU.”. I answered accurately as that previous ticket was contested and I had not been convicted. The only somewhat reasonable encounter I’ve had was a CHP officer who was on detail for a bike race who waved me over to tell me to slow down.

I have no doubt that driving while black is a thing. However, I think the framing needs a lot of work. “White privilege ” implies that white people get something they shouldn’t as opposed to the unfair treatment that minorities often receive .

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > fhrblig
06/14/2020 at 20:33

Yeah I really doubt it too! This is an even better example than my pretty mundane experiences. I have no doubt that a black male would have at least been questioned more than you were. That's always the key takeaway. Sure it takes a supremely fucked up officer to shoot someone in that scenario. But it's still more common than it should be. The real common if not guaranteed thing though is different treatment like AIM mentioned above.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > AestheticsInMotion
06/14/2020 at 20:34

I want to hope it's just those older folk who are out of touch like that. But the problem is so many people regardless of background seem to think that's okay. It's fine to defend your property with force if needed, but to disproportionately direct that worry due to skin color is absurd.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Jayvincent
06/14/2020 at 20:38

Never having my car searched in that area is a huge thing. NY cops love to strip search cars but I've never been bothered or heard stories of other white friends having that issue either. And I have some dumb friends who surely have asked for trouble. Sure it's anecdotal but it's absolutely not a coincidence that white people are hassled less.

Dusty Ventures > AestheticsInMotion
06/14/2020 at 20:38

atfsgeoff > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 20:52

Blonde haired white male here, the cops I’ve encountered over the years don’t seem to recognize any privilege. I’ve had guns drawn on me, been pulled out of a car and handcuffed on suspicion of drug trafficking across state lines , pulled over multiple times for being in a ritzy neighborhood with an old, worn E30 BMW.

In none of those cases did they even have reasonable suspicion to stop me. Their various excuses (you didn’t use a turn signal, it didn’t look like you were wearing a seatbelt, etc.) were all completely fabricated. They were just profiling me by my car or the way I looked (long hippy hair, scraggly beard).

ttyymmnn > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:01

As long as we’re telling stories. About 10 years ago, I was driving up I-35 between Austin and Belton on my way to teach . Interstate was under construction, speed limit was 60, two lanes. I pull out left to pass an old Suburban and I see the trooper sitting at the top of the hill. I ease off the gas and pull back in behind the Suburban, which was being driven by an old Hispanic guy. We pass the cop, and he pulls out. He comes up and sits right on my back left corner for a mile or so, probably calling in plates, then pulls forward and yanks the old Hispanic guy. Who knows? Maybe the old guy had an expired tag or a warrant. Maybe the cop wasn’t sure which one of us he clocked. But he didn’t pull over the well-dressed white guy.

My bird IS the word > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:03

Political / Sensitive topics are welcome, even encouraged, however it is recommended that you announce such content in the title and that all sensitive material is posted “after the jump.”

Please and thank you.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > atfsgeoff
06/14/2020 at 21:05

Well you didn’t get shot did you? I’m not trying to discredit your account of events but really any one person’s account/anecdote doesn’t hold much to conclusively say anything. While my experiences don't mean a whole lot I know for sure that blacks in the same scenarios always have it worse. Police brutality is an issue regardless of gender, race, or anything else. But it goes in line with the statement Black Lives Matter. It's not that ONLY black lives matter. It's that black lives need to AT LEAST matter. That is all people are asking for, for black lives to matter rather than not at all. And the only way to change that is to accept reality and then do something about it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > My bird IS the word
06/14/2020 at 21:08

I think my title has certainly announced it enough I had thought. But the only issue I have is that this really isn’t political. It's an issue that affects all sides and all people. Plus it's directly related to on topic, regarding cars. If people don't want to read, it's fine. Hence why I didn't try to sugar coat it up front.

fhrblig > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:09

The feeling I get is that if a black guy didn’t do what I did in that same situation and start walking toward the cop, it might have been just as uneventful. But if he did ?

barnie > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:15

2001 I was heading back to ATL from Crossville TN at night in my Ranger . Cruis ing along on 127, a good 2-laner, and got lit up. Pull over, hands on the wheel and a cop walks up toward my door. Registration is a m onth e xpired... I roll down my window as i feel the truck bounce at the back . Of course I jerk right to look as cold steel pokes me in the left ear. One co p sez to the other after a few seconds, “Ain’t him, he’s white.”. Still got to spend the night in jail and cost $300 bucks to get my cat and truck back. Small town cops... Never found out why, never charged with anything.

atfsgeoff > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:19

Accepting reality should start with the fact that the overwhelming majority of black people who are shot & killed in this country, are shot & killed by other non-LE black people. It’s not because black folks are inherently savage or violent, rather it’s because of a lack of positive male role models during childhood (absent fathers).

Kinja'd!!!

Now going back to cops shooting black guys more often then white guys, I notice that the chart you posted says unarmed black people being killed at twice the rate of unarmed white people. Unarmed doesn’t mean they’re not a deadly threat, countless people have died from regular old punches and kicks. I’d like to see a similar chart about the rate of *armed* blacks vs armed whites being shot and killed by cops.

smobgirl > fhrblig
06/14/2020 at 21:26

I’ve taken the dog out once or twice late at night and been spotlighted in my yard by the police helicopter here. Nothing has come of it but I do live in a non-white neighborhood and it pisses me off that it happens. If we aren’t in a situation where there’s a reverse 9-1-1/advisory going on, there is absolutely no need to pull that shit. Not on me, not on anyone here. It’s fucking harassment.

fintail > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:26

In before the right/libertarians (rightists without the courage to admit it) bitch and moan about the subject. Oh, too late.

I’d wager there are socio-economic factors in the mess as well.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:35

I’ve know that driving while brown was a thing my entire life. I did grow up on an Indian reservation and not a cookie cutter house in a suburb. Native folks Get treated like shit off the Rez. I take my privilege for granted for sure, been pulled over 4 or five times for speeding and only ticketed once. I would not have contested a ticked any of those times either I was guilty as hell.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > atfsgeoff
06/14/2020 at 21:36

I will agree with you that everything you said could be true. But that doesn't discredit how white people are treated differently by the police. Both ideas are not contradictory and my only point is that white people should just understand and accept that society has a problem that needs to be fixed. How we go about fixing it is fine to debate but we have to start somewhere.

fhrblig > smobgirl
06/14/2020 at 21:37

Don’t you live in Boulder County? What on earth do they need a police helicopter for?

atfsgeoff > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 21:41

I agree. I think we should start by ending the War on Drugs. Repeal the Controlled Substances Act entirely. End Civil Asset Forfeiture. Essentially, remove most of the incentives for cops to pull people over. Demilitarize the police, end no-knock raids (which would probably end anyway with no war on drugs).

That would be a fantastic step in the right direction.

smobgirl > fhrblig
06/14/2020 at 21:45

Noooo. I’m Denver, near-ish the football stadium . We get regular police helicopter surveillance, sometimes 2-3 nights a week.

fhrblig > smobgirl
06/14/2020 at 21:50

AAAAAAAHHH. Can you imagine if Boulder had a police helicopter? Good lord.

AestheticsInMotion > Dusty Ventures
06/14/2020 at 21:53

As if drivers don't already have enough to deal with

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > fintail
06/14/2020 at 21:55

I only wish I was better at debating. Not something I normally do, talking about any of this publicly. But I'm tying to do it because I feel like I'm letting people down if I don't.

AestheticsInMotion > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 22:13

Hard to imagine any kind of significant (positive) change happening in regards to t his problem u nder current US leadership, to say the least.

functionoverfashion > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/14/2020 at 22:38

Here’s one for ya:

In high school I got my hands on a bb gun (pistol) so naturally, we drove around back roads shooting road signs, etc . We get back onto the pavement and my friend “cocked” the bb gun (I think it was literally spring loaded, so... whatever) , I said “hey just shoot the ground outside the car, I’d rather that wasn’t cocked” or something like that. So he leaned the bb gun out his window and discharged it into the ground.

Well, as he did that we passed a long driveway which belonged, unknown to us of course, to an off-duty police officer who happened to be driving up his driveway at the time. We never noticed him. But he called it in as a gun in a car, a 1985 Honda Accord - it was 1999 at the time, if that matters . It also happened to be just weeks after a cop was shot way up north in Colebrook, NH, and police were very edgy about that still. AND it was spring party weekend at the college in the next town. It was early evening, maybe 7 pm, so not much was happening yet.

We pulled into a gas station, went to back up toward the pumps to get the filler on the correct side, and when I look behind me, I see several cops with their guns drawn. Eleven cars in all, because 1) they were all around for the college parties which tend to get out of hand and 2) 5 minutes notice on a gun call.

Surrounded by cops with guns drawn, yelling “HANDS UP HANDS UP IS THERE A GUN IN THE CAR WHERE IS THE GUN!”

One of the cops was the chief in my town, which is a very small town. I knew him, he knew me and the friend who was with me. Once he saw who we were, everyone’s guns were down but not before one state trooper yelled “you’re lucky I didn’t blow your fuckin head off” which I will never forget. But in the end, do you know what happened to us?

Nothing. I mean, we were brought to the little police station in the back of the chief’s cruiser, handcuffed and all that. But otherwise, we went home that night and had only our parents to deal with.

I am very, very lucky and I realize that.

gmctavish needs more space > AestheticsInMotion
06/14/2020 at 23:25

I delivered auto parts for 2 or 3 years. I was on good terms with basically every mechanic, rarely had any sort of confrontations with any of them. (I’m white) Didn’t have any black guys working with us, but there were two native guys. We had a list of shops that we wouldn’t send them too, because the mechanics would always have some bullshit complaint for them, or be unnecessarily picky about where parts go or something like that. One particularly angry mechanic called one of them a “stupid fucking indian” or something similar. He then called the store to complain about “sending him some dumb indian that can’t do the job”. I’d like to say we stopped supplying him parts, but that was up to management, and management decided to keep supplying him, but not send native drivers to him anymore....

Makes me wonder who else I deal with is actually a raging racist, and I don’t know because I’m white

Your boy, BJR > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/15/2020 at 00:35

This is gonna get lengthy but everyone beat with me here.

When I was a freshman in college, I was caught by a cop in my town hotboxing my car in an abandoned parking lot. I tried to run but he intercepted me and as he approached the car, I rolled the window down, releasing most of the pot smoke into his face. I also had my bowl that still had some pot in it in the cup holder. He shined a light around my car, couldn’t have missed seeing the bowl. He asked me for my license, and I gave it to him. He then asked me if there was anything in the car he should know about and I said no. He asked if I was absolutely sure that was my answer and I said yes. He gave me my license back, said “have a good night. And don’t hang around abandoned lots, it looks suspicious”, and went on his way. If you’re telling me that I didn’t get that treatment vs any other treatment because of the color of my skin, I call bullshit. The town I live in, Wall, is nicknamed “White Wall” for a long and storied history of racism, both cultural and institutional. The parking lot I was in was part of a larger complex that was originally part of a KKK summer retreat (they also hosted the German-American Bund in the early days of WWII) before it was taken over by the US army and turned into one of their camps/research laboratories. There was even a lawsuit against the local PD in 2018 over racism (they frequently referred to a black dispatcher as “monkey” and implied he had sex with gorillas/chimpanzees). The lawsuit revealed many pro-KKK/anti black people cartoons and posters hung up on various bulletin boards in the department (with photographic evidence to boot!). White privilege is real, institutional racism is real, and anyone who thinks that this case is an outlier is straight up lying to themselves. Sure it’s uncomfortable to think that you’re part of the oppressing side. I’m sure some of you have had encounters with the police where they weren’t very nice to you, but just because skin color wasn’t a factor in that instance doesn’t mean that it doesn’t thousands of times across the country every single day. You gotta recognize that. Instead of downplaying it because you’ve had bad encounters too, you should stand in solidarity with the people who have had bad encounters BECAUSE of the color of their skin. Changing police culture from the ground up benefits everyone, regardless of skin color. Nobody is discounting your experience because they say that an overwhelming number of police and laws target black people. Stop discounting theirs by saying that you’ve had bad experiences too so they should quit their complaining.

TL;DR white privilege exists. Recognize it and use it to help people that don’t have that luxury rather than just writing it off and getting defensive.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Your boy, BJR
06/15/2020 at 00:45

Thank you, this is exactly the point I was trying to get across. I'm glad this seems to resonate with people here.

Your boy, BJR > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/15/2020 at 00:55

It’s really not that hard. Idk why so many people are having issues understanding it. From what I’ve seen from protests I’ve attended and people I’ve talked to, BLM is actually one of the more moderate black empowerment movements. Nobody is saying “kill whitey! He’s the devil” they’re just asking to be recognized and treated as equals. They’re even willing to educate/accept reformed racists.

Just stop getting defensive and listen to someone who is different from you’s experiences. That’s all it takes. Nobody has to be written off forever. People can change.

Long_Voyager94 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/15/2020 at 07:23

I was pulled out of my car by 3 undercover officers at gun point, thrown on the ground, and had a knee in my back for the whole 15 mins they searched my car.

If I moved to get a breathe, I would feel the gun come back in my direction. Zero doubt in my mind if I’d have moved too far to get a breathe I’d have gotten a bullet in the head. Once the search was over they helped my up, leaned me against my car, and began questioning everything about the car and the drugs .

Turns out, the car’s PO was a known drug runner and they thought they’d finally caught him. Too bad I had just bought it the night before and had literally just left the DMV getting it registered. After their search, in which they found drugs (pot, cocaine) in interior panels , they finally ran the new plate and started calming down.

Had I at any point been anything less than 100% honest and 100% compliant, I would have ended up with a bullet. I didn’t live because I was white, I lived because I didn’t escalate the situation.

My bird IS the word > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/15/2020 at 07:39

It certainly is political and I dont care to get stressed out right before bed, hence why you do not put content on the titles. It is a courtesy that is simple to follow, i.e. *politics* police encounters.

I don't care to argue the illogical nature of white privilege as a fallacy ad hominem in short form text. The idea that it affects all sides implies that your experiences match mine, which they have not.

ST80MND > Your boy, BJR
06/15/2020 at 10:28

Thats the key: Stop making sounds and LISTEN. I used to be vocal about defending myself about my ‘whiteness’, and the conversation inevitably just became noise. Then I stopped talking, and listened for once.

It changed my life.

Taylor Martin > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/16/2020 at 12:17

Me (white) and a buddy of mine (also white) were in a parking lot late late at night just chilling in my car. I lived in the neighborhood where we were parked in and the car was registered in the neighborhood, so when he asked I told him I was a resident. We weren’t doing anything wrong either, but even still, cops these days will find any sort of “probable cause” or act out of instincts, stereotypes, bias, and fear. Cops only get 6 months of training to deal with incredibly intense situations, and none of it is meant to bang out prejudices and rid people of unjust thinking.