By Damion Boycott
First there was "Stop And Frisk" with The NYPD. Then there was "Shop And Frisk" at Barneys. Now we have the latest installment of racial profiling, "Bus Stop And Frisk".
In Rochester New York three African American high school basketball players were awaiting a bus to take them to a scrimmage when two Police patrolmen confronted them and ordered them to leave the area. The teens, 17-year-old Deaquon Carelock and 16-year-olds Raliek Redd and Wan’Tauhjs Weathers responded to the Police by telling them that they were following the orders of their to wait for the bus where they were standing. The teens were then wrongfully arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
When their coach Jacob Scott arrived at the scene he found the teens already in handcuffs. At that point Scott says he tried to explain to the officers that the students were simply following his instructions to wait for the ride to their scrimmage, prompting the officer to tell him he too might be arrested if he didn’t leave the area. “My guys were waiting for the bus like they normally do,”said Scott of the incident. “I get to the scene after parking my car and three of my guys are handcuffed.” “One of the police officers actually told me, if he had a big enough caravan, he would take all of us downtown,” Scott explained referring to himself and the other students waiting to attend the scrimmage on a day off from school. “These young men were doing nothing wrong,” he said of the arrested players. “They did exactly what they were supposed to do.”
The charges against the teens have since been dropped. “After reviewing the facts associated with these arrests, I have decided to dismiss the charges in the interest of justice,” said District Attorney Sandra Doorley in a statement.
It seems white America has a way of racializing crime and violence as something that African Americans do. Blacks never seemed to get judged as individuals, they are always judged as part of a group and are often unfairly targeted by police. The idea that the election of Americas' first back president has brought an end to racism in America is completely false. Incidents like this one and all of the other incidents of biased racial profiling prove it every time.