Arlinda Vaughn,
Dayton, OH.

My partner is a tall, dark muscular black man (with a PHD). When he lived in Texas, the police arrived at a gas station that he was in and tased him 8 times without warning or discussion. My brother (with a degree) has been regularly pulled over. Once, a police officer pulled him over, handcuffed him and put him in the back of his cruiser. Then he searched everywhere for any possible warrant or person whose “description he fit”. In the end, he let him go after about 45 minutes. My brother has never had more than a speeding ticket. When he was pulled over, he was not speeding or violating any traffic rules whatsoever. My cousin (who is a veteran) was pulled over by a city cop on the bridge in St. Louis, MO. It was outside of that cop’s jurisdiction so he had to call the Illinois police so that they could search his car. He had nothing. They found nothing, but they had a gun trained on him nonetheless. I truly feel that there is absolutely nothing that a black man in this nation can do to be safe. If they comply, if they resist, if they are polite, if they are rude… all are irrelevant, because if a policeman has it in his mind that they are criminals, then he will treat them like criminals. No black man in this nation has escaped this treatment. I have serious discussions with my extended family and my partner to move to Canada. The powers-that-be don’t want us here anyway.