#MyBloombergStory
My friends & I (17/18 yrs old) were walking into Riverside Park, next to Columbia University. We heard someone scream: "HEY!"
I didn't turn around. "HEY" isn't my name. One of my less street smart friends did. THANK GOD.
It was a cop w his gun drawn at us.
My friends & I (17/18 yrs old) were walking into Riverside Park, next to Columbia University. We heard someone scream: "HEY!"
I didn't turn around. "HEY" isn't my name. One of my less street smart friends did. THANK GOD.
It was a cop w his gun drawn at us.
I quickly raised my hands, so did my boy. My other boy, a bit ahead of us, did not raise his hands. He was nervous. He reached into his pocket to try and show the police where his ID was. The cop proceeded to point his gun at my friend's spine. "PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR"
I told my friend, "Bro put your hands up, or we're gonna be on the news, just put your hands up!" We all knew one wrong move, and we could be killed.
"Hospital is only a couple of blocks away," the officer told my friend as he began to frisk him.
"Hospital is only a couple of blocks away," the officer told my friend as he began to frisk him.
After the officer had stopped & frisked us, emptied all our pockets, he told us, "My friends are on their way. Gonna need a bigger car." We assumed we were getting arrested. He ran our ID's to see if we had priors. We did not.
What were we doing in the park at night you may ask?
What were we doing in the park at night you may ask?
Hangin. Chillin. Enjoying a nice night. Same way white kids in the suburbs do in their backyards at night. Only we didn't have back yards. NYC was our backyard.
I asked the officer WHY he'd stopped us.
Cop told us: "You guys fit the description."
I asked the officer WHY he'd stopped us.
Cop told us: "You guys fit the description."
After threatening to shoot us? The cop randomly decided to let us go. It confused the hell out of us. An officer drew a gun at our backs without even saying "police." If we'd ran? He could have killed us! Once he stopped us? He could have killed us! The cop had a gun; we did not.
It wasn't till I was in my mid 20's that I admitted to my parents that I was stopped and frisked. I worried that they, as part of an older generation of POC, would have thought that we were the ones who did something wrong.
Our fault for being in a park late at night, for not getting our hands up fast enough, for how we dressed, for how we addressed the officer, etc. etc. etc.
When I finally told my parents about getting stopped and frisked? I will never forget the fear and anger in their faces.
When I finally told my parents about getting stopped and frisked? I will never forget the fear and anger in their faces.
But my parents knew we were lucky. So lucky this was our only time being stopped and risked. Our darker-skinned friends were stopped far more frequently. I had friends who had been stopped and frisked 13 times by the time they were 15.
Mike Bloomberg's legacy is one of terrorizing communities of color, displacing working-class people from #NYC & enriching himself while in office. I will be dammed if anyone is going to tell me that MIKE is the lesser evil.
I'm not choosing which racist oligarch I prefer in 2020
I'm not choosing which racist oligarch I prefer in 2020
The good news is? All those POC that Bloomberg had Stopped and Frisked? (Those that are still with us)
Are older...wiser...and will fight tooth and nail to make sure Bloomberg NEVER sees the presidency.
And there are a lot of us...
nyclu.org/en/publication…
Are older...wiser...and will fight tooth and nail to make sure Bloomberg NEVER sees the presidency.
And there are a lot of us...
nyclu.org/en/publication…
Thank you for the #MyBloombergStory idea @BenjaminPDixon Almost cried at the end of writing it. There was no reason so many POC had to go through that as children in #NYC I am filled w anger each time I hear a Bloomberg ad (That's like 15X a day now) I hope the U.S. hears us.
