Can you guess if this man (who was pulled over by a police officer for a minor violation that required him to fix something on his car) is white or black and what kind of location (poor or well-to-do) he resides in? The driver actually tells you the answers in the video but I’m sure that you would have guessed long before he does so.
The way this officer behaved is very professional and exactly right. He calmly lets the driver vent because he clearly did not feel under threat. But what if the driver had been black and spoke to him that way? What if the driver had been black and male? Black and male and young? Black and male and young and the event had taken place in a poor neighborhood?
Of course, black children are taught at an early age to never mouth off to the police because that is a good way of getting arrested, tasered, shot, and killed. As we have seen in so many recent cases, even being polite and deferential is no guarantee that one won’t be shot.
This driver clearly felt that he had a sense of immunity because of his skin color and class. But he should be careful. Even those privileges only take you so far. A police officer with thinner skin may have been tempted to deal with him harshly.
Heck, I didn’t even have to watch the video. Just the title (“A chill cop keeps his cool when dealing with an aggressive man”) gives it away.
The only point where it looked like the cop had second thoughts about being calm was when the guy mentioned posting the video somewhere. But I think he quickly realized the video would just show him behaving professionally and getting his job done. The driver was behaving so poorly that even someone who casually agreed with his point would want to clearly distance themselves from his tantrum.
Too bad the cop didn’t shoot the idiot in the face because he felt threatened. (j/k)
“Aggressive man” title also gives the game away. White men don’t get their colour specified, obvs.