A Cop was Shot near my School
Although the high school where I teach was locked down for an afternoon, it turns out we were never in much danger. They caught the right guy, the actual guy who shot the cop, a couple of miles north of here. When they cordoned-off this neighborhood, they surrounded the house of the wrong guy. He saw a bunch of cops, so he ran home. In this neighborhood, being black and running is probable cause. They surrounded his house, and cut off the whole neighborhood for blocks around. There were literally 100 cops telling this guy to “Come out with your hands up so we can shoot you.” He was a little hesitant. Armored cars, SWAT. snipers, loud speakers blasting… I figured they were going to do the opposite of a Manuel Noriega, like, instead of torturing him with hours of rock and hip-hop, they’d play hours of Tammy Wynette. Finally, he surrendered, and they saw that they had the wrong guy. But they charged him anyway with five counts of fucking folks up, two counts of being Black and 25, and one count of looking like everyone else in the neighborhood. He’s sentenced to twenty-two years of community service, to wit he needs to show-up at the 7th District police station once a week and help the police with their beat-down techniques.
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