I'd been at the library returning some books for my mother. Walking home there's this neat little lane I can cut through, halving the distance I need to walk. So here I was trotting down the lane when three men entered the lane from the other end. When I say men I suppose they were about my age, eighteen. Come to think of I knew they were as I recall we all had our birthdays in the same month.
Now I was white and a girl and they were black and men, but was I worried? Certainly not. The three of them were quite nice and I'd actually been in class with them at different times. I assumed that it would just be a case where we'd say hullo and walk past each other, continuing on our way. It wasn't to be.
Before we even reached each other this cop stepped into the lane behind the men. He slammed his baton hard against a fence and yelled at the boys.
"Alright you scumbags," he roared. "Up against the fence and take the position and don't even think of running. I'm armed and quite willing to shoot."
I saw the consternation on the men's faces and the irritation when they saw that if they did try to run they'd have to knock me over to do so. They were using most inappropriate language as they turned and leaned against the fence, their weight on their hands and their legs spread. There was a second cop there now, and the two cops were moving up on the men.
I was incensed. Truly incensed. The boys hadn't been doing anything, just walking along and minding their own business and the cops had jumped them for no reason.
"Why are you picking on them?" I demanded. "They weren't doing anything wrong. There's no laws saying you can't walk down a street. This is harassment."
The three men looked at me in surprise and then one of the grinned.
"Hey, Celia," he called. "How you going. You tell them, girl. We haven't done nothing and this is police harassment, it is."
"Please move along, Miss," growled one of the cops. "This is a police matter and I'll thank you not to interfere."
"Police matter my eye," I snapped. "It's harassment of honest citizens. Racial harassment, too."
"Miss, we do have a reason for stopping these men," said the cop. "Please let us go about our duties and move along."
"The reason, Celia, is because we're black," yelled the man who'd called out to me earlier. "You notice there are four people in this lane and they only grabbed the three black guys."
"He's right," I said, full of righteous anger. I can't abide racism and injustice and this certainly seemed like a classic example. "If you're so faithfully doing your duty why didn't you make me take up the position as you so quaintly call it."
The two cops looked at each other and seemed slightly exasperated. Then the cop who'd been doing all the talking shrugged.
"If that's what you want," he said. "Take up the position." He nodded towards the fence.
"What?" He was kidding, wasn't he?
"Take up the position. You have convinced me that to prove we're not acting out of a racial profiling position I need to do a check on you, too."
I'd said too much to try to back off now. I turned and put my hands against the fence.
"Not like that," snapped the cop. "Take a step back and lean into your hands. Also spread your legs further apart. The position is there so you can't turn on the officer. If you even try we can kick your feet out from under you before you can get into action."
Oh, so that's why they did it that way.
The other cop started frisking (is that the right word) the man on the end.
"Bingo," he said, holding something up. The next thing I knew he was cuffing the poor man.
"I'll just put him in the van and be back," he said.
He returned after a minute and started checking number two. "Bingo two," he said and another set of handcuffs were produced and the man was led away.
The first cop started check the last man while I was trying to twist around to see what he was doing. His hand came out of the man's pocket with what looked like some necklaces.
"I guess I have a bingo as well," he said with a grin, and number three was handcuffed.
"You can run them in," he told his partner. "I'll stay with the young lady until the policewoman arrives."