Case 1:
Many readers will know that bikers are supposed to park their vehicles in parking lots in such a way as to use an entire space, a space that would otherwise be available for someone's car or truck.
They will also know that often, out of courtesy, bikers don't do that but instead park their motorcycles crowded next together in areas of the lot marked out with paint as not parking spaces.
In that spirit when I arrived at the lot I parked my bike with numerous others in an area so marked.
Later, by coincidence, when I went back to get my bike to drive away several other bikes were their starting up theirs.
A county police officer pulled up next to us in his car and shouted angrily at us, demanding we move our bikes right away - though that is in fact what we were doing - because we had parked them in a no parking zone.
He then drove off without waiting.
I expressed amazement at his behavior, surprised as I genuinely was at his out-of-nowhere rage.
One of the other bikers asked if I knew why county policemen were required to wear ties.
When I answered I did not he explained it's to prevent the foreskins sliding up.
The cop was black, all of us bikers were white.
I wondered whether that might have been a factor in his wholly unprovoked and abusive language.
Case 2:
Several years ago my then girlfriend and I were driving at night through a more or less deserted and dark part of the city when we spotted a man lying prone and motionless in a gutter.
We saw a police car a block away and set off after it, honking and flashing our lights to get him to pull over so we could tell him about the guy in the gutter.
When the police car stopped we pulled abreast and the drive rolled down his window and demanded angrily what the hell we wanted.
I was astounded, but told him.
He shouted something like "Yeah, we know. Go away."
The cops were white, as am I and as was my girlfriend.
Case 3:
A few years ago some friends and I went to a city park for a picnic.
All the benches being taken we found a clear area and put down a blanket on the grass.
As we were sitting and munching on the food we had brought a police car pulled up beside us.
The cop rolled down his window and shouted furiously at us to get the hell out of there, picnicking on the grass was not allowed.
And then he drove off.
The cops were white, as were all of us.
Case 4:
Normally a lawful and sensible driver, one time on my motorcycle I could not resist the temptation and blew off a stop sign.
A policeman appeared in my mirrors and signaled me to pull over.
Just my luck.
He had me dead to rights, so as he came up beside me I joked, saying something like "You got me fair and square, Officer. My fault entire. Sorry."
Then I noticed he was shaking with rage.
He reacted to the joke without amusement and wrote me the ticket.
He was white.
Moral:
Police seem to work themselves up into a fury about anything at all, no matter how slight, and don't mind letting you know they are as pissed off with you as if you'd shot their pet dog.
Race might be a factor, but from my own experience I have to think it's just a cop vs civilian thing.
Three trials:
At the time, it seemed to me evident that the police who beat Rodney King should have been convicted.
When a white suburban jury let them off I was frankly both surprised and ashamed.
At the time, it seemed to me evident OJ killed his wife.
When a black jury refused to convict him some said that was payback for Rodney King.
I found that very likely true and depressing, especially since the cops hadn't actually killed Rodney King.
The grand jury that refused to indict Officer Wilson seems to have done right, but the grand jury that refused to indict the killers of Eric Garner did wrong, I think, and I have to guess they were mostly if not all white.
And I am again ashamed.
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