[DerbyCat]

As an ex-cop I can tell you that cops do all types of profiling, it's not just racial profiling, I think it's actually more socio-economical profiling. What I mean by that is, if you don't look like an upstanding citizen, look like you don't belong where you are or just look like a dirtbag, you're more likely to get stopped and talked to.

An example: I was patrolling a big city in California while on break-in (this was back in the early 90's) and drove past a two white guy talking outside a run down house. One was drinking a beer in the front yard of the house and the other was wearing jeans and a "wife beater" and straddling a 10-speed bike. I drove past and my training officer said, "don't you want to stop and talk with those guys?" I said no, why would I? His reply was "It's the middle of the day and this guys drinking beer outside, you've got probable cause (drinking in public). You want to talk to the guy on the bike, only reason a grown man rides a bike is if he's wearing those silly-ass tight shorts trying to be Greg LeMond (this was before Lance). Guy wearing jeans riding a bike means he doesn't have a car and probably doesn't have a license, so maybe he's got warrants. Maybe one of those guys has something (drugs, weapon) on him. If you're lucky, you'll be able to hook one of these guys." My reply to him was, "So, by your logic, if my father is sitting on his front step in Los Altos (an upper-middle class town), enjoying a glass of wine and chatting with his neighbor who just got back from a 20 mile bike ride, he too could get stopped and questioned by the cops." My training officer replied, "No, you stop the ones you can arrest, not the ones that will complain to the department".

I'm not saying that this is right or even the approach of many cops, but this was just one of several instances like this where I was directed or trained to stop someone based upon how they looked. If they look like they didn't belonged where I saw them or if they looked like a "dirtbag" that I could arrest, I stopped them.

So, being "Black in America" isn't really the crime, being "suspicious and verbally combative" is what will get you arrested... but so will being a white guy driving through a Hispanic neighborhood known for drug activity. Innocent folks aren't generally verbally combative with the cops, they're usually a little nervous and embarrassed and try to comply with the cops so they can get out of there as soon as possible. Soon as you start mouthing off to a cop, you can expect that you will lose control of the situation. Not many folks can win an argument with a cop out in the field, cops just aren't wired that way.