"Practicalities" of Reparations (was Re: Defacing Websites, "Stealing" Free Papers)

[Kelley Walker]

At 11:37 AM 3/30/01 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:

>>   Racial profiling demands that cops define race.
>
>So we get a bunch of NJ State Troopers who know 'em when they see 'em to 
>set social policy?
>
>Doug


I had to report that my tires had been slashed last week. 17 other people 
did too. You just do it over the phone and the officer asked me the usual 
info for the Uniform Crime Report. So, she's typing my answers into the 
database. At one point, however, she simply doesn't ask and says "white 
female" to indicate that she was filling that space in on the form as if 
there wasn't much of a question that i was.  i've had to call cops and 
report a crime twice now, and each time they assume i'm a white female. in 
this particular case, tho, i discovered that the same thing happened to my 
neighbors. most everyone was identified on the phone like that. with my 
neighbor, tho, they didn't get right because she's Jaimaican.  the officer 
wanted to peg her as Hispanic.

bah!

kelley