Years ago, I got pulled over while driving a crappy little car with a broken manual window crank on the driver's door. I had improvised a handle with locking pliers, which worked not quite as well as a real handle, so opening the driver's window took a little longer, with a less natural motion.
As a law-abiding white person, I had no reflexive fear of a police encounter, so I didn't even fully process until it was over that he'd had his hand on his gun while he watched me open the window, and had taken a look down the inside of the car door when he got close enough.
He had been alert, wary of my weird fumbling, with my hands out of sight as he approached - but not afraid. I realized that, had I been black and done the same, it would easily have met the "reaching for object" standard that has justified more than a few police shootings of unarmed men.
I'm not so sure about this. There have been studies that show that on a *per-incident basis*, black people aren't actually more likely to be shot. This is consistent with the fact that black people are more likely to live in poor areas with higher crime, and thus more likely to come in contact with police than white people, which does a lot to explain why they are disproportionately shot by police.
Regardless, I think that the bigger factor in John's case is that he wasn't brandishing a weapon.
You did all the right things. And, judging from your profile photo, you are white, dramatically decreasing the police's urge to shoot on sight.
Hey, white privilege is totes real...
Years ago, I got pulled over while driving a crappy little car with a broken manual window crank on the driver's door. I had improvised a handle with locking pliers, which worked not quite as well as a real handle, so opening the driver's window took a little longer, with a less natural motion.
As a law-abiding white person, I had no reflexive fear of a police encounter, so I didn't even fully process until it was over that he'd had his hand on his gun while he watched me open the window, and had taken a look down the inside of the car door when he got close enough.
He had been alert, wary of my weird fumbling, with my hands out of sight as he approached - but not afraid. I realized that, had I been black and done the same, it would easily have met the "reaching for object" standard that has justified more than a few police shootings of unarmed men.
I'm not so sure about this. There have been studies that show that on a *per-incident basis*, black people aren't actually more likely to be shot. This is consistent with the fact that black people are more likely to live in poor areas with higher crime, and thus more likely to come in contact with police than white people, which does a lot to explain why they are disproportionately shot by police.
Regardless, I think that the bigger factor in John's case is that he wasn't brandishing a weapon.