Meet The 17-Year-Old Who Blew The Lid Off 

Racial Profiling

This video was made to show what the New York Police Department (NYPD) and their controversial Stop and Frisk program are doing to the residents there. The majority of the stops made by the NYPD are made on people of color (POC) although, as you'll see in the video, they do include some who are not of color. (In my opinion, the few they treat this way are known to be with POC , actually seen with POC, or behave in some way that personally irritates a member of the NYPD.) Because it was made there does not mean that what happens to New York City residents does not happen anywhere else, so don't breathe a sigh of relief because you don't live there! We may hear more about New York for whatever reason, but it happens in other cities all across the country, and as long as nothing is done to knock the upper echelon officers giving the orders down a peg or two, it will continue. And I don't mean literally knock them down; I mean do what this young man did. Sooner or later the police will come to realize that they can never know if they are being recorded or not, and that not all POC are going to just accept anything. Just maybe they'll stop thinking they are above the law and can stomp on all of us anytime they see fit.

Being a woman of color who is a recovering addict and has lived in the 'inner city' I'm quite familiar with racial profiling and how helpless it can make a person feel. It's degrading and humiliating, and it strips a person of their dignity as a human being, sort of like the way slavery did so many years ago. Back then, they wanted  people of color to feel that way so that they would be subservient, do as they were told without making any fuss, and if it meant beating them to make them submit, then so be it. That's what this audiotape makes me think of. There are times that the tape is extremely hard to listen to; for those like myself who are very sensitive, it may almost make you cry. It's sad that this is what is going on, and even sadder that so many are still trying to deny its existence even though the world knows better! We need more people like this young man to do whatever they have to do to shine a light on what is happening, to strip all the euphemisms and lies away and expose it for what it really is.

* If you live in New York City and want to keep the NYPD honest, download the Stop & Frisk app to record your encounter like Alvin did.

Credits:Original By The Nation. 

Found on the inimitable Dominic Powell's Facebook page 

by Alvin Meathe of Upworthy.