Black, White & Blue...

Over the past few days, I have watched this video several times as it makes its way around the internet. It captured a White woman preventing the arrest of an innocent Black man in her neighborhood. I admire and applaud this woman for her courage and that she cared enough to intervene and come to the aid of another less capable of defending himself.

I am struck however by two things;

(1) Black officers, in the nation's capital no less, harassing an innocent Black victim for simply being present in the "wrong" neighborhood, an indication of their distorted view of themselves and that blue blood runs DEEP! and 

(2) I wonder if me, as a Black female attorney, could so forcibly assert myself by intervening in police activity and achieve the same result. Would I warrant the same level of respect or would I be sitting on the curb next to the accused under arrest for obstruction of justice? Did this woman even have to indicate that she was an attorney or was being White enough to command total compliance and damn near an apology from these Black officers? What would have been the response, to her much less to me, if the officers were White? Acquiescence? Hmmm, Just Wondering...

Happy for the outcome but the background music is not so melodic to my ears. Conversely, it is deeply disturbing no matter the radio station. Officers are in such denial of their inherent bias, which is so ingrained in rank and file from top to bottom, that it renders them incapable of being objective and therefore incapable of doing their job effectively. I am pessimistic that their prejudice can ever be fixed or reversed. So now what?