A Black man was just driving a long. Using his eyes as people are wont to do while driving. As he is driving along, he notices a cop following him so he decides to tape it all.
The cop stops the young, well-dressed Black man, asking for his driver's license and the license of the passenger.
Felton then asks the officer again why he would pull him over.
“Because you made direct eye contact with me, and you held on to it while I was passing you,” the officer admits.
“What?” Felton asks incredulously. “I didn’t even see you.”
Is the officer some kind of mad, rabid dog that you cannot look in the eye? And if the eye contact was the problem, why did he trail the young man for so long?
“You’ve been tailing me for how long? You just needed a reason to pull me over,” Felton says. “No disrespect, I don’t have nothing against police officers, but all this sh*t that’s going on now? That’s some scary sh*t. To have a police officer just tail you, and then you pull me over, ’cause you said I didn’t signal — what? Do you know how it looks?”
Seems like tailing the young Black man was nothing more than intimidation for eye contact that the cop felt was intimidating to him. He wanted to show the young man who was boss. The intimidation continued, with the officer threatening to ticket the driver if he did not shut up. So much for First Amendment.
“I’m not gonna argue about it anymore, sir,” the officer tells him. “If you want to keep talking, though, I’ll just get your license back and give you a citation for the violation, and we can take it to court. I’m not gonna argue about it anymore.”
Here's the video link:
https://www.youtube.com/...
Driving while Black is bad enough? But using your eyes and not looking away subserviently while Black? That a whole lot of slavery mentality where Blacks are not supposed to look whites in the eye.
What if the young man, Mr. Felton had looked away? That would have been suspicious to a cop so inclined. So, there was almost NOTHING this young, Black man could have done to avoid being harassed by a white cop.
The Huffington Post reports that this incident has not gotten much traction. I am thankful that both Mr. Felton and his passenger are still alive. They escaped despite a white cop trailing them and looking for a reason.
Imagine the cop shooting this young man and saying he received a "hard stare."