NYC.gov

I am sure you have heard of the many stories of racist police officers and how horrible they have treated some black people especially black men. I am a black woman and here are some of my experiences with some New York City police. One time I was driving to another borough in New York City and my GPS lead me to a tunnel and I was not sure of where the tunnel lead so I asked a white police officer this question because I have heard of GPS' leading people into rivers and things like that so I asked him where does the tunnel lead and he asked me, "who is driving?" over and over again without answering my question. He spoke with a very cruel abusive authoritative tone and he treated me badly just because I asked him for help. One time I was on my way to a public pool and started to walk in and a white police officer screamed at me and said "you there, where do you think you are going?" He asked me to walk all the way down another side and checked my bags and as I searched for my lock for a locker he blurted out, "you only have 20 minutes." He spoke as though he was trying to pick a fight with me. One time I was on my way to a train station and I took out my metro card and swiped it to pay my fair and it was empty and I did not have enough money for another metro card so I panicked and went under the turn style. Two police officers pulled me off and asked for my ID to write me a ticket and I sat and waited for them for what felt like an hour as I waited I had an asthma attack so I searched my bag for my asthma pump and one officer told me to take my hands out of my purse and put them where he can see them and I told him that I was having an asthma attack. I was given a $50 ticket that day. I see people walk onto buses all the time and not pay there fair and they get no penalty. So I really think that these officers were racist. I doubt they would have treated me that way if I were white. They should have questioned me instead of singling me out like that. One time I was on my way into a court room to do jury duty which I hate and when they checked my bag as it went through the machine one police officer asked me if I have a knife in there and one police officer took everything out of my bag. She took out a small black bag from my purse and inspected it and checked it as though it may have been a bomb. In reality there was nothing harmful in my purse and the black bag only had feminine products in it. She could have just opened the bag or asked me what was in it. They did not treat anybody else there like that. Only me. They were racist. Because of what I see on tv on the news, learned in school and have experienced in my life like these experiences, I really feel that police officers need to be thoroughly re-trained on what it means to treat people fairly and with respect and how to not be racist. Police need to be spoken to about what it means to be a helpful hero and not a racist bully. Being black in America is scary and the reason why is because people who are supposed to protect and serve often behave like this instead.