Despite the overwhelming media coverage of white people calling the police on black people going about their everyday lives, the practice does not seem to be abating by even a little.
From the Starbucks incident to the Yale incident to the Oakland park barbecue incident, viral videos continue to surface depicting the difficulty of Black Americans trying to go about even the most banal activities in their daily lives without being confronted by police officers.
This newest incident, of course, is no exception.
A Black father pushing his baby son in a stroller at Kingman and Heritage Islands Park in Washington, D.C. was stopped by police who were responding to a report of a “suspicious man walking the bike path with a baby” by a white woman.
The man, Donald Sherman, is a lawyer, and the “baby” is his son, Caleb, whom he took for a walk because the boy wasn’t feeling well.
Sherman took to Facebook to recount the unfortunate story of what happened to him once a “white lady on a bike who veered off as Caleb and [him] were walking in her direction.”
While this encounter was “pleasant,” the fact that it occurred in the first place is a testament to a systemic attitude of racism in this country. Until this abhorrent behavior is rooted out, every unnecessary encounter with the police should go viral so that people can see the dangers of going to a coffee shop or taking a nap or having a barbecue. Or even taking a stroll through the park.
