Danny Davis was pulled over on the West Side by a couple of white Chicago cops early Monday morning for allegedly weaving and “driving left of center.” The incidence, which had all the earmarks of racial profiling, was not supposed to happen for at least a couple of reasons.
1) Davis is a United States Representative and has been for the past decade. As a prominent Chicago politician–before going to Congress, Davis was a Cook County Commissioner and before then an alderman on the city council–you’d think the police would have given him a pass for what was, at the worst, bad driving. Since I grew up in Gary, Indiana, a Chicago suburb, and have lived in Chicago and worked as a journalist here for more than three decades, I know a lot about the city’s finest. I’d bet a year’s property taxes (which has just jumped to a heartburn-inducing $15,102.06 on my house) that IF the Chicago police had pulled over Congressman Daniel Lipinski or Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky or Congressman Peter Roskam they would have been a little more understanding and a little less harassing.
2) Last year, Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline reminded his men and women in blue that there should be no open season for racial profiling of African Americans.
But Cline is gone. He resigned a couple of months ago and Chicago is still Chicago, known coast-to-coast for its racial insensitivities. So, powerful Congressman or not, another black driver got pulled over by another white cop on suspicion of being suspicious.
I know the feeling. Six years ago, I was stopped at high noon while driving on the West Side. At the time, I was Director of Station Services and Community Affairs at WBBM-TV. Damon Bryant, who was Director of Advertising and Promotion and the only other black department head at the station, was my passenger. We were two black men, dressed in suits, in my shiny, new 2001 Honda Accord, driving through one of the most economically depressed parts of town.
An unmarked squad stopped me for not stopping at a stop sign where I had stopped, not only as a law-abiding driver, but because Damon and I were trying to get our bearing as we read street addresses along Madison Avenue while figuring out how much further we needed to go to get MacArthur’s restaurant.
As I flipped open my wallet to show the officer my driver’s license, my CBS ID became visible. I got a pass for not running the stop sign. Rep. Davis was not so lucky. He got a ticket.
He was as peeved Monday morning as I was pissed off back then. On May 14, 2006, when I was writing an op-ed page column for the Chicago Sun-Times, I wrote about two of my earlier experiences with racial profiling--and about another Davis, Shani. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Getting pulled over for driving while black unleashes anger
By Monroe Anderson
It was during the summer of '91 when I was first racially profiled while a middle-aged African-American. I'd stopped at Dunkin' Donuts on the corner of Fullerton and Elston and was driving towards home when a squad car's Mars' lights signaled me out. I pulled over and got out of my brand-new Honda Accord.
About 20 years before, I'd read somewhere that proper police protocol called for the driver to get out the car so that the officer could see that you were unarmed and therefore no threat to his being shot as he peered into your car window.
"What's the problem, officer?"
"You just went through a red light."
"I just came from the donut shop," I replied, puzzled because there was no traffic light along the short stretch between where I'd pulled out of the parking lot and where I'd been pulled over.
I got a strange stare before the policeman began to retreat.
"I'm sorry, brother."
I nodded, more puzzled than before. Why was this young white cop calling me brother? As I got back in my car, I caught a glimpse, in my rearview mirror, of the cap I'd forgotten I was wearing. The red and white CFD-embossed logo on the cap, which had been given to me three years earlier by the Chicago Fire Department commissioner when I was Mayor Eugene Sawyer's press secretary, read loud and clear. It was logical to conclude that I was a member of the brotherhood of street civil servants -- policemen and firemen -- and serve up an apology.
It didn't make me feel any better. While it doesn't compare to being introduced to Mr. Billy Club and his good buddy, Mr. Hand Cuffs, getting pulled over simply because of the color of my skin is a mini-insult that arouses big-time anger.
So when police Supt. Phil Cline last week reaffirmed his commitment to arrest the practice of racial profiling, I wanted to give Chicago's top cop a gold star for being a good guy.
My Dunkin' Donuts episode wasn't the last time I was stopped for no infraction. Years later, I was pulled over for driving while black in my wife's brand new 1998 Honda CRV as I went through a busy intersection in Lincoln Park. Remembering protocol, I got out the car.
"What's the problem officer?"
"Get back in the car. Keep both your hands visible."
I complied. How times had changed. I'd allegedly run the stop light at Fullerton and Racine. Again, I was puzzled because there was a car behind that followed me through the light. After I showed him my driver's license, revealing that I lived three-and-a-half blocks away, I got off with a warning.
About 18 months later, on Christmas Eve, I was the sole customer in a neighborhood jewelry store, shopping for my wife's gift. As the owner and I stood gossiping over the counter about one of our mutual acquaintances, the loudspeaker of an unmarked car barked out from in front of the store. "Is everything OK in there?"
The owner signaled to the patrol car on the street, indicating that there was no need to arrest me for shopping while black.
During Cline's news conference, Secretary of State Jesse White unveiled tips, explaining what motorists should do when pulled over by police, that will run in a new page in the official Illinois driver's education manual. These tips stem from last year's racial profiling incident involving state Sen. James Meeks, when his car was pulled over and he was cursed at by a Chicago cop.
I wonder what pointers might be offered for walking while black? Five years ago, pedestrian Shani Davis, the speed skater, was stopped by plainclothes cops in Rogers Park. He's now a plaintiff in a suit against the City of Chicago claiming that he was stopped and searched for illegal weapons because of the color of his skin.
For future protection, I strongly suggest that Davis wear his Olympic Gold medal around his neck when strolling Chicago's mean streets. And should the medal fail to repel the profilers, for the right price, I've got a Chicago Fire Department cap I'll reluctantly hand over.
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