Blackfacing Angry Black Men

I don't blame Bennie Demetrius Washington for claiming that he was illegally searched when the police found a gun in his car in 2004. To the contrary, I would call it responsible action; it is every person's responsibility to defend themselves to the best of their ability when accused of a crime, or else you just get another Gideon (of Gideon v. Wainwright fame, not the bible people). But the fact of the matter is, he's a felon who was stopped on suspicion, and the suspicions turned out to be true when the police search turned up an illegal firearm that landed Washington another six years in federal prison.

The claim, according to the Oregonian, is that he "wasn't breaking any law when Portland police approached him... and asked whether they could search him and his car." After consenting to the search, they found a gun and arrested him, and now he's doing six years. Now I could go back and forth on this forever. On one hand, possession of an illegal firearm is a crime, and thus he was doing something illegal. On the other hand, a case could be made that we all do barely-illegal things all the time, and could probably all get arrested for something, but 90% of us (at least in the Northwest) don't get busted because the cops don't profile white people. Then again, you don't just throw someone in the slammer for six years because they had a gun in their car. But on the other hand, if he consented to the search, he probably thought there was no way they would give him anything worse than a slap on the wrist for the gun. If you commit a crime that you know would lock you away for six years, you don't just let the cops waltz in and make the arrest. Either you make things difficult for them, as is your right under the fourth amendment, or you turn yourself in.

Anyway, what it comes down to is that he pulled the race card on a situation where it very well may not apply. It's more likely, even in Portland (where the cops have a long, continuing history of blatant racism), that we're dealing with a repeat felon who has so proven himself detrimental to society that simply owning a gun exhibits intent to do something far worse. No matter who you are, you don't get six years for possession of a firearm on a first offense.

So I blame the Oregonian. An irresponsibly shitty article by Aimee Green that doesn't cover the details, but instead paints Washington as an angry black man hiding behind his skin, does a disservice to black people, to Portland, and the Portland police. Adding insult to injury is posting the article with top billing in the Metro section, with an enormous headline stating "Man claims police bias in suit." If you're going to do a feature, cover the facts. If you're going to do a recap or brief, as Green did, put it in the corner on page 5. By putting an incomplete article front and center, really all you're doing is screaming "look! Look! Blackie got hit! Blackie got hit! LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE BLACK GUY!!!!!" For anyone on the fence towards African Americans (or as I call them, black), all this will do is reinforce their stereotype that black people aren't really the victims of racism, they just claim to be so that they can get away with murder. Or possession. Whatever. Be fucking responsible.