Corey Dickerson was out jogging recently in Talladega, Alabama, when two police officers in a patrol car pulled up and asked who he was and where he was going.
Dickerson, who was out of breath and resting for a few minutes, very politely refused to state his name or where he might be headed, and this did not exactly sit well with the police, one of whom then asked:
“You look like you been running. Where you been running from?”
Dickerson, who just happens to be black, responds by saying he’s been running “just around,” and that he’s headed “nowhere in particular.”
At this point, the officer driving the squad car parks the vehicle. Dickerson responds to that action by commenting:
“Well. Looks like I’m about to get harassed.”
Alabama it should be noted, is a “stop and identify” state, meaning that law enforcement officers may:
“Stop any person abroad in a public place whom he reasonably suspects is committing, has committed or is about to commit a felony or other public offense and may demand of him his name, address and an explanation of his actions.”
At one point, one of the officers, who identifies himself as Officer Price, tells Dickerson there have been a number of burglaries an thefts in the neighborhood recently, and that he is just doing his job.
Wonder how many white joggers he asked the same questions of?
Finally, Dickerson admits that he is wary of the police for good reason:
“I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I don’t trust police just because I got my hair pulled out, I was choked, tased, maced, beaten bloody — you hear me? beaten bloody — by four cops while I was in handcuffs. One bad apple spoils the whole bunch for me.”
It should be noted that Dickerson was never arrested or charged with anything, and one cannot help but wonder if his only crime was being black in Alabama during a late-night encounter with two white cops.
