In the latest of racially motivated incidents that seem to only increase in frequency with time, a black man by the name of Vicktor Stevenson was met by four police officers outside of his gourmet lemonade kiosk but not in the way you might expect. Instead of being greeted as the owner, the cops approached him with their hands on their holsters after receiving a call from a concerned citizen who believed he was a burglar.
Stevenson was unsure of the problem as he knew he had done nothing wrong. The four officers approached him and informed him that someone called in a robbery, a notion that Stevenson found quite comical. He responded to the cops with laughter, saying “That’s funny, this is actually my business.”
The officers then proceeded to ask Stevenson to remove his coat and to prove that he did indeed own the kiosk. He was fully compliant and even opened the door to confirm he was telling the truth.
The encounter didn’t end there. The cops asked that Stevenson provide identification, a request that made the business owner quite uncomfortable. “I was reluctant to give them my ID,” said Stevenson. “I didn’t want to give them my ID, and I just obliged after a while because I’ve seen what’s been going on every single day out here and I didn’t want to become a statistic. So I just gave them my ID, and they ran it”
The entire situation was unsettling, to say the least. Social media has brought lots of attention to matters like this in the past, including famous incidents like Permit Patty, Jogger Joe, and BBQ Becky, who all let their racial insensitivity get the best of them.
It is clear that Stevenson is no criminal, he’s just an average business owner trying to support himself and his family.
With matters cleared up, he wants to call attention to the person who placed the call with no particular basis to do so. “I can respect my neighbors being neighbors and being neighborly and calling the cops if they feel that way if they see that. But, I didn’t have a brick in my hand, I wasn’t rummaging through my business.” He would go on to say “It’s the caller that’s the criminal here. They should be the one being questioned.”
Hopefully, people will soon begin to realize that a person’s skin color is not sufficient grounds for contacting authorities.
Featured Image Via Wikimedia
