Thread by @qasimabasir, "COPS & KAREN'S". This is my personal story. A bit traumatic to [...]

"COPS & KAREN& #39;S".

This is my personal story.

A bit traumatic to dig up, but I have to speak. I do not tell these stories for sympathy. I& #39;ve managed to turn a lot of pain into art. But people need to know how common this stuff really is. And none of this was on camera.

At 13 I rode my bike to the store, came outside where there was a white man with a cop, said the bike was his son& #39;s. Cop put me in the back of his car while they checked. It wasn& #39;t his.

At 14, pushing carts in my red vest at my Kroger job, I passed by a white woman& #39;s car. She locked her door, grabbed her stearing wheel and glanced at me with fear out the side of her eyes. I& #39;m like, is she scared of & #39;me& #39;? This happened almost every day I worked there.

At 16 I was walking down a stairwell in school, a white girl in front of me. She glanced back a few times, then finally stopped, stepped off to the side and said "I& #39;m sorry", with terror in her eyes. I& #39;m like, whaaa? And I kept walking.

At 16 I got my license and had $800 saved to buy my 1st car, a 2 dr Buick regal, my homies called it ghost. 10 mins into my 1st drive I was stopped by police. The cop, hand on his gun, didn& #39;t explain the stop, didn& #39;t believe I bought the car. Within mins he made me get out so...

he could search the car. There I was, hands on the hood, his partner watching with his gun as he searched my car. Turned one of my proudest moments into a deeply painful one. Welcome to driving. My friends and I were stopped relentlessly almost every month all thru high school.

At 17 I was arrested by 10 cops, shut down the block, trained their guns on me. "Put your fucking hands where I can see them!" I was pulled out the car, cuffed with a knee in my back while they found what what they were called about. A bebe gun. Well why& #39;d u have a bb gun? U ask

I used it to shoot one of my first high school short films. Fine, on me, didn& #39;t have a permit. But AFTER they found out it was an unloaded bebe gun, the prosecutor decided to charge me, a 17yr old kid, with a felony for carrying a concealed weapon

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😳" title="Errötetes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Errötetes Gesicht">. Mind you, I was graduating..

from high school in days, omw to college, a good student/athlete, homecoming king, but to them I was "black man with gun". Had to fight like hell, mom had to pick up hours at her jobs, had to pay every dime I had saved for a lawyer to ensure I didnt go from high school to prison.

In college I cannot even remember how many Karen& #39;s crossed the street or clutched their purse or sped up when I was near or, tap tap tap, tried to hit that elevator before I could get on or on & on & on...

At 21 a cop approached me while in my car in a store parking lot. When asked for my license I questioned if this was even considered a stop. He got aggressive af, hand on gun and all, so I complied. Found out my license was suspended for parking tix, so I was arrested, car towed

Also at 21, trying to recover from the financial burden of that arrest, $500 bail, broke college student, still had to drive to work, I was stopped again, for nothing again (he actually wouldn& #39;t tell me), he found out my license was still suspended, I was arrested again.

It& #39;d take another 4 yrs of cops & courts & fines to get from under all that and finally get my license back. I don& #39;t even remember all of it, but it was a hell of a time that added to trauma that was yet to be healed. Gonna fast forward over the next few years bc there& #39;s a lot...

I don& #39;t remember. Also I moved to NY, where I didn& #39;t drive. Was therapeutic for me. A refuge from the trauma of DWB, something still not recognized by many as real, even tho so many of us have it. But after NY I moved to LA, where even after a couple films it didn& #39;t stop. NYE & #39;18

My wife was driving us home from a party and we got a flat on the 10. While waiting for AAA, both on our phones, I get a knock at my window, startled me so I turned to a bright flashlight in my face. I cracked the door and the cop grabbed his gun. Get back in your car! YOU CAME..

TO MY CAR. Turns out it was 2 cop cars. 4 cops. Wife had to talk them down. They said "I don& #39;t see a flat". U wanna go on the 10 to see? It& #39;s the drivers side. Ended up making us drive on the flat to the nearest gas station. Possibly ruining the rim too. My ultimate Karen moment

My friend & I rented 2 rooms in an airbnb, met the couple who owned it the night we checked in, the next morning I went to the kitchen which was a shared space. The wife was there. She turned to me and AAAHHHH!! Dropped her plate and screamed. The woman I MET last night! Her GUT

REACTION from seeing me. I just stood there. I knew what she was going thru. I knew from a life of people like her, who feared people like me. I knew I had to be calm. That if a neighbor, her husband or a cop had come shooting, I knew who& #39;s side they& #39;d be on. Cuz in that moment..

and every one I described, I couldve been Tamir, Trayvon, Mike, Philandro, Sandra, Ahmaud, Breonna, or George. I’ve probably escaped death 30 times. & every time I see brothers or sisters who don’t, I am reminded of these trauma& #39;s, and a piece of me dies with them. I am them.

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✊🏾" title="Erhobene Faust (durchschnittlich dunkler Hautton)" aria-label="Emoji: Erhobene Faust (durchschnittlich dunkler Hautton)">

UPDATE, these incidents still happen regularly

These pics are of my 1yo son and I on FB live, 3 & 8 days ago. Both days police pulled up behind us, sat idled for 10-15mins until we left

I don& #39;t know if they were there for us. But goodness man, it& #39;s exhausting having to consider

These are our regular morning walks.

And we live in this neighborhood.

I& #39;ve spoken to so many people about this thread, then I decided to have a conversation with my younger self and made it as a short film...
https://twitter.com/qasimabasir/status/1289335717412261888?s=21">https://twitter.com/qasimabas... https://twitter.com/qasimabasir/status/1289335717412261888">https://twitter.com/qasimabas...

https://twitter.com/qasimabasir/status/1289335717412261888?s=21

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