Powerless Class. According to Neely Fuller in a White Supremacy System the most accurate way to describe what "class" people are in is to describe their power relationship to each other. All white people who practice racism must be recognized as those in the powerful class. All non-white people, being subject to the powerful class are the powerless class. In their relationship with whites Blacks cannot be be "upper" or "middle" - but only under whites in this operating system of vast unequal power based on skin color. [MORE]

From [HERE] A white Yale University police officer raised his gun at an innocent black man Saturday night while searching for the suspect in a burglary case — and attracted the ire of New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, whose son happened to be the man in question. The officer approached him from behind ordered him to drop to his knees and to get on the ground. The Black 3rd year college student was unarmed. Then the cop let him go. 

Yale University released a statement on the incident, saying that police had specifically been looking for a "tall, African-American, college-aged student wearing a black jacket and a red and white hat." The suspect was believed to be involved in a flurry of minor theft incidents of various items from students rooms. No incidents involved force (no robberies) or violence and no one had been injured. NO WEAPONS had been observed on the suspect. When the white cop approached the student he did not flee or resist, he complied with cop orders.

For what reason did the cop seize him, detain him and pull his on gun on him?  For white folks, the 4th Amendment requires much more. But this shit happens everywhere, all day, everyday to Black and Brown men. In the context of White Supremacy there is no innocent Black male, just Black male criminals who have not yet been detected, apprehended or convicted. He is guilty by his mere existence. [MORE] As such to a white cop or a white journalist covering this story there is no need to justify the legality of the stop and seizure or the force used. All that mattered was skin color. That is the status quo of white supremacy. 

Charles Blow wrote the following about his son's episode in the NY Times:

Saturday evening, I got a call that no parent wants to get. It was my son calling from college — he’s a third-year student at Yale. He had been accosted by a campus police officer, at gunpoint!

This is how my son remembers it:

He left for the library around 5:45 p.m. to check the status of a book he had requested. The book hadn’t arrived yet, but since he was there he put in a request for some multimedia equipment for a project he was working on.

Then he left to walk back to his dorm room. He says he saw an officer “jogging” toward the entrance of another building across the grounds from the building he’d just left.

Then this:

“I did not pay him any mind, and continued to walk back towards my room. I looked behind me, and noticed that the police officer was following me. He spoke into his shoulder-mounted radio and said, ‘I got him.’

“I faced forward again, presuming that the officer was not talking to me. I then heard him say, ‘Hey, turn around!’ — which I did.

“The officer raised his gun at me, and told me to get on the ground.

“At this point, I stopped looking directly at the officer, and looked down towards the pavement. I dropped to my knees first, with my hands raised, then laid down on my stomach.

“The officer asked me what my name was. I gave him my name.

“The officer asked me what school I went to. I told him Yale University.

“At this point, the officer told me to get up.”

The officer gave his name, then asked my son to “give him a call the next day.”

My son continued:

“I got up slowly, and continued to walk back to my room. I was scared. My legs were shaking slightly. After a few more paces, the officer said, ‘Hey, my man. Can you step off to the side?’ I did.”

The officer asked him to turn around so he could see the back of his jacket. He asked his name again, then, finally, asked to see my son’s ID. My son produced his school ID from his wallet.

The officer asked more questions, and my son answered. All the while the officer was relaying this information to someone over his radio.

My son heard someone on the radio say back to the officer “something to the effect of: ‘Keep him there until we get this sorted out.’ ” The officer told my son that an incident report would be filed, and then he walked away.

A female officer approached. My son recalled, “I told her that an officer had just stopped me and pointed his gun at me, and that I wanted to know what this was all about.” She explained students had called about a burglary suspect who fit my son’s description.

That suspect was apparently later arrested in the area.

When I spoke to my son, he was shaken up. I, however, was fuming.

Now, don’t get me wrong: If indeed my son matched the description of a suspect, I would have had no problem with him being questioned appropriately. School is his community, his home away from home, and he would have appreciated reasonable efforts to keep it safe. The stop is not the problem; the method of the stop is the problem.

Why was a gun drawn first? Why was he not immediately told why he was being detained? Why not ask for ID first?

What if my son had panicked under the stress, having never had a gun pointed at him before, and made what the officer considered a “suspicious” movement? Had I come close to losing him? Triggers cannot be unpulled. Bullets cannot be called back.

My son was unarmed, possessed no plunder, obeyed all instructions, answered all questions, did not attempt to flee or resist in any way. [MORE]