Letters – Citizen complains about racial profiling

To the Editor:
Have you or anyone that you know ever been pulled over or questioned by the police for no apparent reason? If the answer is yes, you are probably a minority.
Racial profiling is a sensitive issue and it must be addressed. We all celebrate holidays such as MLK day, but have we really thought about the concept of “judge not by the color of skin but b

y the content of character?”
MLK was a great man and we as a People need to come together and make his dream a true reality. For me, personally I have studied both Malcolm X and MLK and I believe that “we shall overcome, by any means necessary!”
Last weekend, I personally experienced what I perceived as an incident of racial profiling. The incident occurred when I was walking out of a convenience store and said hello to a friend, entering the store, who is also black.
At that point, a police officer drove up to the car that I was getting into and told me to put my hands behind my back, that I was being detained for an investigation of a drug transaction. I tried to explain that we had simply come out of the store, but the officers kept telling me to just keep quiet.
So there I was, scared, confused, angry… and handcuffed for no reason except for being black.
After about an hour of being embarrassed, my friend and I were “free to go!” since we had done nothing. As I rode home, I thought to myself, that situation was not right. I”m here to let others know.
These are members of my own community that should be protecting and serving US! Instead they are profiling and discriminating.
In order to live peacefully in a great community such as this, we should have great men and women leading it. We can”t have this type of leadership when the lines are blurred by the color of our skin.
God Bless!
Willie Henderson
Lockhart