Read on Twitter
More than several years ago while driving thru the City of Torrance, I was stopped by two of their officers... I wasn’t speeding, nor did I commit any vehicle code violation(s)... after giving them my drivers license, etc, they had me step out of the vehicle... I complied...1/
I asked the officer why they stopped me...the blond haired one said, "we’ll ask the questions." I replied ‘excuse me?’ The dark haired one, looking at my identification asked "what are you doing in Torrance (I lived in Pasadena)?" 2/
I replied, "leaving dinner, why?"... he followed with "how much longer do you plan to be in Torrance?" I replied, "I dunno, why?"... the blond haired one, who had kept his hand cradled on the handle of his firearm the entire time, asked 3/
"Are you being a smart ass?"... I ignored him and turned my attention back to the other officer, "why did you stop me?"... he doesn’t answer but tosses my identification of the trunk of my car, then turned to walk alway, and told me "don’t be in Torrance long..." 4/
I said nothing and took my identification and got back in the car. The following day I replayed the incident to a reporter friend who covered the South Bay Area (including Torrance)... he told me about a closed door meeting by the Chief of Torrance PD and their City Council...5/
That he had happened to get invited to sit in on by someone else... he was a relatively new reporter so few knew him for his line of work... during the meeting the chief explained he needed more overtime money for their NITAD program... 6/
The request by the chief was an "off-agenda" item he learned. When he asked his friend who invited him to sit in, they didn’t want to discuss it. My reporter friend pressed the issue and his friend relented and told him "No ‘N***ers in Torrance After Dark’."... 7/
He told me he sat stone faced because he couldn’t believe what he just heard. His friend responded with a shoulder shrug. When my friend tried to follow up, he was either rebuffed or dismissed by officials. He let it go soon thereafter... 8/
My point in sharing this is, until collectively people with warped thinking aren’t given a platform to expound or act on their twisted way of thinking, we’ll never get in front of this issue...keep confronting... keep challenging...keep snatching the carpet out from beneath them.
