The Greater Houston Locksmith Association (GHLA) sent out their monthly newsletter containing a change in the manner in which locksmiths document having properly identified customers. The State mandated locksmiths obtain proper photographic identification such as a driver’s license or passport when carrying out our particular profession. The state went so far as to mandate a legal form, to be printed either on the front or back of each Sale Receipt or Work Order, providing a statement from the customer to the effect that he/she had a legal right to the property being worked on, a signature line and one to document the form of identification.
The State has so many laws on the books; is it any wonder that there is yet another law which specifically prohibits writing down the driver’s license number of any customer on a sales slip? Well, as it turns out, locksmiths have now been told not to write down the license number; only list that such an instrument of identification was shown; go figure.
When I was working as a police officer I often times used the information from a driver’s license as a means of documenting who I’d spoken with; either for an incident report or for the issuance of a traffic ticket. Every now and then someone would take offense at my asking for some form of valid identification; believe it or not, most often it was a “race card” being played. I’d get to hear how white police had been using traffic laws to hold down Blacks; nothing to do with why they’d run a red light or a stop sign. (This is the same argument being used to stall any legislation requiring a valid photo ID to cast a ballot at the voting booth.)
One time when stopping a young Black woman for a traffic violation downtown I was privileged to witness an extreme form of the “race card”. The young woman sat with her arms folded and refused to talk with me, refused to hand me a driver’s license and at one point climbed from her seat onto the open top t-bar where the sun roof sections fit on her neat little sports car.
I looked around, kind of like pinching yourself to see if everything was real, and luck was on my side. Across the street at one of the large banks working a police extra job was one of my immediate supervisors; he’s been watching the whole time. He gestured that I should put the cuffs on her as he smiled approvingly. I pointed this out to the young woman who then lost some of her confidence and yet remained sitting on top of the t-bar.
“You have the choice of sitting on top of your car and acting like a baboon or getting down and handing me your license. My supervisor has already seen enough to justify putting you in jail.” The incident ended with my writing a traffic ticket; she never came to court or pursued her complaint regarding racism.
Reading another racially charged article , this one on CNN, brought the past to mind. A Black professor played the “race card” when an officer investigating a possible break in asked to see some identification.
“Why, because I'm a black man in America?”
A neighbor had seen what looked like two men trying to bash in the front door and called police. Turns out the professor lived there and his front door was stuck; no burglary was happening; but the officer would still have needed to see some ID.
The police officer could have walked away being reasonably certain the fellow he’d talked with actually did live there; but what about verifying the name of the person he’d spoken to for his official report?
I wouldn’t want to be in the officer’s shoes if, later on, the actual owner came home to a burglarized house and the officer could only say, “I talked to some guy who claimed he lived there; but I didn’t bother to have him prove it.”
“So, officer, did you help the bad guys load my HD television into the truck too?”, followed by, “What the hell are we paying you for?”
Wouldn’t it have been even worse had the police officer neglected to see some form of identification, a double standard? What’s the deal; police only protect white people’s houses? They don’t care who’s in a house if some Black person lives there?
Sorry, professor; you should have said, “Thank You”, to the nice police officer for doing exactly what he was supposed to do instead of giving him a worn out lesson on racism in America. The race card is an ugly part of life here in America; a permanent chip on the shoulder for many folks.
Here’s something to ponder; the most significant minority in America isn’t the Black, the Vietnamese, the Jews or any of those groups; no, the most significant minority has been and always will be the Individual. Maybe someday that will make sense to those who play the race card; I doubt it.
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