By Chrystal Schivell
For the past week I’ve been tossing around in my own little tempest in a teapot. It all started when Not In Our Town cross-posted a statement from Dr. Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton University, who’d been pulled over for speeding and arrested because of a warrant for two unpaid parking tickets. She said, “The police treated me inappropriately and disproportionately. The fact of my blackness is not incidental to this matter.” I’d seen Dr. Perry interview Tim Wise a while ago and liked her. The tempest began.
Racism in the Princeton police force? Oh, no! But not allowed to make a phone call, patted down by a male officer (TSA doesn’t allow that), and handcuffed? Then handcuffed to a table at the police station? Dr. Perry must have been traumatized. I would have been. Surely inappropriate and disproportionate for unpaid parking tickets.
I check the papers and find that the president of the university and members of Princeton Council have expressed support. They question the protocol, but the police chief says that pat-downs and handcuffs are required when there is a warrant. Everyone is treated this way. It seems excessive to me, but I’m relieved that the Princeton police are not racist, as I feared.
The media releases video from the dashboard camera, and I see Dr. Perry’s car flash past — how fast I can’t tell but certainly obvious on the deserted road. I see the male officer — polite, even apologetic — as he explains the reason and procedure for arrest. Dr. Perry is equally polite and cooperative. So why was she handcuffed to a table? But racism? Nothing in the video supports the charge.
Then I see Julian Svedosh’s letter to the editor in The Packet chiding Professor Perry for playing the race card and crying wolf. He suggests that her “invented stories” have slandered the police, Princeton Council, and the university faculty, and that she deserves to be fired.
The tempest churns. Mr. Svedosh has a point. She was speeding, and she was treated politely. Why did she call it racist? Everyone says the police followed protocol. Eleven people were arrested for warrants this week; we could ask them how they were treated.
But wait! Dr. Perry didn’t know that pat-downs and handcuffing were protocol when she posted on Facebook. She was expressing her perception that a treatment so inappropriate for a cooperative woman and so disproportionate for unpaid parking tickets had to have been because she is black. On the other hand, Dr. Perry does seem to be one who sees race in every bad encounter, the ones who insist “Never tell me to ‘Get over it.’ ” But that’s OK. I personally find it easier to deal with black people who cry “Move on,” but there’s no rule that says black people have to think alike. White people don’t.
And what if Dr. Perry’s perception of racism had been borne out in fact? Wouldn’t we have been grateful to find out so that we could do something about it? Think of it as a fire drill where our police performed well. Should she be fired if her perceptions are not accurate? Ridiculous.
But Mr. Svedosh wrote, “She claims the officer was lying about her speeding.” If he’s right, that doesn’t look good for Dr. Perry. I agree with Mr. Svedosh that we have to take responsibility for our actions. And Dr. Perry did take responsibility for her fines. But what about the speeding? Is she saying that the officers pulled her over when they had discretion to ignore her speeding?
In choosing which speeders to pursue, police officers do exercise discretion, and to quote Dr. Perry, “In every profession, as in every life endeavor, people exercise discretion according to who they favor and who they disfavor, who they believe matters and who they consider inconsequential.” There’s no proof that the Princeton police chose to pursue Dr. Perry because she’s black — she was speeding. In fact, unlike in the past, I’ve recently seen people of all races, ages, and gender pulled over. That’s a relief. But might they have ignored her speeding if she were white? Dr. Perry has a point about discretion: why a speeder or job applicant is pursued or ignored can’t be proven either way.
I want to defend Dr. Perry. I want to defend the police. I hate this controversy. But until our country rids itself of institutional racism and systemic inequality, I can expect similar incidents. When Mitch McConnell said his number one priority was to make Obama a one-term president, I immediately thought “because he’s black.” McConnell probably meant “because he’s liberal.” Or did he?
I have had to learn never to deny a black person’s story even with a reassuring “Oh, it couldn’t have been racist.” Why? Because I really don’t know and because I am perhaps trying to reassure myself that race played no part. Perhaps Mr. Svedosh is, too.
Chrystal Schivell, a Princeton resident, taught in Trenton for 23 years and blogs at whyalwaysblackandwhite.com.
