Whoops :(

This morning I did as I do every Sunday, I was snuggled on my couch watching Melissa Harris-Perry. Melissa and her panel discussed a number of important topics, yet one story brought me to tears. It was this story of mistaken identity which lead the police to pull over an innocent woman and her children, which shook me. To fully understand this you have to view the video and then comeback to my blog.

So here are the facts:

A 911 call came in to The Forney Texas Police about four black men on the road waving a gun out the window of a beige or tan colored Toyota. So they start in Hot Pursuit of the perps. One problem...
They pulled over a burgundy Nissan Maxima with four little kids and a mother, then held them at gunpoint.

Apparently Roscoe P. Coltrane and the gang are color blind, because last I checked burgundy and tan look nothing alike. I mean come on we've all had that moment when we've squinted at midnight blue -vs- black. I don't know too many people would get tan and burgundy mixed up...SIGH!

Mom: "What is wrong? My kids!"
Officer: "How old are they?"
Mom: "They're six and eight and ten, nine. What are we doing?"
Officer: "Hold on a second, okay?"
Mom: "What is going on? Oh my God, you will terrify my children."
Officer: "We got a complaint of a vehicle matching your description and your license plate, waving a gun out the window."

Then the scared to death innocent child gets out the car in the assuming position of all black men..."With His Hands Up" As his siblings screams hysterically in the car. The the cops attempt to calm the tots after realizing they made a mistake.

Officer: "Ya'll okay? Just ya'll in the car?"
Child: "No I'm scared."
Officer: "It's okay."
Child: "No, are we going to jail?"
Officer: "No. No one is going to jail."
Child: (Scream, crying)

Officer: "Hey, stop crying. It's okay. It's okay. Everything's fine now."

The image of that baby getting out of the car with his hands up brought me to tears! I thought to myself what if that had been me?  If I was pulled over jerked around and handcuffed, my 8 year old son would have gotten out of the car...But he wouldn't of had his hands up. My son would have exited the car charging at whomever was harming his mummy! In my sons world he can't comprehend how to pull in his emotions or yield like the young boy in the video. My son has autism and all he would see is someone hurting me, and he would react. All I could see was my son charging at the cops and bullets going into his chest. For those who say I'm reaching, I challenge you to talk to any African American mom with a child on the spectrum and see if her answer differs.