Should Whites Think Twice About Calling the Cops on Blacks?

Someone living in Missouria asked The New York Times this month: “Was I right to call the cops on a black man breaking into a car?”

The unnamed seeker of knowledge said he or she (sex was unspecified) saw a black man try to break into neighbors’ cars. The person yelled at the black man, which scared him off. Then the person called the police and posted the incident “to the (admittedly sometimes racially charged) Nextdoor app, in the hopes that my neighbors would check the locks on their cars and homes.”

Guilt immediately set in, even though his or her neighborhood has a lot of break-ins. The reason: “the tragic way things too often end between police and people of color.” No doubt the Missourian had visions of “hands up don’t shoot.”

“I feel an obligation to my family and my neighbors to report crimes. But I’d rather have my car broken into than have a person’s life ruined by my 911 call. And honestly, I don’t even know if it’s a crime to open someone’s unlocked vehicle,” the person wrote.

The writer says he or she would feel less guilty if it had been a violent crime, and blames neighbors for leaving cars unlocked. The person shuddered to think that the police call might have led to harassment of young black men who fit the criminal’s description.

“Did I do the right thing by calling the police?” the person pleads. “Or am I bordering here on behaving like BBQ Becky — the white woman in California who called the police on a group of black people having a barbecue?”

British-Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah answered the question in his column, which is called “The Ethicist.” Mr. Appiah said the person did the right thing, but had reason to be worried.

“Your hesitance about involving law enforcement points to a larger crisis of trust, one undergirded by worrying racial disparities throughout the criminal-justice system,” he wrote. “The best response . . . is to get involved in campaigns to reform policing and prosecution.”

The writer may be forgiven for thinking it’s wrong to call the cops on a black criminal. SJWs on social media like to ruin whites who call 911. BBQ Becky was a white California women who called cops on black men who were grilling meat in a park — in violation of local regulations. The video went viral and the woman was brutally shamed.

She was just one of many ordinary whites upon whom the heavens fell when they reported or questioned blacks. As American Renaissance reported last October, several lost their jobs. One was a St. Louis, Missouri, woman who aggressively questioned a black man — who refused to show his key fob — when he tried to enter her building. It turned out he lived there, so her company fired her because it can’t stand “racism [and] racial profiling.” A white CVS manager in Chicago lost his job after he called the cops on an irate black customer.

The Missourian feared a similar fate, and the New York Times encourages this fear. The paper published an article in May 2018 that complained about “when white people call the police on black people.” This happens “while black people are going about their everyday lives, only to be interrupted by someone calling the police for the thinnest of suspicions.”

Last October, the Times published a parody video that told whites what to do if they are tempted to call the cops on blacks: Call 1-844-WYT-FEAR, which will mock their fear of black crime. The video explains that “black people have been helping white people be better since . . . always.” The Times called the ad “New! A Hotline for Racists.”

The article for the video asked readers to submit their own stories of having to deal with the police “when you were doing nothing wrong.” Presumably, this never happens to whites.

Some lawmakers want to make it a crime to call the police unnecessarily — but only on certain people. Last month, the City Commission of Grand Rapids, Michigan, proposed a new “human rights” ordinance to make it a misdemeanor to call 911 on blacks or other protected classes who turned out not to be committing a crime. The ordinance calls this “racially profiling people of color for participating in their lives,” and it would mean a $500 fine.

Michigan and New York State have tried to criminalize these calls. State Rep. LaTanya Garrett would make it a felony. She called the bill a “safety measure,” and the Detroit Free Press said it would “govern haters.” So far, it is stalled in the state house.

A similar bill has gone nowhere in New York. “Living while black is not a crime,” explains the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jesse Hamilton. “But making a false report, especially motivated by hate, should be.”

The Oregon state House overwhelmingly passed a bill in late April that would let the victims of “racially biased 911 calls” sue anyone who reported them in Small Claims Court and win up to $250.

The Missourian who wrote to the New York Times is thinking just as whites are supposed to think: “I’d rather have my car broken into than have a person’s life ruined by my 911 call.” It’s better to look the other way than be a “racist” and have your life ruined.