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Avoid Police Harassment On The Streets By Joining A Club

Jun 17 '00 Write an essay on this topic.

Depending on the safety of your neighborhood, it is wiser to join a club. Jogging en plein air can be not only hazardous but also dangerous. It can just be a matter of life and death. This review will consist mostly of my personal experience. I used to start working at home and complete the work out by jogging outside. I had been doing since my college days. There was nothing wrong with this. After all, jogging is the most natural thing to do. It is cheap and all the equipment you need are your legs and good will to get up and go. After too many stops on the street, I told my wife that I needed a club membership. Fortunately, I managed to get my membership through my employment.

Well, in the Fresno/Clovis areas (California), jogging en plein air can be hairy. It can make you start asking questions about a simple morning workout through your own neighborhood. Thinking that living close to an airport is relatively safe due to the high visibility, I decided to jog outside after working inside. The path I took is often used by athletes amd travelers staying at the nearby hotels. On any morning, I could encounter up to 5 or 6 people jogging up and down the path. They were from all ethnic and racial backgrounds. One day, while some other joggers were sprinting, I was being closely followed by a neighborhood watch cop in a police vehicle. Thinking there was nothing to worry about, I continued to run down the path until the cop put on the flashing lights. So I stopped with my heart racing...due to the precedent high speed and surprise

I was dangling my car keys in my hands. "Sir, can you show me your ID?" the officer asked. "I never thought about carrying one while jogging here," I replied. "What's this for?" "Why did you stop me and not any of the other runners?" I asked

"Sir, we received an earlier report about a family who reportedly lost a rake and a shovel in their back yard."

"What do I have to do with that?"

"Well, they said that it was a black man who may fit your description."

"So it was not any of the others, the Caucasian, Asian and Hispanic joggers on the path here."

"I have to go with what I was told, sir." Another car stopped behind the other along the road. The interrogation continued.

"Do you reside in this neighborhood?"

"Yes, I do"

"Whose keys are you carrying?"

They are my Jeep Cherokee and office's ones." At that point, I had enough of their interrogation. I started to realize that I was the new victim of Jogging while black, not driving while black. Then I just laughed...I laughed at their stupidity or the stupidity of this report. I spoke very fast as if I was speaking either Spanish or French. I meant to inform that they were insulting my intelligence. I added that they had disturbed my routine. I was thinking about a paper I was paid to write, a paper on Josephine De Beauharnais, the Creole or Caribbean-born queen of France, Napoleon Bonaparte's wife.

"Who was Napoleon?" asked one of the portly officers. I smiled and decided not to give them a history lesson in return of their harassment.

"So you speak French too. And who was Josephine again? asked the other officer, pretending to have some clues about French history.

I laughed even harder. All the while, I was feeling mortified and angered by this overt act of harassment aptly designed to belittle a perceivable member of a minority group. In fact, cops get away with harassing members of minority groups all the time.

Realizing that I still had to keep jogging, I demanded to get their numbers before departing. I wanted to report their actions. I suddenly realized that the only times a man of color can be seen running, he has to be chased by K-9 and police men with baton or gun drawn. Que c'est idiot! How stupid!

"Sir, we feel sorry to disturb you. You can resume your work out."

"I hope that you guys learn from this mistake. People are people first, then skin color may be noticed. Why did you not stop any of the other joggers? You wanted to single a black person out?"

I hope this experience helps you realize that street jogging can be dangerous and hairy. You don't have to put with something like that. If you can go to a gym, go for it. Since then, I have become a member of the local club.

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