This video by a black man stopped by the police has gone viral; find out why (Video)

This video by a black man stopped by the police has gone viral; find out why (Video)

Not every traffic stop involving a black driver needs to end up on the front page of newspapers around the country. The video below offers proof. It was made by and stars a man named Will Stack. He made the recording and posted it to Facebook in the hopes of furthering the dialog on race relations, especially as they pertain to interactions between the black community and members of law enforcement.

So far, the video appears to have had the desired effect. At press time (ca. 1:15 on April 12) it had been viewed over 2 million times.

A report by South Carolina NBC affiliate WSGA notes that Stack is 22 years old and a member of the Army National Guard. The station provides some background to Stack’s video:

[H]e was pulling out of the Lexington County Courthouse in an attempt to make a left turn. Stack said he noticed the lane in front of him was full and the median was not, so he drove the car through the median to get to the left turn lane.

In the video he explains that he was pulled over by a Lexington police officer who was Caucasian for “improper use of the median.” But it is what Stack didn’t do during the traffic stop as much as what he did that appears instructive:

Now, I will say that why [sic: while] he was here with me, I made sure my hands were on the steering wheel, I made sure to speak very politely as I always do. I did what he told me to do. I handed him the information and I sat here and waited and turned my music down….

The point of this is to say that I am an African American male, this gentleman was Caucasian. There were no problems. He did his job, I did what I was supposed to do, and that was it….

The world really needs to stop putting labels on people and things and see them as who they are: people doing jobs, doing things. Ignorance has no color. God doesn’t see color. Why should we?

In the first paragraph above, Stack provides not only a description of how he behaved but a recipe for how everyone, regardless of race, should act during a routine traffic stop.

Stack was subsequently interviewed by WSFA reporter Jack Kuenzie, during which he added:

It’s possible for African Americans and police officers to get along. It’s possible for African Americans to have respect for police officers and what they do. And, not everybody shares the same mindset because nobody’s the same, everybody’s different.

We don’t know what all cops do, we don’t know what all Caucasian people do. The only thing we know is what’s highlighted, what’s put in the media, which, unfortunately, is nine times our of ten are the negative things.

I just wanted to bring something positive to social media, something positive to the world to let people know there are good cops out there, there are intelligent Africans out there, it exists.

Here is Stack’s video. Pass it around.

People really need to start understanding this

Posted by Will Stack on Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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