What makes me angry

Injustice, that is all I have to say. I have developed a heart for social justice issues, and thismorning is a perfect example of my heart for standing up for injustice. I was talking to my friend Illeana who is from Puerto Rico from my window and all of a sudden this cop car comes zooming around the corner of my street and yells at 8 kids (all latino or african american) who were about 15. They made the 5 guys put their hands on the cop car, while the 3 girls walked on. The cops (2 white cops) then proceed to start searching the boys, going through each of their pockets and questioning them. One of the cops then watches the boys as the other then starts walking down the block looking in the bushes for anything. Now mind you, I am freaking out and Illeana is just cool as can be saying, "yeah, look, they are trying to find anything to arrest these boys. It happens all the time". I got mad and told Illeana that I was gonna grab my camera phone and come outside. (hence the picture). Illeana said, "haven't you seen this before?" I realized that I have heard first hand stories and maybe sort of saw this as I was driving by a cop with people of color. Who knows why they were pulled over in the first place. I think what set me off is that it was obvious that these kids were doing NOTHING wrong, yet they were being targeted. The cops took all of their school ID's to get their info. (here in the city, the kids have to wear their school ID's around their necks)

Illeana had to go, so I went quickly to the UMIN office here on campus (my friends of social justice influence here on campus), and Rev (Alise, I blogged about her a few months ago), said I should go out and ask the cops for their badges and this case number so I could follow up...Mind you that Alise is one of my dear friends, who happens to be african american. She has personally been affected by racial profiling. SO, I went back out. Cops were gone, but the kids were still outside. I went to go talk to them.

They are a bit nervous as this white chick comes up to them asking if she could ask a few questions...

me - "umm, can I ask you guys a few questions?"
boys - "uuuhh, ok"
me - "were you part of that incident that happened down there?"
boys - "yeah"
me - "I just wanted to let you know that I am so angry over what happened. Did you guys even do anything wrong?"
boys - "no. They just pulled us over because of our race"
me - "has this happened to you before?"
boys - laughing.... "yeah, it happens all the time."
me - "how many times have you been pulled over for nothing?"
boy1 - "at least 5 times"
boy 2 - "I don't want to exaggerate, but more than I can remember. maybe a dozen"
me - "how old are you"
boys - "15"
me - "so what was the issue?"
boys - "we were cutting" (cutting class)
me - "that's it? no drugs or weapons?"
boys - "no, we'd get in trouble at school. that one kid threw something, but I think that it was his money so the cops wouldn't take it...and now he can't find it. He's mad 'cuse he lost 5 bucks."

So, there it is, kids getting a police write up for not having white skin and ditchin' class. How many times did I ditch class in high school (well, maybe only about a dozen times), but still...I never feared getting pulled over by the cops and getting searched while doing it.

Life is so unfair and it makes me angry.