Pinkos in the Grove

This evening I went to a gathering in Coconut Grove, in a townhouse just off Grand Avenue.

First of all, I was fifteen minutes late. Way too early around here! I've got to relearn Caribbean time.

One person who came this evening was very upset; he had been pulled over by the police and searched, legs spread hands on the car, the whole deal, just like on TV. During their search they asked him a series of questions, including whether or not he had any communist propaganda, ending with "are you a terrorist sympathizer." Yes, you heard me, they asked if he was carrying any communist propaganda. Apparently we live in 1982 and the biggest threat facing the nation is hidden copies of the Communist Manifesto.

Gary (not his real name), is a student at FIU, the public university. White, early twenties, the cops pulled him over with flashing sirens, just off highway US-1 in The Grove, where the housing projects are. He explained to me that his age and skin color were probably the reason he got pulled over, as Coconut Grove is where UM students go to buy drugs. FIU is the public university, UM the exorbitantly expensive private institution in the city. Needless to say, predictably enough, the projects are visibly black neighborhoods.

To his credit, he did not go on about how hard it is to be a white male in America today, minorities get everything and we get treated so unjustly wah, wah, wah. I have little patience for that jeremiad. He was upset and felt like he had been unfairly targeted, as anyone would have in his position, but he did not take that absurd narcissistic train of thought.

Aside from the ridiculousness of the commie-bastard question, his experience became the topic of conversation this evening, and we wondered about the concept of probable cause. His taillight was broken, and that was the reason they stated for pulling him over. They also told him that there was a report of a similar car in the neighborhood buying drugs, but as his car is quite unusual, plastered with bumper stickers of musicians and environmental causes, he was doubtful.

The narrative is written, it seems, in the skin color of the young person behind the wheel. Well off college kids cruising for drugs, who statistics demonstate are more likely to get away with it if they are caught, black drug vendors who are more likely, especially if they are male, to end up behind bars.