A black man in Pennsylvania accused police of racial profiling after officers stopped him because they believed he was trying to avoid them.
He shared a video on Instagram showing his encounter with Pittsburgh police while he was inside his car. He wrote over the video, “being racially profiled by police.” The footage began with him addressing his viewers and saying he wanted to show them what it felt like to be harassed by police simply because he was a black man.
As the video continued, the driver began preparing his license, registration, and insurance. While driving, he pointed out that police had allegedly been following him for some time. When he pulled into a gas station, the officers activated their siren. He then repeated that this was what it felt like to be a black man in Pittsburgh.
A police officer then approached the driver’s car, while the man claimed that the reason given for the stop had been made up. “You assume we’re gonna stop you?” the officer asked. He replied that he “knew” they were going to stop him and then claimed that the same officers had stopped him before as well.
The officer explained that he had seen the driver standing outside a store before going inside and then coming back out. The man responded by writing over the video that his actions were not illegal. He then told the officer that he had been filming a video inside the store, explaining why he had gone inside and then returned outside.
In response, the officer told him that he needed to understand how his behavior appeared to them. “It looks like you’re trying avoid us,” he said. The officer then added, “and what do criminals do?” prompting the driver to respond that he was not a criminal. “I’m not saying you are,” the officer argued. The man then questioned how he would know how a criminal behaves if he was not a criminal himself.
“We can take a wild guess. Criminals avoid police,” the officer said. He then claimed that the driver’s “reactions” led him to believe that there was criminal activity. The two continued arguing, with the officer also claiming that the man had told someone at the store that police were there. According to the officer, that was another indication that something suspicious was happening.
“I’m not saying you’re criminal, but I’m saying one plus one is two,” the police officer added. The man then revealed that the officer and his partner had pulled him over four times before. He also accused them of following him during previous encounters, claiming that they had the same conversation each time.
What Happened Next
The driver later posted another video showing the rest of the encounter. “We already did this before,” he told the officers. He continued speaking with the officer, who attempted to justify the reason for the stop. As the officer appeared to give different explanations for why they had stopped him, one viewer pointed this out in a comment, writing, “He lied, he said your actions at the store made him follow you for suspicious activity…. Then said it was about the white line…”
The rest of the video showed him continuing to argue with the officer and repeating his earlier claims. He once again said that the officers had stopped him before. When the officer said he did not remember the previous encounters, the man told him to check his body camera footage.
When the officer asked him who else was going to stop crime in the area, the driver wrote over the video that the officer was assuming he had committed a crime. The footage continued with the two arguing, with the officer telling him that he could write him a ticket if he wanted to. At the end of the video, the man drove away while saying that it was hard being a black man in the city. His accusations that the officers racially profiled and harassed him have not been independently verified.
Viewers Slam Pennsylvania Officers For Stopping Black Driver
Viewers quickly weighed in on the encounter. Many criticized the Pennsylvania police officers after watching the encounter with the black man. Some believed that he had not done anything wrong to justify the stop. “It’s not illegal to avoid the police if you haven’t been detained….,” one person wrote. Another person said, “Every American citizen isn’t worried about good cops, the bad cops make the entire department bad; because the bad ones are tolerated. Video every interaction, stream it so it can’t be deleted. Remember to hand them what’s required, and stand on the Constitution that they don’t understand.”
More people continued criticizing the officers over the encounter. “EVERYONE avoids the police because POLICE ARE CRIMINALS‼!” one person wrote. Another person said, “‘Looks like you’re trying to avoid us’ yeah I mean any smart person would avoid someone trying to invent reasons to arrest them, search them, violate their rights, etc. Seems like a damn good list of reasons to want to avoid all these dumb [expletive].”
Ultimately, the encounter left viewers debating whether simply avoiding police is enough to justify a traffic stop, particularly when no other clear wrongdoing is apparent in the footage. Others focused on the importance of recording interactions with police, arguing that video evidence can provide a valuable record of what actually happens during these encounters.
