COPING WITH COPS

For Minorities, Growing Up Now Means Learning How To Survive The Police

It looks like a typical high school classroom, but the question Ronald
Quartimon poses to his African-American students at Bedford Stuyvesant
Outreach, an alternative high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., isn't about
the Civil War or Shakespeare's sonnets. He wants to know how many of
them have ever been stopped by the police. Six hands shoot up.
"Usually," says a student, "they just come out right off the bat and
ask you, 'Do you have any drugs?'" The comment is a typical one for
the 10-session course called Conflicts with Cops, run by the
Harlem-based Neighborhood Defender Service. Its goal: to train
African-American teens to make it through a police encounter safely.

The demand for workshops like this is one measure of the fallout from the
recent wave of highly publicized police shootings and alleged abuses of
African Americans and other minorities. Episodes like the fatal shootings of
Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond by undercover cops in New York City have
raised an outcry against brutal police tactics and racial profiling. But
they have also sent a warning into the homes of ordinary families, who are
increasingly taking steps to make sure their kids don't do the wrong thing
when they come face to face with the police. Says Quartimon: "Today you
can't take anything for granted."

Some people might call that paranoia. But learning the way to behave
with cops has become a rite of passage for black and Hispanic
youngsters. Just as parents warn their sons to wear a condom during
sex or urge their kids to say no to drugs, now they drill them on the
dos and don'ts of dealing with police. It's just a matter of time,
many tell their kids, before you are stopped, for no other reason than
that you are young and black. "They know it's part of their job
bringing up a black or Hispanic kid," says David Harris, a professor
of law and values at the University of Toledo who is researching
racial profiling. Police officials don't dispute the usefulness of
such efforts. Walter Burnes, a New York City deputy police
commissioner, says it is a good idea for parents to teach kids proper
"etiquette" for situations in which they are questioned in a car by
police. "Everyone has to make their own decisions about what they
should do with their families," he says.

It's a tricky balancing act, however. African-American parents want to
prepare their kids but don't want them growing up thinking all cops
are out to get them. Joyce Randall, a minister at First African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, tells her sons that police
officers have a dangerous job. "The way you dress, your attitude, it
all matters,'' she instructs them. "Police must be very, very careful.
So if you are doing what you're supposed to do, chances are you're
going to be on your way." Still, tragic events like the Diallo
killing-along with alarming scandals like the reported abuses in the
Los Angeles police department-have made the words of caution more
urgent. "Many people felt that Mr. Diallo could have been any one of
us," says Dennis Walcott, president of the New York Urban League and
the father of a 15-year-old son.

Those were Larry Dais' thoughts exactly. Like many African-American
parents, Dais, an assistant vice president at Columbia University, was
worried about the safety of his two sons. He gave them each the
"police speech" when they got their learner's driving permits: If you
get pulled over at night, turn on the interior light. Put your hands
on the steering wheel. Don't make any sudden moves. "My younger son's
initial response was, 'Why do I have to do that?'" says Dais. "But now
he understands." Last summer Landon, then 17, was stopped while
driving his father's Triumph sports car. The cops said it was a
routine cheek, asked a few questions and let him go.

Because of incidents like that, lots of black parents won't let their
kids drive flashy cars-even Mom's or Dad's-which can attract unwanted
police attention. Other parents have given an emphatic thumbs-down to
cell phones. Why? A police officer might mistake it for a weapon in
the hands of a young African-American male, just as the cops say they
mistook Diallo's wallet for a gun. Other parents restrict their kids'
clothing. New York City police detective Clifton Hollingsworth won't
let his sons wear hip street fashions. No backward baseball caps or
pants drooping down below their waist, because such clothing can send
the wrong signals to police. "It's important that families do as much
as they can to help prevent their children from getting stopped,
frisked or killed," says Kenneth Meeks, author of Driving While Black;
a book about racial profiling that is to be published in May by
Broadway Books.

While much of the responsibility for teaching kids how to act with the
police must fall to parents, a growing number of organized groups are
trying to make such training a part of every child's education. In New
York City an organization called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who
Care has been swamped with requests for survival workshops, conducted
in schools and community organizations. More than 5,000 people, mostly
youth, have attended so far. In Chicago, Michael Owens, 17, grew up
amid the gangs and drugs of the Englewood neighborhood and had a
typical attitude toward the police. Says he: "The decision to make
when you saw the police was hope for the best or run." But in high
school he formed the Boys & Girls Clubs' YouthNet program, which
brings kids together with the cops to talk about how to deal with the
police.

The problem is not confined to the biggest cities. Jon Munnerlyn, 18, an
African-American high school senior in Columbus, Ohio, says he gets stopped
all the time: "I'm a big kid, tall," he says. "I get kind of nervous that
every time I reach for my ID, there's a possibility that I might die." And
in minority neighborhoods across the U.S., there's a good deal of ingrained
suspicion, Says Ebony Garcia Williams, 17, a junior at Bedford Stuyyesant
Outreach: "Little kids from five and six years old learn to hate the cops
because they see what goes on in the community.'' No matter how many
parental lectures are given or workshops held, it will take a long time to
overcome attitudes like that.

Sidebar:

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE STOPPED

*Don't Be Loud: Answer the officer in a calm, clear voice

*Don't Reach For ID: Ask the officer first before pulling it
out

*Be Personal: Check out the badge, and use the officer's name

*Don't Volunteer: If in doubt, you have a right to remain silent

*Don't Antagonize: Don't ask for a badge number or threaten to file a
complaint. (Do it later)