I actually think it's a valid discussion. About three months ago I (older white guy) got pulled over by a cop in a residential neighborhood. I had no idea why. I rolled down my window as the officer approached. I didn't ask anything. He asks for my license, registration and proof of insurance. I tell him they are in my glove compartment and that I'm going to get them. I don't move too fast. I give him the documents and he goes back to his cruiser. I still don't ask any questions.
After a couple of minutes (he was obviously checking for any outstanding warrants), he comes back, hands me my documents and asks if I know why he pulled me over. I answer truthfully: "I have no idea." He goes into a long explanation about how, while turning off St. Charles Avenue, I pulled out of a long line of traffic at a red light and drove illegally up the right side of the street for almost a block, then stopped at the light and turned right on red. "That's illegal?" I asked. He said it was as it was a parking lane. I didn't think so. I said "Well, it's your call to give me a ticket, but I think if you look there aren't any kind of signs or marks indicating it's a parking lane or a bike lane." I kept my hands on the wheel, the tone light and the window down. To my surprise he said he'd check and walked back up the block to look. He did, came back and said "I'm letting you go with a warning but be more careful next time." I looked later. There were no markings.
So white privilege or was it because I kept it civil and low key? Hard to know, but one reason I long ago adopted this stance when dealing with the police is that I once was leaving a concert with a buddy at Lakefront Arena. A traffic officer waved us out to the right as we exited the lot but my friend wanted to go left. He gave the officer a quick wave saying was going left and turned that way. We made it about 10 feet when two other officers stepped in front of the car with their hands up. They told my buddy he couldn't make that turn even though the street was wide open and it was the way we'd come in. He argued saying there was no reason he couldn't go the way he wanted and in about 5 seconds flat they had him out of the car, cuffed and lying with his face in the street. I got out to see if he was ok and was cuffed in about 5 seconds and sitting on the curb. We stayed that way about 15 minutes while they did whatever then they arrested him for disregarding an officer's command and threatened to charge him with attempted murder (!) for "trying to run them over." He went off to jail and I drove his car back to his house at about 10mph.
The cops way overreacted. They acted like real pricks the whole time and obviously got off on roughing us up some. In short, the Tyreke Hill video really brought that back, except I think we were driving an old jeep not a McLaren. Thank God we weren't (very) high or drunk or who knows what they might have charged us with. This kind of thing wasn't that unusual and over the years a lot of my friends (almost all white boys) got arrested and man-handled by jacked-up cops at one time or another. And my old man told me exactly what many black fathers tell their sons: don't eff-around with the police. Don't argue. Don't move too quick. Follow instructions. It seems though for a lot of black guys that equates to being a punk. You've got show the cops something, stand up to them, don't let them push you around. Man, everyone knows how that's gonna end 9 out of 10. As soon as I heard Hill tell the cop "hey, don't tap on my window!" I knew where it was headed. And honestly, I think it would have ended there for me or anyone else. Doesn't make the cops right. But it does make it predictable and pretty universal.