White Privilege? What happened at Stanford is a miscarriage of justice, but don’t reserve your outrage for incompetent police and the “judicial system” that grants this privilege. I must have missed class the day it was bestowed on all other Whites.
Just about two years ago, I was a volunteer with Big Brothers/Big Sisters (BBBS). After an extensive background check, this then 57 year old bald, white, Jewish married lawyer decided to help “Heal the World” and volunteered to be a “Big”. I was assigned to nice 12 year old boy (my “Lttle”)who never met his father. He was doing time in prison. Took him out to lunch after soccer; went to a pottery store so he could make a Mother’s Day present fro his mom, etc.
My friend who helped convince me to be a Big was also a Big, and had his own Little. The child was more troubled than mine, and younger. He was visiting his father in Virginia a few years earlier when the police knocked in the door, shot the dog and busted up the meth lab his Dad had going. He was brought to child protective services for observation. His Mom had to drive 900 miles from Florida to pick him up.
So, my friend and I decided to take our Littles to a baseball game, on a sort of “double date.” The boys touched live manta rays in a tank, ate lots of junk food, moved all around the stadium, and even watched some baseball. On the way home one of them said he had the time of his life.
A few weeks later we met again at dollar night at the Class A team of the Phillies. This time wasn’t so much fun for my friend’s Little. He has a fear, among many others, of lightning and it rained for a bit. He kept bothering us to leave and go play basketball at the Y.
The game progressed and we ended up in a sort of scrum, roughhousing, some might call it. I may have pinched my friend’s Little in the course of it. I instantly knew he was upset but didn’t think much of it. He went home, told his mother some fantastical set of lies. I called BBBS to ask for guidance. My liaison illegally recorded the call. They gave the recording to the police, but lawyered up on me.
The police sent a 2 year cop to interview him where he laid out bizarre tale that mixed fantasy and reality. He couldn’t repeat the same story twice when the state sent an investigator to interview him less than 24 hours later. The “detective” asked me in for an interview and I said I’d be happy to come in with my lawyer. She never called him back before deciding to arrest me for a crime against a minor that carries a life sentence if convicted, a charge that can never be expunged.
My mug shot was on the front page of the paper and it is the #1 result on Google today. I was booked into jail and the State Attorney wanted to keep me in jail without bond until my trial, an extraordinary argument to make, reserved for dangerous people who probably committed the crime accused of beyond a reasonable doubt, and a likely danger to society. The Judge refused and set bail at $100,000.
During the time of the flurry of activity, my picture was all over the media, and not one call came in to the police. Months later, a busker was arrested for child porn and seven people called law enforcement alleging criminal activity on his part with their children. I think it’s called the “Bill Cosby effect.” In my situation, it proved true. An innocent man does not suddenly become a serial sex abuser. -0- calls were made about me.
Nine months and $100,000 in legal and other expenses later, the State Attorney declined to file formal charges against me. That day we held a press conference excoriating the police department for a rush to judgment. In response the chief media officer and chief of police defended their actions and released the illegal recording as some sort of “evidence” backing them up. They never vetted the tape, from BBBS to the investigating officer to the Chief.
Can I sue? Probably. Will I “win?” maybe but who knows? I don’t want to be on the front page again, nor do i have another $100k to spend putting my wife and family through the media circus.
The sad point of the story is that police and judicial abuse of innocent people goes on all across the socioeconomic spectrum. It isn’t reserved for young Black men. White Privilege? What’s that? In my situation, I think I was used as a perverse “example” by the State showing how fair the system is. “See? We also catch and prosecute rich White men, even with illegal evidence if needed…..
