Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: Walking While Black

Episode Date: October 31, 2015

Jeff Fisher is live from 6am to 8am ET, Saturday. Listen for free on The Blaze Radio Network: www.theblaze.com/radio & www.iheart.comFollow Jeffy on Twitter: @JeffyMRA &Like Jeffy's Facebook: www.facebook.com/JeffFisherRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. America WK with your host, Andrew WK. It's hard enough just to run your own life than to run everyone's life. And I don't think we should look to these leaders or a stereotypical leader to lead our lives. Ideally, they should protect the conditions which allow us to live freely. America WK. 10 a.m. to noon on the Blaze Radio Network. Now, I think I may become racist because I'm sick of being told everything that happens is because of race.

I'm tired of it. It was brought on by this administration and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of everything. Everything being about race. So here in Texas, a college dean, and I'm glad it kind of backfired on her. I really am. Dorothy Bland, dean of the journalism school at the University of North Texas, is used to taking a walk a daybreak, but rained delayed her exercise regime until later Saturday morning when she began traversing the streets of her well-to-do Corinth neighborhood. First of all, I've got the picture here of her.

While it's a nice neighborhood, if they're considering this neighborhood well-to-do, maybe they are in today's world, never mind. It's a nice neighborhood. You're right. You're right, Dean Dorothy Bland. But soon, flashing lights and sirens from a police vehicle paused her walk. She wrote in a column for the Dallas Morning News. Bland was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and...

And... And... She's black. Like most African Americans, I am familiar with the phrase, driving while black. But was I really being stopped for walking on the street in my own neighborhood? Yes. Walking while black is a crime in many jurisdictions. May God have mercy on our nation.

Blanchett said she asked the officers there was a problem, but didn't remember getting a decent answer. Of course not. Before one of the officers asked me where I lived and for identification, she was so angry, She didn't even listen to what the police officers were saying right there is what she's telling you. I don't remember getting a decent answer, right, until they asked for identification. I remember saying something like, around the corner, this is my neighborhood, and I'm a taxpayer who pays a lot of taxes. As for the ID question, how many Americans typically carry ID with them on their morning walk? Do you realize I bought the hoodie I was wearing after completing the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership and Education in 2014?

You realize I have hosted gatherings for family, friends, faculty, staff, and students in my home? Not once was a police officer called. To those officers, my education or property owner status didn't matter. One officer captured my address and date of birth. Oh my gosh. No. No, they did not. Blan figured she was simply brown-faced in an affluent neighborhood.

I told the police I didn't like to walk in the rain. And one of them told me, my dog doesn't like to walk in the rain. Ouch. Okay. I kind of get how you could might be upset a little bit about that statement, but he was trying to be conversational, right? I know, you know, police officers, first of all, some of them think they're funny or they're not.

I got it. And this is this guy. I mean, I get where she might think that hurt a little, but get over yourself. Okay, he's just trying to tell you that, you know, more things than you don't like to walk in the rain. I got it. But I'll give her that for a little bit.

She added that for safety's sake, she used her iPhone to take a photo of the officers and their patrol cars license plate. As Bland didn't want to end up like dozens of others who have died while in police custody. Okay. Within hours of posting about the incident on Facebook, Blan's had more than 100 friends spread the news across the country. This article up on the blaze. You are now in the company of Henry Lewis Gates and others with the same experience. She said one of her former students wrote, we must stop racial profiling.

Okay, let's pause here for just a moment, okay? Let's all remember Henry Lewis Gates, shall we? A professor, and he was trying to get into his house without keys. I don't think he had any idea, although he might have. I'd have to look up the story, and I apologize for not having the story in front of me. But remember that it wasn't really the police's fault. He just made it seem that way. And don't forget, this is where.

our president, who then later had to have his little beer summit and apologize because he came out and said the police acted stupidly when they didn't. But that doesn't matter, does it? No, that doesn't matter. Trayvon Martin, if I had a son, it would look like Trayvon. Never mind the facts, right? Never mind the facts. Blanda added that she stopped by the mayor's house.

Of course you did. Do I look like a criminal? Mayor Bill. Hydeeman said no and shook his head in disbelief? Really? Well, do you think the mayor was going to say, yeah, you do? Get off my porch. I appreciate the mayor being a good neighbor, but why should he need to verify that I'm a

menace to society? He doesn't, and you didn't need to stop by there either, did you? But the Corinth police chief, this, my friends, is where it gets good. Okay. current police chief Deborah Walthall caught wind of the incident she wrote a response

which was the second part of the Dallas morning news piece and said that the encounter was about Bland's safety not race and that dash cam video from the officer's patrol car proves it

Walthall said the officer saw Bland walking in the street with earbuds and unaware that there was a pickup truck directly behind her that had to almost come to a complete stop to avoid hitting her. The driver of the truck looked at the officers as they passed and held his hands in the air,

which implied, aren't you going to do something about this? The officers turned around and drove behind Ms. Blan. Walthold noted that while the patrol's car emergency lights were activated, no sirens were used, contrary to Blan's claim. And the officers immediately told Blan about her

concern for her safety and the pickup truck and that she should walk against traffic instead. I remember what was, she didn't hear what they said. She was so mad. I remember, I don't remember getting a decent answer before they asked me where I lived for identification, I believe, was the quote from the dean. Ms. Bland had been observed earlier by these same officers, but she was not in the street and impeding traffic, so she was not contacted. Impeding traffic is a Class C misdemeanor. Okay. Impeding traffic is a Class C misdemeanor, and it is our policy to ask for identification

from people we encounter for this type of violation. Now, that is the little thing that kind of irks me because everything is a, everything is some kind of violation. If they want to use it, they can use it. But, you know, good. That's fine. I'm surprised by your comments, as this was not a confrontational encounter, but a display of professionalism and genuine concern for her safety.

Walthall noted that Blant never contacted police or returned the chief's phone message about the incident. No, of course not. Of course not, because she would have to say, yes, you're right, I'm sorry. And then she might have to type something on her Facebook page saying, hey, sorry, I was wrong. Don't want to do that. The citizens of Corinth as a whole are a highly educated population. And it's disappointing that one of our residents would attempt to make this a racial issue

when clearly it is not. Police chief Deborah Walthall. Bravo. Bravo. So, fantastic. That at least sometimes. Sometimes. we get to fight back with a little bit of the facts.

And you know what? Facts matter. I get that, you know, it doesn't matter at all. Oh, I mean, we heard the lady from the, on Don Lemon, yapping that she didn't need to know more about the police officer picking up the student and throwing her out of her school desk. And we find out now, hell, students are protesting that they got rid of the cop. so this person, this student was obviously an issue at the school.

But heaven forbid, heaven forbid she does what was asked of her. Choices have consequences, life choices, from her teacher to the principal to a police officer. So when something bad happens when you don't do something that's asked of you from three people who are your superiors, Huh, something bad happened. But nobody wants to take responsibility. It's all somebody else's fault, isn't it? This is the Jeff Fisher Show. On the Blaze Radio Network.

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