I am 63 years old and I grew up in the Lawndale community of Chicago, IL. This is a community the Chicago Tribune newspaper in the 1970's described as the poorest community in the nation. I served in the U.S. Air Force for 4 years, and I am currently a Regional Vice President with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. I am still a resident of Lawndale, and for as long as I can remember, I have been actively involved in trying to better my community.
Sadly, for as long as I can remember, I have been a victim of racial profiling. Most recently, I have been victimized physically and emotionally by the Chicago Police Department. During the last two years, I have been arrested multiple times on various trumped up charges. All of them have been dismissed.
I have been arrested coming out of a public housing project after visiting relatives. The police frequently stake out this building and will arrest people based on nothing more than skin color. I had no drugs. I was not consorting with drug dealers, and I was involved in no illegal activity. But as you walk out, the police will apprehend you as part of a drug bust, because of your profile. People tell me I should just stop going to places where I get caught up in the war on drugs. I answer this is the United States of America. We should be free to go wherever we want in our own community.
I'm active my community. My family has lived there for more than 50 years. I have seen young men growing up, and I try to work with them to try and better themselves. But, when I speak to them, the Police assume I'm buying drugs, and have detained me and accused my of "buying a couple of rocks." I'm 63 years old. How can they say I am buying drugs and arrest me, but they don't arrest the people I supposedly bought them from.
I have ties to this community and there is no reason that I should have to turn my back on it or leave it. I went to school here, played ball and got an education. Sometimes I'm afraid of going out on the street, because there are criminals who might bother me. But I am also afraid of going outside and having the police pounce on me, simply because of what I look like. People in my community are afraid to call the police. If people are afraid to contact law enforcement, how does this help us feel safe? It's like being in the middle of the ocean and drowning but being too afraid to trust the lifeline someone throws you. Decades of racial profiling have destroyed my trust in local law enforcement, but worse than that, it is destroying the hopes of a community in fairness and equality.

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