It's Been a Huge Week for Black People Having Cops Called on Them for No Reason

The reliably obscene trend of black people having the police called on them for no reason at all has been getting quite a workout over the past few days.

On Tuesday, a black Yale University student was reported to the police because she took a nap in her dorm building’s common room.

Employees at a Waffle House in North Carolina on Saturday called the cops on a young black man because he “got into an argument” with the staff. Few details about the incident are available, but nothing points to Anthony Wall, 22, threatening or hurting anyone. What’s clear in video of the incident is that a cop ended up putting Wall in a chokehold.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story about two black men who were reported to the police by a woman in an Oakland park because they were supposedly using a grill with charcoal in a “non-charcoal” grilling location. The woman reportedly told the men they were not welcome in the park and that they were going to jail, according to the Chronicle.

Also on Wednesday, footage was released of an incident in Rialto, CA, where a woman called the cops on her neighbor’s black Airbnb guests. The neighbor thought the guests looked suspicious because they had suitcases and didn’t reply to her when she greeted them with a good morning. So she called the cops “to report a burglary in progress.”

On Tuesday, the Washington Post wrote about an incident in which Nordstrom Rack employees in Missouri called the cops on three young black men suspected of shoplifting. The men were, in fact, shopping for their prom. And they paid for their items.

Police showed up and confirmed the three men had not stolen anything after reviewing receipts and searching through their belongings, according to the Post.

A Nordstrom spokesperson said the company has guidelines that direct employees to call the police only in emergency situations, according to a statement provided to the Post. “Unfortunately, those guidelines weren’t followed.” Ya think?

Perhaps the guidelines should also ask employees to take a deep breath and ask themselves if they would call the cops on white people in similar circumstances.