Source: WPIX / WPIX
In the latest episode of “Racism once again thriving in Trump’s Amerikkka,” former Obama Administration staffer Darren Martin found himself being questioned by police when someone called 911 to report a “burglary in progress.” That alleged crime was Martin moving into his new apartment on 106th Street in the Bronx.
The Bronx, yo.
According to PIX 11, Martin had found a new gig in New York and new digs in his native Bronx borough after spending the last few years working on Capitol Hill for the Obama administration. But when he began the move to his 5-story walk-up on the Upper West Side this past Friday, police paid Martin a visit to verify that there was no funny business going on in the gentrified neighborhood. Knowing things could go left at any second, Martin live streamed the encounter with officers on Instagram to show people the ugly reality that minorities have to deal with on a daily basis in 2018.
“Somebody called the cops on me in my own building,” he told viewers who were tuning in to watch the live video. “About how many are ya’ll? About six of ya’ll showed up, rolled up on me.”
“I didn’t really think anyone was going to call the cops on me because I mean – I was moving into the building.”
During the live stream one of the officers responding to the call turned up the volume on a 2-way radio where the dispatcher said the caller stated that “somebody was trying to break in the door” with a “possible weapon” or “large tool.” That’s the kind of description that can get innocent minorities killed by the way. Luckily that wasn’t the case here.
Martin for his part isn’t too surprised that his presence caused a stir in the neighborhood which is currently going through the gentrification process.
“As a black man when you’re in an all-white environment, you’re cognizant of that,” he said. “I have to say I found it kinda symbolic. [It’s] like welcome to the neighborhood.”
This latest racist incident comes on the heels of two Black men getting arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia after waiting a mere 120 seconds for a friend, a group of Black women having the cops called on them by a golf club for golfing too slow, and a racist white lady going off on two Black soldiers in Georgia.
Martin for his part hopes that his situation and others like it remind people that stereotypical thinking could lead to unjust harm that everyone involved would have to live with afterwards.
“The broader message to everyone is get to know folks before you make these assumptions,” he said. “When you make that call there’s no turning back and it could have ended very differently.”
Calls to the building’s management company, Pine Management, were not returned.
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