Black Man Was Stopped by Police for Sitting in His Car, Reading C.S. Lewis

[Night Watchman]

Source: Mic

By Kathleen Wong July 13, 2016

On July 7, former high school English teacher Louizandre Dauphin was fed up with the news cycle and decided to drive to a quiet place to do some reading.

Sound suspicious? Residents that saw him in his car thought so and, naturally, they called the police, who stopped the black New Brunswick, Canada, resident as he drove back home.

In his subsequent Instagram post about the incident, Dauphin said the officer told him that locals had reported a suspicious black man sitting in a parked car.

In the post, he explains that the week's string of racially charged violence in the United States, compounded with his own personal struggles, left Dauphin "stewing in my apartment," he wrote to his Instagram. So he decided to blow off steam with some nature and reading.

On his drive home, Dauphin was going slightly under the speed limit, so he was confused when an officer pulled up behind him with his lights on. The cop was "kind and respectful," wrote Dauphin, verified his information, asked him the "usual questions" and then asked whether Dauphin was in Janeville earlier that night. When Dauphin expressed shock at being reported for just hanging out in his car, the officer replied, "Well, you know, it's a small town."

Read more: https://mic.com/articles/148519/this-black-man-was-stopped-by-police-for-sitting-in-his-car-reading-c-s-lewis#.k2NbHnTBH

---

Okay, so maybe Canadians are a tad bit more racist than I thought. Still doesn't come close to our level, though.

[HipChick]

1. Does not shock me..

[MrScorpio]

2. Canada defintely has some issues with racism

It's just that they're not as frequently compounded by acts of violence, unless we're talking about problems involving First Nations peoples instead.

[cntrfthrs]

28. please explain what you mean

by....'problems involving First Nations peoples instead.'

[obamanut2012]

33. Just what Mr. Scorpio said

Even the Canadian gov't has recognized how First Nations folks, especially the women, are treated, especially by LEOs.

[63splitwindow]

3. Could be a legitimate "check welfare" stop...

so to even mention it weakens others. His actions sound like those of a depressed person, which is even hinted at in the report in the OP.

[MH1]

7. He was told that it was called in as "suspicious black man"

A Bathurst man says he was pulled over and questioned by RCMP while driving home from Stonehaven wharf, and was told it was because police received several calls regarding a "suspicious black man" in a white car parked at the wharf.

Louizandre Dauphin, the director of parks, recreation and tourism for the City of Bathurst, was reading an anthology of works by C.S. Lewis.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-bathurst-reading-wharf-1.3672419

Couple key points -

* public area. Not like he just pulled over in a neighborhood where he doesn't live just because it was nice and quiet (which was an option left open by the article linked in the OP)
* employed professional - not (just) a "former teacher" as indicated in the OP's link

Doesn't really sound like a depressed person to me. He went to a nice place to read a book. Some shitheads thought he was scary because he was black.

Sigh.

[63splitwindow]

11. The fact he was reported as "suspicious black man" and that it was a wharf...

are not in the original post, which is what my comments were based upon.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHlCfJvDLbB/embed/






























weren't in original post


Sigh.

[MH1]

12. Yes, the lack of details in the original post

is what caused me to click through to the news article, which thankfully was more substantive.

[Night Watchman]

48. Third Paragraph of the OP

In his subsequent Instagram post about the incident, Dauphin said the officer told him that locals had reported a suspicious black man sitting in a parked car.

So...what gives?

[awoke_in_2003]

24. "His actions sound like those of a depressed person"

Sitting in your car and reading poetry? Seriously?

[63splitwindow]

26. Yeah I drive off and park somewhere and read poetry all the time. Then I leave...

making sure I drive under the speed limit, all the while contemplating not only problems in our society but my "own personal struggles" as well. This after getting weary after "stewing in my apartment" and needing to blow off some steam. Who doesn't do that?

Then, if some police officer stops me and asks me if I'm OK I usually assure him I am and go on about my business. You?

[awoke_in_2003]

27. I go to the park when I'm stressed

and most African Americans drive at speed limit or a little below it to not get hassled by the cops. I still do not see how a cop pulling this guy over for being black could be construed as a wellness check. In fact, the "this is a small town" excuse the cop gave is a big dog whistle.

[63splitwindow]

29. I still do not see how a cop pulling this guy over for being black could be construed as a wellness

check."

Well who could if they accepted your premise? You take the fact he was pulled over BECAUSE he was black as a given. I don't. After all was said and done he was determined to be OK and he went on his way. Was he ordered out of his car? Did he have to sit on the curb? Handcuffed? Patted down? Car searched? Him or his car sniffed by a dog? Backups called? Put in back of police cruiser?

I think all I sit and read in my car is directions on how to fix what's causing my car to just sit there. And I have never read poetry to "blow off steam." I would be much more likely to be blasting something raucous on the sound system.

[obamanut2012]

35. Actually, lots of people do that

Including myself.

[63splitwindow]

39. HAHAHA- sorry, didn't pass giggle test. nt

[tblue37]

44. Just because you don't read poetry, that doesn't mean no one does.

One of my students told me she kept her big poetry anthology from my course in her car so she could read poetry whenever she was stuck somewhere. Once people learn to understand and appreciate it, they often find reading poetry to be remarkably enjoyable.

[63splitwindow]

46. Reading poetry is GREAT when stuck somewhere or waiting on someone...

or while sitting or laying in a park or at the beach or in nature anywhere or at home or many, many other places. If I went outside right now, though, and someone was just parked along the curb reading poetry or anything else, with no other purpose for being there, I would think it odd. My initial comment on this thread was based upon the first post which made it sound as though that could describe what he was doing. Being at a scenic wharf (which was apparently the case) changes it, in my mind, so as to not be quite so odd.

What happened after he was stopped other than the officer briefly talking to the guy and letting him proceed on his way? That IS consistent with a welfare check, don't you think? Did anything happen after he was stopped that is inconsistent with a simple welfare check?

[awoke_in_2003]

45. Just another white person

who doesn't want to admit that profiling happens.

For the record, I am a white male.

[63splitwindow]

47. Incorrect. For the record I don't care what color you are. nt

[obamanut2012]

34. He said he was "stewing" which isn't being depressed

He needed to get away from all the negative news and chill someplace where he wasn't be a TV or his computer. That isn't a "wellness check."

WTF

[63splitwindow]

38. "Stewing" is not being depressed?

Thanks, never knew those terms were mutually exclusive.

When a police officer talks to someone to make sure they are OK it is called a "welfare check". Happens frequently. WTF

[padfun]

4. "Canada" didn't call this in

One person did. I wouldn't make wide judgments of groups based on one phone call and the required look. In fact, the cop checked and went on his way.

(in reply to several follow-up posts)

[MH1]

9. Please see my link and excerpt above, it was several people.

And it sounds like it isn't a completely isolated event.

[padfun]

14. I know, but even then.

There will always be rednecks, even in the most tolerant land. Seven percent of all people are clinically insane, maybe more if you count Trumpers. I'll bet the non racist will vastly outnumber the racist ones. It's just that the loafs get all of the attention.

[Hoyt]

5. Bet that ticked off police. I think it was Richard Pryor who joked about a policeman

following him in the South. The police were very hostile to Blacks who could read. Pryor said he was driving very carefully down a steep hill and as he go close to the intersection he saw a Stop sign -- "Oh Lord, if I stop they'll harass me because I'm educated, if I run it, they'll get me for running a Stop sign." Of course he really embellished the story. Might have been another comedian.

[IronLionZion]

6. Yup, Canadians can be racist too

but apparently their cops are less murderous. That's a very good thing.

[Night Watchman]

17. Murder would be Very Impolite, EH?

Sorry, couldn't resist!

[Person 2713]

8. Ask northern Native Americans if whites are a "tad bit" racist in Canada

[FailureToCommunicate]

16. +1

[sheshe2]

10. Is C.S. Lewis ....

on a banned book list? Perhaps that is why the cops were called.

[Night Watchman]

18. If so,

those neighbors must have incredible eyesight!

[Mendocino]

13. DWB

Driving with book.

[kentauros]

31. Or more simply: R

Reading

[progressoid]

42. OMG.

I've never seen that one before.

[kentauros]

43. And of course it happened at a Waffle House

[zentrum]

15. Deep in their instinctive hearts

…White people are so afraid of Black people because White people know that for 400 years White people have tortured, robbed, and impoverished Black people. Even if an individual White person feels they've done none of these things, they know their group, in history, and up to the present moment, has done great evil.

You're damn right Whites are afraid. So they call the cops over a "suspicious Black man in a car". They are so afraid of their own history—never atoned for, never set right.

We need truth and reconciliation trials, reparations and an admission of history. As well as economic and social justice. Then White people won't be so afraid and making such trouble in the lives of ordinary Black people just trying to live.

[Elmergantry]

21. Disagree.

I think they are afraid due to statistics.

[zentrum]

23. Yeah, that's the easy

..knee jerk unthinking reaction but why do those statistics exist as they are?

White people's treatment of Black people is the reason those statistics exist as they are in the first place. Look deeper for why they are so uptight and convinced by those statistics.

White people, on some level, know that they've visited a horror on Black people. That's the conversation that needs to happen.

[Night Watchman]

30. NAILED IT!

Not only do whites have a terrible record in our treatment of blacks, we have a terrible record in our treatment of everybody who isn't us!

Spot on, zentrum!

[Elmergantry]

36. I think the "easy unthinking reaction"

Is to blame everything on whitey.

[LanternWaste]

40. I see no one on this thread blaming "everything on whitey."

I see no one on this thread blaming "everything on whitey." I do however, perceive an implied corollary.

[Elmergantry]

41. sounds like it to me

"White people's treatment of Black people is the reason those statistics exist "

[DustyJoe]

19. training ?

Police dispatchers need training on whether to even dispatch a patrol car on a citizens complaint call.

So what happens when you call on a suspicous anything and the dispatcher decides it's not important ?

[pansypoo53219]

20. i blame the 911 callers & 911 not asking more.

[Cha]

22. K&R.. thank you..

[dembotoz]

25. driving while litterate.....oh the humanity

[obamanut2012]

32. Oh, I actually think in some ways they can be more racist

Because they have had a less diverse society for a much shorter period than the US. This is a blanket statement from my own experiences.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

37. Just be grateful it wasn't Edgar Allan Poe.