The encounter starts as a traffic stop, maybe over a broken taillight or an expired registration.
Most times it ends with an annoyed driver clutching a ticket and cursing the officer, themselves, their bad luck or maybe all three.
But sometimes it doesn t end that neatly. Sometimes the traffic stop turns into a car chase. Which turns into a car crash. Which turns into a foot pursuit. Which turns into a struggle in someone’s yard.
Which turns into a police shooting.
Things can spiral in moments. And a police officer s split-second decision during that frantic dance can set a nation ablaze.
Teuntor, 26, of Fort Myers organized the Justice March for Daunte Wright and led three other demonstrations following the death of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man who died while being arrested last spring.
“I felt like all the work I’ve done hasn’t been enough,” Teuntor said. “… This stuff is still going on. It’s not that we’ve wasted our time, but we haven’t been enough.”
Wright, a father of a 2-year old boy, was pulled over by Brooklyn Center Police on April 11 for what officers say was expired car registration tags. While trying to arrest Wright for an outstanding warrant, body camera footage shows police officer Kim Potter, who is white, fatally shooting Wright in the chest.
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Trevor Noah is weighing in on the talk Black families often have with their children about police encounters.
Most recently: 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who died at the hands of police officer Kim Potter after a traffic stop. Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and made her first court appearance Thursday.
Noah addressed the danger Black families caution each other about when coming across law enforcement in a Thursday segment of The Daily Show. Every encounter between a police officer and a Black person is fraught with danger, Noah said.
The comedian and TV host explained how Black parents uniquely warn their children about these encounters with what is called the talk. Similar to how parents discuss the birds and the bees with their kids, Noah noted that Black parents often have to add into the routine lectures how to behave during a traffic stop.
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Police and protesters faced off again in Brooklyn Center after nightfall, with hundreds of protesters gathered in the city s heavily guarded police headquarters, now ringed by concrete barriers and a tall metal fence, and where police in riot gear and National Guard soldiers stood watch. “Murderapolis” was scrawled with black spray paint on a concrete barrier.
“Whose street? Our street!” the crowd chanted under a light snowfall.
About 90 minutes before the curfew deadline, state police announced over a loudspeaker that the gathering had been declared unlawful and ordered the crowds to disperse. That quickly set off confrontations, with protesters launching fireworks toward the station and throwing objects at police, who launched flashbangs and gas grenades, and then marched in a line to force back the crowd.