When the police car’s headlights lit up his driveway, Karle Robinson
was resting his body against the top of his large-screen television at
the front steps of his new Tonganoxie home.
What happened next, Robinson is sure, would have gone differently if he weren’t a black man.
It was 2:30 in the morning. His
moving project had turned into a 12-hour marathon, and the heavy,
unwieldy TV was all that he had left to take inside.
“I could use a hand with this,” Robinson said to the officer who shined a flashlight on him.
He’d spend the next eight minutes handcuffed, seated in front of his
own house, treated like a burglary suspect while the officer waited for
backup to check his story. The officers’ explanations struck him as
flimsy. His complaints, taken to the Tonganoxie police chief, went
nowhere.
The 61-year-old retired military
veteran told his story to The Star Wednesday in his home as he watched
body camera video from the first Tonganoxie police officer he
encountered on August 19.
The fact that the officer was
curious, even a little suspicious, made sense to Robinson. The hour of
day was odd. And Robinson was standing over a large TV in front of a
house.
But Robinson told the officer
that he was a new homeowner, moving in. He had identification and there
was paperwork proving his new ownership inside. They could go in
together and look, and maybe hoist this TV inside on the way.
“I need you to put your hands on the side of the house . . .”
The police officer’s voice came
through on the body camera as Robinson watched. He watched himself
wearily complying with the white police officer’s commands, submitting
to handcuffs in front of the new home — his first as a homeowner — a
city guy finally living out in the country as he’d dreamed of for so
long.
“Place your hands on top of your head for me . . .”
Then his arms were drawn down and back one at a time and the cuffs snapped closed.
“If I’d been a white man, you
know that wouldn’t happen,” Robinson said as he watched the video. “I’m
being handcuffed right here on my own damn property.”
You can read the full and complete story by clicking here.
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