Bill Robinson is a construction worker. He became a widower after the death of his wife in 1982. The devastation made him a single parent with his young teenage son Eric. One hot summer day Eric became so sick that his father had to take him to the emergency room. He was hospitalized in the children’s hospital for dehydration. The hospital nurses allowed Bill to spend the night there so he could be close to his son.
The next morning after Bill spent the night in the hospital, he left Eric and was on his way home to prepare himself to get ready for work. It was during the rush hour therefore many people were coming and going in the streets. That hot sunny morning while Bill was walking fast on the busy sidewalk near his home. All of a sudden a black unmarked police car drove up fast behind him and stopped. Two plain clothes police officers got out of their car and requested Bill to stop walking. They walked straight up to Bill and began to search him. They searched his upper body and around his waist looking for who knows what. They checked his pants pockets and petted his pants legs up and down. Bill guess they were looking for drugs and weapons but no one said a word. When they realized Bill was clean they said, “OK we got the wrong guy.” Then the police officers got back into their car and drove away.
After the police left, Bill continued to make his way home. When he finally reached his home he could not take his mind off his son. Bill felt tired because he had just spent the night in the hospital with his son. He did not get a good night’s sleep there. He felt embarrassed when the police searched him while there were so many people in the streets in his neighborhood. The policemen made him look and feel if though he was a criminal. Bill felt humiliated because he felt they searched him for no apparent reason except profiling him. The pressure put on him by the police search only added to his frustration. But he pushed himself to get ready for work and that’s exactly what he did.
On the way to work Bill thought to himself, he was smart to remain cool, calm and collective when the police searched him. He recognized they were police officers right away. Therefore he didn’t resist because he didn’t have anything to hide. He remembered how many times unwise people let their eager get the best of them and resist the orders of the police officers. Some even refuse to cooperate and get themselves in trouble. Sometimes the police officers get angry and let the people know they are in control. Bill want the police officers to recognize and respect the people in his community as well as his community members to recognize and respect the police officers.
When Bill finally reached his job and signed himself in, he could not resist telling his boss how he felt about his son being admitted in the hospital and how he was searched by the police. His boss felt his pain and said, “Bill take today off with pay and go take care of your son.”
