A Texas journalism professor's explosive charge that police hassled her for "walking while black," a claim lodged in a guest column in the state's biggest newspaper, doesn't square with the videotape, according to the police chief.

The incident occurred when Dorothy Bland, dean of the journalism school at the University of North Texas, was taking a power walk on the morning of Oct. 24 in her neighborhood in the northeast Texas town of Corinth. In a column in the Dallas Morning News four days later, the former newspaper editor described her encounter with two local cops in terms that put the police in a bad light.

“Flashing lights and sirens from a police vehicle interrupted a routine Saturday morning walk in my golf-course community in Corinth,” Bland writes in her column. “Like most African-Americans, I am familiar with the phrase ‘driving while black,’ but was I really being stopped for walking on the street in my own neighborhood?

“Yes. In the words of Sal Ruibal, ‘Walking while black is a crime in many jurisdictions. May God have mercy on our nation.’”

Bland uses the column to lay out her case for allegations of being racially profiled claiming that she was not offered a reason.


“I guess I was simply a brown face in an affluent neighborhood,” Bland said in her column.

But dashcam video provided by Corinth Police shows Bland walking in the middle of the street, and captures the two police officers politely advising her to stay on the side of oncoming traffic, so she can see approaching cars. After viewing the footage, Corinth Police Chief Debra Walthall told FoxNews.com she was proud of the way her officers behaved.

“When I saw the video, those officers were nothing but professional,” she said. “[The incident] just didn’t lend itself to racial profiling.

“If we didn’t have the video, these officers would have serious allegations against them," Walthall added. "It would be their word against hers. Every white officer that stops an African-American does not constitute racial profiling.”

The video shows the two police officers as they get out of their squad car, without turning on the siren as the professor claimed in her column. After telling Bland it would be safer to stay to the side of the street, one cop explains how a truck had earlier tried to pass her but she did not notice that she was in the way.

The officers ask Bland for her ID, which she did not have but she gave her name and date of birth after insisting that she take the officers’ picture “for safety’s sake.” The policemen obliged her request.

Walthall said the officers were correct to ask for identification because Bland had committed a Class C misdemeanor by impeding traffic.

“It is part of the standard procedure,” Walthall said. “There’s a legitimate purpose for doing so. She [Bland] did commit a misdemeanor. I want our officers checking ID’s on every person they encounter in situations such as this.

Bland did not immediately return requests for comment.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/11/02/dashcam-video-undermines-texas-profs-claim-racial-profiling-says-chief/?intcmp=hpbt2

I wonder why Barry hasn't commented on this, he loves to chime in on local situations.

Oh wait that's right, he would NEVER support the police and the whole race thing backfired, it would be counter to his agenda.

I hope this teacher is at the very least fired and sued by the two police officers.

awesome, cameras help catch liars on both sides

good for the cops, and thank goodness no one died,,,

glad to see that there are some good cops out there
i know all of them are not bad
i still think they should all have camera's
that would stop a lot of the good and bad stuff going on

absolutely

I don't think most are bad, however the blind benefit of the doubt and leeway those few are given to take peoples lives isn't something just citizens should be concerned with

Id love to see POLICE cleaning up their own like they always preach to the communities to do,,,,

the other thing that came to mind
is those paved things on the side of the road called side walks
they are not there jut to look pretty lol


and i agree MsHarmony

i understand they put there life on the line , but just cause someone looks funny or has a color skin does not mean they are bad
<shrug>
and they need to add dog handling to there list of things to learn before being a cop

absolutely,,,

though I know many communities where people do their running/walking down the road,, and move if they see or hear cars

its one of those discretionary things, they have the RIGHT to stop you but they aren't REQUIRED to,,,,(like with most things,,lol)

wonder if those cops wished they would have sighted her for J walking lol

haaa,, probably

http://m.mingle2.com/topic/show/452443/ Black American Seeks Refugee Status In Canada.

The Power Walking writer & join this criminal in Ontario Canada.
A judge there turned down a tape he tried to present as evidence.
The judge told him that the traffic stop was not racial discrimination, just the law

fleetwood mac - Tell me lies: http://youtu.be/rcjpags7JT8/

Heads up...Ontario, expect another migrant crisis, of people who are bad drivers & pedestrians.

In a related story a man named Adam and a woman named Eve were expelled from paradise and the human condition began and has continued with imperfect people since.....

This story leaves me completely baffled.


People actually read the Dallas morning news?

And some of those imperfect, need reminding & consequences by other imperfects who won't make excuses for them. And then began law.

There should be a drive to get that teacher fired and sued.

That's right. Consequences.

Forgive, Forget & Act Like Nothing Happened are not in the job description of police nor do they exist in law or reality.

And a taste of her own medicine,
.....one big dose of public humiliation. Make an example out of her.

no proof of anything to be fired for

her statement
I am familiar with the phrase ‘driving while black,’ but was I really being stopped for walking on the street in my own neighborhood?




was actually true,, walking 'on the street',, as to the sirens and.or lights,, the story doesn't include the video and the account starts from the time the cops were getting OUT of the car

so who knows,, that wouldn't be a preponderance of evidence to convict her of lying,,, the basic 'feeling' that she did is not enough,,,

Yes, at Braums and sometimes Whatabuger.

Agreed.

Stone her!

Lying?

She verbally slandered the officers, with deliberate untruths.

In her very own typed little words, she libeled the officers, with her deliberate untruths.

Gotta love wordgames.

i guess it's alright for a newspaper writer to just outright lie in her columns... thats not something i wanna read, regardless