Tiburon business owner right to be ‘belligerent’

In her letter to the editor about the conflict between Tiburon police and a Black shop owner published Sept. 19, Anne Rettenberg exhibits the reasons for mass demonstrations so long after the fight for civil rights began. The level of deliberate ignorance is mind-boggling to me, given the amount of information shared about Black Americans’ lifelong experiences as persons of color in America.

Inwatching a video of the incident, Rettenberg wrote that she saw a “belligerent male provoking a verbal altercation … for no good reason.” I feel that the officers knew that the person in that store was the business owner all along. Tiburon is a small town with an educated police force who should know the businesses in town. They are public servants. The business owner hadn’t just moved in that day.

I know that if I had been given “the speech” about racism and law enforcement (as many children of color are) and then had to kowtow to authority every time I was confronted by police for no good reason, I would be very belligerent. But that is not the reality I have been forced to live with. I am White. Since that reality does not appear to be in Rettenberg’s understanding, she doesn’t seemto think it should exist. It is this kind of deliberate blindness to the experience of those that don’t look like you and are outside your little circle, which is breeding hatred and violence.

She calls the business owner’s behavior “obnoxious.” I call it righteous, stemming from long histories. I believe there are two standards for police behavior. Those standards are based on race and have been going on for centuries.