White Woman Comes to Black Man’s Aid, Tells Police to Leave

Share

Explore Our Galleries

A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali. 
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC
African Peoples Before Captivity
Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie
Kidnapped: The Middle Passage
Image of the first black members of Congress
Reconstruction: A Brief Glimpse of Freedom
The Lynching of Laura Nelson_May_1911 200x200
One Hundred Years of Jim Crow
Civil Rights protest in Alabama
I Am Somebody! The Struggle for Justice
Black Lives Matter movement
NOW: Free At Last?
#15-Beitler photo best TF reduced size
Memorial to the Victims of Lynching
hands raised black background
The Freedom-Lovers’ Roll Call Wall
Frozen custard in Milwaukee's Bronzeville
Special Exhibits

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Ways to Support ABHM?

BY: ., theRoot

Jody Westby tells police, "please leave our neighborhood" after she sees them questioning her friend, who had done nothing wrong.
Jody Westby tells police, “please leave our neighborhood” after she sees them questioning her friend, who had done nothing wrong.

Last week, Washington D.C. police were called to investigate a suspected burglary. The police stopped a black man in a wealthy neighborhood who was minding his business and began questioning him. He told police that he had no idea why he was being stopped but believed that he was being singled out. Police told the man to sit on the ground. Jody Westby, who happened to be working from home this day saw the police harassing a man that she knew so she told her housekeeper to record the incident and walked outside to confront the police.

Westby, an attorney and CEO of CEO of Global Cyber Risk LLC, told told police that the man was a friend of many people in the area. She asked police for the address that gave the call for the burglary. When the police responded she informed them that they weren’t on the right street or in the right neighborhood. She then helped the man to his feet and told police, “please leave our neighborhood.” 

As police began to leave Westby shouted towards them, “just because he’s black doesn’t mean he’s here to rob a house. He works for us. He’s been in this neighborhood for 30 years.”

Westby told The Washington Post after the incident: “You got a white woman and a Hispanic woman standing up for a black man against two black cops…It was shameful how they behaved…It was very interesting, in the sense of getting a picture of how black cops treat black people…And how humiliating that was for him. And how they were treating him just like a dog.”

Read full article here.

Read more Breaking News here.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.

Leave a Comment