interview With Jaron Evelyn

For our fieldwork, we decided to interview someone who was to familiar with racial profiling. We interviewed Jaron Evelyn, a seventeen year old Carribian-American high schooler who has been racially profiled over 8 times! Jaron recalls a time when he was stopped by police. His rights ware violated and the police officers used racial slurs. As Jaron says, “They interrogated me, they called me a ‘nigger,’ they pushed me against a gate. They took my bag, they were going through my stuff, and when they saw I had school supplies, they called me a ‘good nigger.'” Jaron felt that this encounter was very unnecessary and embarrassing. Something that I learned from this interview is that being stopped and frisked is very demoralizing. As Jaron puts it, “When I’m stopped, I feel like I’m a statistic, that I’m a criminal, that I’m misunderstood, and that I’m not american.” Not only has Jaron been mentally abused by NYPD officers, he’s also been physically abused. He’s been pushed and forced onto walls. Assumptions were made because of his race, this is a great example of racial profiling. “It’s like they create a picture that’s not being seen, it’s like a fisade. It gives a vision of ‘no where doing a good thing, we’re keeping criminals off the street.’ When all they’re really doing is messing up the police and community relationship.” There is clear a problem. He says, “it’s never gonna change.” I learned a lot from first hand what it’s like to be stopped and I think it’s important for youth of color to be given this information.

Troy

My name is Troy Fischer, I am an eighth grader at LREI: Little Red School House and Elizabeth Irwen High School in Manhattan New York. I am part of a social justice team called TARP. (Teens Against Racial Profiling) We are working to stop wrongful racial profiling and police brutality being done by the New York City police department. 

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