by Bernadette Jasmin

Created on: August 09, 2009   Last Updated: August 10, 2009

It's 11:40 at night and I hear the dreaded sound of the telephone. The thought comes, "Has there been an accident?", "Did somebody die?" That is the usual reaction that a parent feels when they get that phone call late at night. But I was surprised to hear my son's voice on the line saying, "Mom, I had a haircut and I still got pulled over by a cop."

My reaction, "Son are you okay?" Did you get a ticket. As you can image my heart went down to the pit of my stomach. My third child who is a straight A student, university graduate, hard worker and philanthropist with great values had gotten stopped for the fifth time. I could understand the first speeding ticket when he was driving the Lincoln, but the past four times he was driving an old Plymouth Valiant given to him by his dad because he was a musician and went to many gigs.

Now it is just downright scary. What do you do if you end up on the racial profiling list?

It is well known that young black males fall under this category and I-have four sons. We live about an hour and a half from New York City. You would think that living in such a diverse community would limit the number of times that this happens. NO It doesn't. As parents of five children four of them being young black males we have been especially vigilant in preparing them to interact with the police. Our first warning when our eager 16 and 17 year old got their license was like everyone else, Don't speed, Don't carry a lot of passengers in your car, and Don't drink. But our most significant warning to our sons were If a cop stops you, Don't argue, Do what they say, cooperate to the utmost, Do not give them any reason to cause you harm, Make sure you know who you put in your car that they don't have anything on them that would cause you to get into trouble.

We have lived here for close to thirty years yet we are more then cautious. You may say that we are paranoid, but with all our family experiences with this issue you cannot blame us.

This problem is old with a new name. You may be wondering right now what did my son mean he had a hair cut and still got pulled over. Well, it's an old joke in our family that carries with it a lot of pain. To comprehend you have to understand our families history. We are an immigrant family who traveled to this country over fifty years ago. My parents believed in education and upholding the law, but encountered many difficulties with racial bias. During that time it was expected that was

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