Dear PoP – Interesting Advice from MPD

Photo from PoPville flickr user Wake Up The Giant

“Dear PoP,

Just wanted to relate a (humorous to me) incident that happened on Thursday morning. I was waiting outside the Enterprise Rent-a-Car center on Georgia Ave for a friend around 7:30 in the morning. A MPD officer walked up to me and asked if I was usually out at that time of the morning. I said, “no” and that I was waiting for someone. He then proceeded to give me some very unusual advice. He said that if a black person approached me, I should turn and run away. Any black person. He said I might look crazy and they might wonder what my problem was, but that I would be safe. Apparently, there had been a series of robberies along that stretch of Georgia Avenue that morning. He didn’t say if the robbers were targeting white people in particular, but I guess I looked like easy prey. By the way, the officer was black. I thanked him for the tip and then he walked away. That was the most unusual interaction I’ve ever had with a police officer. Later, when I was telling my friend about it, we both laughed. But, I’m wondering if your readers would think it was funny, sad, racist… or a little bit of everything.”

Personally, I think this is very very sad on many levels.