Former CNN anchor T.J. Holmes was pulled over a mile away from his Atlanta home in what he claims to be a case of racial profiling. Holmes grew enraged after the police officers could not give him a legit reason for the traffic stop. After being pulled over by police Holmes tweeted a picture of the ordeal with the caption “Driving while black ain’t no joke.”
Holmes continued to tweet updates from the side of the road while the police struggled to explain why they pulled him over. “This is a damn shame,” he tweeted. “Officer is literally stumbling over his words trying to explain why he stopped me.”
Eventually the officers were able to give Holmes a reason for the stop, but their answer did nothing to quell his anger. “Officer’s reason for pulling me over: ‘wanted to make sure you have insurance on the car.’ I kid you not.”
As he continued on his rant he began to use the hashtag #Showmeyourpapers. “Still pissed beyond words right now. But Lord knows I’m not the only (one) this will happen to today. #showmeyourpapers.”
It’s also worth noting that the officer that pulled Holmes over was black.
The accusations by Holmes come as no surprise, as black men across the country are often stopped “randomly” by police. In 2011, the New York City Police Department, under its controversial stop-and-frisk policy, made more stops of young black men in the city than their total number in the city’s population. The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of stops of black men between the ages of 14 and 24 (168,126) exceeded the total city population of black men in that age range (158,406), according to ThinkProgress.org.
Many of those officers in New York also were black.
The 34-year-old Holmes left CNN for BET in December 2011 and will launch his new show “Don’t Sleep!” this October. The show is expected to be a witty social commentary on important issues to African American that the mainstream media tends to disregard.
