In February 2016, 24-year-old Patrick Mumford was sitting in his car on the passenger side when out of the blue he was confronted by three Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department Officers. Now, these officers had a warrant for a man named Michael Clay, a man who they assumed was Patrick. As the lead officer gets out his car, he approaches Patrick and asks for his name and Patrick tells him. Since being approached, Patrick was baffled why the officer was asking him his name and the officer had yet, and never, told Patrick why he was questioning him. As I've told you since the beginning, they had an arrest warrant for Michael Clay. After Patrick told the officer his name, the officer asked Patrick to stand up and put his hands on the car. So now, Patrick, an innocent man just sitting in his car is about to be arrested when he knows he did nothing wrong and was never told the purpose of his arrest.

So, Patrick then decides to sit down in his car and ask the officer “What did I do?” The officer says “You’ve got a warrant, dude” and Patrick replies “I just got back from my probation officer.” Now, obviously, the officer doesn’t believe Patrick and is still trying to arrest him. From this moment, the officer should’ve shown Patrick the warrant which he had asked for and has the right to see. By the way, the cop never asked for I.D. to confirm that Patrick was indeed Patrick or even Michael Clay. Now, maybe the cop just made a mistake (although wrong) and just assumed Patrick would be Michael because he was black. It's that simple, and the reason Patrick was clearly innocent is that he is a non-violent drug offender who just finished serving in a first-offender probation program, which he tells the cop but the officer decides he is too good to listen to a black man who he figures he is lying.

Now, from the time Patrick is asked his name the cop orders for him to be tased within less than 40 seconds. If the cops truly believed they had the right guy, why not show him the warrant? Maybe they assumed he was going to run and they didn’t have on their running shoes? Better yet, why didn’t they ask for I.D. first to confirm who this guy really was? Patrick is then tased with 2,000 volts of electricity twice just for sitting in his car minding his own business.

This is how many black people get treated by many cops.They are looked at as criminals just because of skin color. So now innocent Patrick is handcuffed and when the cops search his wallet, guess what happened? No, Patrick didn’t suddenly turn into Michael Clay. They realized they had the wrong guy. So now the cops try and put the blame on Patrick for not showing them his I.D. when they never asked for it.

Now realizing they have the wrong guy and feeling like imbeciles when they try to make excuses for their racist and unprofessional actions, you realize how stupid they are. One comment from the cop is, “you should’ve showed us I.D because you look a lot like the person we are looking for and who is living at this address.” For those of you who need proper translation, the cop is basically saying “Look, you're black so I just assumed you where this other black guy. And since you’re black, you don’t deserve to be treated normally because, see now, if you were white this would have never happened but since you also live in this neighborhood, I had to just assume that you were this other black guy, look it's basically all you fault for because you’re black.” That is essentially what the cop is telling Patrick and it’s really pathetic.

To make it worse, the cop then asks someone, “Who does he look a lot like?” referring to Patrick looking like Michael. The person is just baffled by that question because Patrick looks nothing like Michael. He then tells Patrick’s mother and father that he asked for his I.D. three times. A few moments later, it turns into four times. Should I mention that in the police report, he does not repeat his claims for asking Patrick for I.D.? Patrick is then charged with obstruction, which can be a felony or a misdemeanor, depending on the state, the court, and the offense committed. Lying to a local police officer about your name at a traffic stop is typically a misdemeanor; theft of a document in a federal court case is a felony. As I told you earlier, the officer asked Patrick his name and Patrick said, "My name is Patrick." So I guess, in all reality, you can get arrested for obstruction even when telling the truth, either way, you lose. Well, as black men, either way we lose because that’s what we have to deal with. Tell the truth, you get arrested. Sitting in your car, you get arrested, for being black, you get tased and arrested (Patrick had been taken to the hospital to get the taser taken out of his back).

So now he faces a probation violation that could rescind his first offender status, which means he could lose his job as a certified collision specialist. Also, he would have to drop out of college, where he was trying to get his associates degree. What is even worse is that a judge could sentence him to seven years in prison for his first offense if he loses his probation violation hearing. All this just for sitting in a car, telling the cops the truth, and let's not forget, being black. This is how America allows its law enforcement to treat black people and this is the cycle that continues to ruin the lives of many black men in America. I will explain more about the cycle on another day and go deeper into what I mean by that, but don’t just read about this situation watch it here: https://www.facebook.com/shaunking/videos/vb.799539910084929/1089079334464317/?type=2&theater and ask yourself "Was this situation handled properly?" I want you watch and see how Patrick is treated and how stupid and unprofessional the cops are, but more importantly, that this is just one story that I bring you. There are many more situations that involve black people being deprived of our basic human rights, rights as an American and dignity. It seems like the plan is to put blacks in jail, which is modern day slavery, believe it or not, but it's true and it’s pathetic because it takes away from how great this country could really be.

This is not fiction, this a struggle that many black men face and go through with many cops, not all cops, but it seems like the majority of them. Understand this is not me saying that cops are bad, but black men do get harassed by cops daily in America and not the way a white person would. To be honest, though, Patrick is really lucky he was not shot like many other black men who have had altercations with the police.

Please go watch the video, see for yourself. To support Patrick sign this petition at: https://www.change.org/p/savannah-chatham-metro-police-drop-the-charges-on-patrick-mumford to help drop the charges. Change cannot be made by one or a few people it has to be done by all and we can make that happen by speaking out and sharing post and videos of injustice against all people. Please share this article and sign the petition because this is how change starts.

THETRUTH.