Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Breathing while Black. We’re not quite there yet, thankfully. Though in some places, I just don’t know.
White people have called the police on Black people for doing so many common activities — swimming, delivering newspapers, working out in a gym, birdwatching, helping an unhoused person, shopping for prom clothes, driving with a white grandmother — we’ve lost count. And lives. In 2020, Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by three white men while jogging in Glynn County, Ga. Breonna Taylor, just a month later, was killed during a botched, no-knock police raid on her apartment in Louisville, Ky., as she slept in her bed.
The Rev. Michael Jennings has seen some things during his near 57 years. He knows some things, felt some things. As have all Black men of a certain age. Of almost any age. In May, Jennings, dressed casually in sweatpants and a T-shirt, was arrested by police officers while watering petunias and hydrangeas for a neighbor who asked him to do so while he was out of town.
We saw the police body cam footage — saw Jennings calmly watering flowers as the two officers question him. The two white officers were responding to a call from Amber Roberson, a white neighbor.
We saw him politely answer “Pastor Jennings” when asked his name. We saw him tell the officers he was not going to hand over identification.
“Why not?” asked Officer Chris Smith.
“I ain’t did nothing wrong,” Jennings said. He once trained to be a police officer and was thus aware that handing over identification, in this instance, was not required.
We saw Jennings handcuffed and placed into the back of a police car — even after Roberson came by and apologized for not recognizing her Black neighbor.
We don’t see what Jennings was feeling on that Sunday evening. Or what the even expression on his face during the whole ordeal did not reveal.
“I was agitated,” he told me. “I was angry once they wanted my ID because I knew (it meant) they wanted to put me into the system, whether guilty or not guilty. Once you give them your ID and they run a 10-29 (request for previous arrests or warrant) on you, you’re in the system. You’ll have a suspicion on your record.”
Jennings didn’t know the officers’ body cameras were recording but knew there would be footage. “What they didn’t know is that my neighbor had cameras all around the house,” he said. “So, I knew it was being recorded by those cameras whether their body cams were on or not.”
More than three months later, Jennings says effects from the encounter still linger.
“It’s kind of hard to get past that emotionally,” he said. “I think about how in 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act; in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was passed. I look at our life as Americans and Black Americans from 1963 to 2022. We now have 59 years of civil rights and they’ve been violated in all those 59 years. That’s ridiculous. It affects you every day because all you want to do is to be able to move about freely and do as others do. It affects you mentally. You see the statistics, but you never think you will become one.”
Jennings was charged with obstructing governmental operations. It was tossed faster than moldy bread. He’s made it clear a lawsuit will be filed soon.
“He has not received any communication from the city — no apologies, not anything like that,” said Joi Travis, one of Jennings’ attorneys.
Childersburg abuts Sylacauga, where Jennings was raised. Where he’s seen, where he’s lived, the burdens of living while Black.
“As a Black male, it’s something that — you don’t want to say get used to, but it’s something that is expected,” he said. “This didn’t just start with me; it’s been going on for years. ... It shouldn’t be, but it’s an ongoing battle.”
Jennings says he’s not spoken with Roberson since the incident — “I’ve waved at her.” He has chatted with her husband. “He said she feels so bad about what happened,” Jennings said. “It bothers her because she asked the police, ‘Let him go.’ ”
Jennings pastors the nondenominational Vision of Abundant Life Ministries church.
“People have to decide for themselves that they’re gonna change and that they’re gonna show love — like I’m trying to show it to my neighbor,” he said. “I have no ill will against her. No ill will against the police officers, but right is right, and wrong is wrong. We definitely need police. We just need good police. All preachers ain’t good either.”
“I hope there is change — not just in this city but nationwide,” Jennings said. “We need to stop judging people. The Bible says in Saint John, the 19th chapter: judge not according to appearances. You never know who a person is. Just because I had on sweatpants and a T-shirt doesn’t mean that I’m a criminal.”
It means you’re just living—or trying to.
Roy Johnson is a columnist for al.com.
