Hill Harper Quotes

You know, I got kids. I got sons, and I try to tell them, 'Look, man, when you in the car and you get pulled over, hands on the steering wheel. 'Yes, sir. No sir.' Your job is to either wind up in jail, so I can come get you, or be able to pull off. That's your job.'

If I see a police officer behind me, and I can pull over into, like, a shopping center or something, I do it.

I can't think of an experience I've had with police that I felt was based on race, which is one difference between England and the U.S.

I got in a fight with my girlfriend," I said. "I was just driving around, blowing off steam, you know?" Well, you should be more careful where you drive," the officer said. "You're making people nervous. You don't fit the profile of the neighborhood." I wanted to tell him that I didn't fit the profile of the country but I knew it would just get me into trouble.

It really bothers me when some people say that all cops are racist. Of course that's not true. Most of you are just [expletive] to everybody.

Our great nation put a man on the moon, but it can't train its cops to distinguish between an ordinary brown-skinned brother and a criminal.

The same kinds of stereotypes and hunches that George Zimmerman used when deciding that, you know, Trayvon Martin seemed like a threat in his neighborhood, law enforcement officers employ all the time.

In a law enforcement situation, black people are not always treated the same as white people would be.

When we need a policeman, God bless 'em, they're there. But, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, everything seems suspicious.

I'll go on record and say it's way more fun riding in front of a cop car then riding in the back cuz you can get out if you want to.

I was eight years old when I got the talk about what to do if a police officer stops me. I was 15 when I was face-down on the curb for the first time.

My dad struggled younger in his life and eventually had become very well settled and bought a nice car for himself. And every now and then I'd take it for a spin and, almost without fail, if I took his car I'd get pulled over.

If you think about the average person and their interaction with law enforcement, their whole perspective on who we are and what we stand for - our brand, if you will - might be defined by just one interaction or encounter, a traffic stop, a visit to a school, or a response to a call for help.

There's nothing really to talk about with the police. I mean, for what?

If I'm a cop, and every time I see a young black youth - whether I watch them on TV, movies, or just see them hanging out - and they're not looking properly dressed, properly refined, you know, carrying himself, conducting himself proper hours of the day - things that a man does - you're going to have a certain fear and stereotype of them.

I do not think that we have a systemic racism problem with law enforcement officers across this country.

If you are a black person growing up in America, chances are pretty good that you have experienced the police pulling you over in front of your mother's house because you 'had a headlight out.'

I have anxiety every day about being pulled over.

My rookie year, I bought a new Range Rover, and, knowing what I know about traffic stops in this country, I made damn sure that the tint on the windows was legal. Somehow, though... I just kept getting pulled over for my tint.

Most people who are not of color, their parents didn't need to tell them how to act around police or what to do if they ever got pulled over. Never, not once. We are taught that in the black neighborhoods. I've been profiled and pulled over, so it's not like I don't know.

My research has taught me many important lessons, but perhaps none more important than this: drug effects, like semesters, are predictable; police interactions with black people are not.

White people get to do that all of the time. They get to engage in bad behavior, even felonious behavior, but they rarely wind up in jail. But as a black person, losing your temper can cost you your life. Or insisting on your rights can cost you your life.

I won't talk to the D.C. police.

Black people know what white people mean when they say “law and order”.

Your decision to place your law enforcement resources in these communities is racism, but nobody has called people out on this. The law itself is not racist. But people's decision about where we're going to place our efforts, who we're going to prosecute, who we're not going to prosecute, is racism. And nobody's calling them on it.