Directed & Shot by SAMANTHA CASOLARI
Produced CORY FELDMAN
Music BRIAN JACKSON "WINTER IN AMERICA (HANDS UP)" / Produced by NICOLAS JAAR
FEATURING:
PETER FOREMAN, 58
Currently in Prison
“In 1975, outside the Grand Concourse train station, a police officer stopped me and said I was a suspect in a
robbery. “He pulled me into the police car, pointed a gun at my head, kicked me in my
torso, then released me.”
KHALID MILS, 27
Circus Hand
“
I’ve been stopped and searched by the police just walking to the store. Being a tall Black man in the ghetto, you’re
already a suspect to the police.”
BIAZE, 24
Musician, Securty Guard
“After two guys tried to rob me, I was bruised, and my shirt was torn. When my girlfriend saw me, we began to
argue in the street. The cops pulled up, she tried to explain but they hit her face, told
her to shut up, and when I tried to stop them, I was beat up and thrown in jail for four days.”
BRANDON JOSEPH, 18
Student
“I was just shaking my friend’s hand when two cops ran up to me and started reaching into my pockets. I asked
what I did wrong and got no answer, and when they didn’t find anything, they just
walked off like nothing happened.”
ROMAIN ARTIS, 18
Student
“I don’t have a criminal background, but one time a teacher gave me a student MetroCard and I got a ticket
because the police didn’t believe it was mine and I had no proof I was a student.
ALLAN BROWN, 38
Personal Trainer
“I went to get a coffee when a police car pulled up and a white officer rolled down his window and asked what
I was doing there. I said I lived across the street but the officers followed me to my
building, jumped out with their hands on their guns, stopped and searched me for no reason, then let me go.”
CARLOVY, 27
Song Writer, Actor
“Being a Black male in America, let alone New York City, means random searches and being pulled over for no real
reason. I’ve been taken to the precinct for mistaken identity before. Times have
changed, but some things do not change.”
JASON DON CONLEY, 47
School Teacher, Home Mentor for Autistic Children
“I was bike riding from a community garden when four plainclothes cops asked where I was coming from and said
the branch of lemon verbena sticking out of my knapsack looked suspicious. I was
told to get off my bike and I was searched then they let me go and commented that I looked upset.”
ANDRE, 31
Computer Animator
“I’ve been pulled over numerous times, but I am fortunate enough to have a card indicating I have fmily on the
force, which has never failed to alter the officer’s tone. Pretty much every person of
color I know has a ‘if/when I get pulled over’ routine where a series of measures are taken to come across as non
threatening as possible: engine off, hands visible, music off, announce all
movements … some even go as far as to drop their car keys out of the driver side window and stick their hands
outside”