driving while black

In our society, professional athletes get breaks. From OJ Simpson to Ray Lewis, and now Plaxico Burress, NFL players seem to believe they have a different law to live by. Then there are times when this belief works against an athlete, a man. This stereotype of professional athletes, fairly perpetuated by some, can cloud a police officer's view of a seemingly routine traffic stop. It shadows a truly tragic moment in someone's life to be just another athlete trying to run a red light. Sometimes we need to see professional athletes as people too. Sometimes its just not about sports.

Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats was driving to the Baylor Regional Medical Center. Hazard lights flashing Moats rushed to get his family to his wife, Tamishia's mother's deathbed. Joanetta Collinsworth was dying from advanced breast cancer. Moats probably didn't even notice that he had rolled through a red light in the middle of his dash to get Tamishia to be with her mother at the end.

Officer Robert Powell noticed, though. He pulled Moats over in the hospital parking lot and proceeded to issue Moats a ticket. Moats, through his grief, tried to get the officer to understand the severity of this situation, the following is sportswriter Dave Zirin's report of the encounter:

Tamishia jumped out of the car to rush to her mother , and Powell drew his gun, yelling, “Get in there! Let me see your hands!”

“My mom is dying,” she shouted back.

“I saw in his eyes that he really did not care,” Tamishia Moats said. Ms. Moats and her great-aunt ignored the officer and headed into the hospital. (Powell says he “merely” drew his gun, while Ms. Moats says it was pointed at her as she rushed in the facility. Ryan Moats has said that he feared for her life.)

Ryan Moats and his grandfather in law – the father of the dying Ms. Collinsworth, were then kept for 13 minutes. “You really want to go through this right now?” Moats pleaded. “My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!"

In that thirteen minutes Joanetta Collinsworth passed away. Ryan Moats tries to escape from the grasp of defenders every game. If only that night had been like a football game. Maybe he would have had an answer. Instead, Moats and Mrs. Collinsworth's father would not reach her bedside in time to say goodbye.

This story might have just fallen into obscurity if it weren't for Officer Powell's dashboard camera, meant to protect the police from false accusations. In this instance it would do the opposite.

"I am embarrassed and disappointed by the behavior of one of our police officers. His behavior, in my opinion, did not exhibit the common sense, discretion, the compassion that we expect our officers to exhibit." responded Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle at a press conference in the wake of the release of the dashboard video of the incident. "When we in the command staff reviewed the tapes," he went on to say, "we were embarrassed, disappointed – it's hard to find the right words and still be professional in my role as a police chief."

Police Chief Kunkle went on to commend Moats and his handling of the conflict with Officer Powell, "They exercised extraordinary patience, restraint, dealing with the behavior of our officer," he said. "At no time did Mr. Moats identify himself as an NFL football player or expect any kind of special consideration. He handled himself very, very well."

In a society where NFL players routinely expect that carrying an unregistered gun into a nightclub or not calling out of work one day is acceptable, Moats' behavior was out of the box. Ryan Moats was not a professional football player that night. He was a man trying his best to care for his wife. He was a man doing the best he could. Officer Powell, confused and wrong, was not.

Dave Zirin warns both sides in the wake of this tragedy, "This is also the latest of a series of high profile confrontations between cops and jocks. When you layer the 'driving while black' pandemic on top of the dynamic of pro athletes more comfortable on a pedestal than in a police car, you have a recipe for future tragedies. Let the Moats’ ordeal serve as a warning and not a harbinger. And let Officer Powell be compelled to find another line of work."

Powell has since apologized and been dismissed from the Dallas Police Department. Keeping a man, or anyone outside a hospital for 13 minutes while you write a traffic ticket is unforgivable. Especially after they have identified why the transgression took place and have accepted the ticket's validity. No one can answer why Officer Powell didn't let Moats into the hospital. Not even Powell, himself, "I don't know why I didn't," he said. "I should have."

I just hope that Moats' race was not it.