Furniture delivery man Travis Miller and a coworker had just finished delivering merchandise to a house in a gated community, and were on the way out of the neighborhood in their delivery truck when a man suddenly blocked the street with his vehicle.
Miller and his companion, who are both black, were both wearing company work uniforms with name patches, and the delivery company's branding was visible in multiple places on the truck itself as well. Nevertheless, the man, who said he was from the home owner's association, demanded to know the delivery drivers' business "on his street", and stated that he would not permit them to leave until they answered his questions. Halfway through the incident, Miller took out his phone and began recording.
Miller refused to give the unknown-to-him men the personal information of the delivery customer. At some point, though the exact circumstances are unclear, that customer contacted the men himself by phone and told them to move. Miller and his companion had been detained for nearly an hour by that point.
After the situation diffuses and the men blocking the road leave, Miller speaks on the phone to various parties regarding the incident, including the police and the delivery customer, who profusely apologizes for the actions of the goons (although Miller repeatedly asserts the situation was not the customer's fault).
In the video, and in interviews since, Miller describes the frank horror and helplessness of being a black person trapped in a situation that seems to be escalating beyond his control in an all-too-predictable way. He cannot simply drive around the blocking vehicle, on some other resident's grass, because that would be "aggression". He can't leave his truck, because that would be "aggression". He is afraid to call the police himself, for no reason other than that police might decide he has somehow committed "aggression" and act accordingly. He has literally no option except to sit there wait for strangers to decide his fate. After they have left, multiple times between calls and while talking with his friend Miller can be seen crying, pausing for a time to recompose himself before proceeding to the next call.
Luckily for him, the delivery customer somehow became involved and made the goons leave without incident. If that intervention had not taken place - well I think we all know what easily might've happened. Most of us are honest enough to admit it.
Miller and his companion, who are both black, were both wearing company work uniforms with name patches, and the delivery company's branding was visible in multiple places on the truck itself as well. Nevertheless, the man, who said he was from the home owner's association, demanded to know the delivery drivers' business "on his street", and stated that he would not permit them to leave until they answered his questions. Halfway through the incident, Miller took out his phone and began recording.
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Miller said Thursday that he kept his seat belt on, remained in the truck and recorded the encounter to protect himself and his colleague. "My intention was never to go viral," Miller said in a phone interview Thursday. "My intention was to cover myself in case he called my employer and said I did something other than what I did." He said he also did not want the situation to escalate, because he feared that if police had responded, he would have been perceived as the aggressor. About 30 minutes into the encounter, a second white man confronted Miller. "All we want to know is why you're in here and who gave you the gate code," the second man said. "That's all we need to know." |
After the situation diffuses and the men blocking the road leave, Miller speaks on the phone to various parties regarding the incident, including the police and the delivery customer, who profusely apologizes for the actions of the goons (although Miller repeatedly asserts the situation was not the customer's fault).
In the video, and in interviews since, Miller describes the frank horror and helplessness of being a black person trapped in a situation that seems to be escalating beyond his control in an all-too-predictable way. He cannot simply drive around the blocking vehicle, on some other resident's grass, because that would be "aggression". He can't leave his truck, because that would be "aggression". He is afraid to call the police himself, for no reason other than that police might decide he has somehow committed "aggression" and act accordingly. He has literally no option except to sit there wait for strangers to decide his fate. After they have left, multiple times between calls and while talking with his friend Miller can be seen crying, pausing for a time to recompose himself before proceeding to the next call.
Luckily for him, the delivery customer somehow became involved and made the goons leave without incident. If that intervention had not taken place - well I think we all know what easily might've happened. Most of us are honest enough to admit it.
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3dQdrNe
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