The high in Halifax, Virginia was 90 degrees on Friday. A typically scorching day for late July in the area, where oppressive heat makes it hard to walk out of the house every day. The city police chief, Kevin Lands, had an idea: he’d have officers pull over residents, pretend like they’re handing out tickets and instead handing them ice cream. According to Landis, the move was made to “try and put some smiles on people’s faces.” When one officer, Brian Warner, pulled over a Black woman and cited her with violating vehicle code 1739 — driving on a hot day without an ice cream cone. The video of Warner’s good deed has been shared on Facebook four million times.
The video is a viral sensation. Just like the videos of the police officers playing basketball with Black kids. Or when cops show up at Black parties and Nae Nae or have dance competitions with Black kids. The videos, in a vacuum, are heartwarming. They show police willing to engage with communities and seemingly get to know the people they serve better.
Unfortunately these videos don’t go viral in a vacuum. These videos go viral in an attempt to create a counter-narrative to the videos of police murdering unarmed people of color. It’s an attempt to say, “hey, all cops aren’t bad.” However the videos of cops Harlem shaking or whatever while surrounded by Black kids is non-sequitur. The happy videos are supposed to portray an image of cops who value Black lives and would never murder us in cold blood. But that’s a faulty narrative to say the least.
Anti-Blackness and fear of Black people are institutional issues and just because a cop does the Cupid Shuffle at a fish fry in Marcy Projects, it doesn’t mean that same cop won’t shoot me for thinking I’m reaching for a gun when I go to show him my license in Brooklyn. So excuse me if I don’t find solace in Officer Warner’s viral video.
Here’s the type of viral video I care about:
If cops want to show they care, then they can make videos like Nakia Jones’. They can speak out against their colleagues who are killing people at insane rates. They can take the stand and testify against other police officers who are gunning down civilians without hesitation. They can report police who engage in racist rhetoric. They can break the sacred code that has allowed anti-Blackness and violence to thrive for ages. These are the moves police can take to make me feel like they value my life. The viral videos of them beat boxing are fun but they’re not really solving any issues that impact my life and they shouldn’t be treated as such.
I wonder how the Black woman in the car felt when officer Warner pulled her over. It’s clear she was concerned about getting a ticket, but what else was she thinking? Did she think about Sandra Bland as the cop walked to her car? Did she think her life was in danger when the cop cited a law she’d never heard of before? Did she run through all the preparations for if she’s unjustly apprehended by police? Is she happy she got ice cream?
Or is she just relieved she’s alive?
Next week, police will do something else “charming” for Black people. Millions of people will watch it. It will warm America’s hearts. On the other side of the Internet, the rest of us will see another video of another Black person murdered by police. We’ll mourn, grieve and feel as hopeless as we did last week. And there’s not a damn thing a dancing cop can do to make it better.
