Issues of race and the experience of black people in America have been front and center in the news lately. One incident in Michigan has gone viral as another twist in this long-running tale. The video shows a police officer stopping a man on the street, seemingly for walking with his hands in his pockets.
Brandon told Storyful he was walking from his friend’s house on Thanksgiving Day when “the police stopped me and said I was making people nervous with my hands in my pockets.” Brandon’s exasperated response to the incident garnered over three million views of the video on Facebook and YouTube.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office later defended the actions of their officer on Facebook. They said that the video failed to show the beginning of the exchange, during which the police officer told Brandon he was being stopped in response to a call from a local business owner. That owner reported that a man had walked back and forth outside their business, looking in the windows. Police said the business owner was the victim of seven robberies and that they are obligated to respond to such calls. Credit: Facebook/Brandon McKean
