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Start with a Germantown resident. Long-time resident! To those who know this middle-aged man, his fellow Black, white, Asian, and Quaker residents, (let us call him Sam), Sam is a good man.

Community-minded man!

Intelligent!

It is Sam you call on when there is a community project in Germantown. If tomatoes are what you want to see growing in the community garden atop Mastery Charter School, if you want help planting day lilies and geraniums along Rittenhouse Street between Pulaski and Wissahickon Avenue, and if you want weeds cleared, he is there.

Sam, a former police officer with the school district, is the guy young people respond to when teachers, principals, and parents have throw up their hands. He is the guy who will look out for you and your property when the authorities are occupied elsewhere.

So why did the Pulaski Group call the Philadelphia Police on this Germantown resident, Saturday, October 1, 2011?

Germantown residents are already familiar with the Pulaski Group and Pat Burns, the company with $8 million and the city’s blessing to build a shopping center at Chelten Plaza. Some residents are in favor of this development and others have campaigned against the establishment of a strip mall that will include a Family Dollar Tree and Sav-A-Lot stores.

Put this controversy aside. Let us hear from Sam. Thinking about another community project, he rides his bike past the Pulaski construction site.

September 30, 2011

“I went up Friday looking for a piece of rebar. I was told by a guy I approached to look around. In the course of looking, I noticed a guy in a truck, plowing stones. I gathered up a few and put them aside.”

“I went back to the same fellow I spoke to first, and he said couldn’t give me permission to look for the rebar. He didn’t have that kind of ‘juice.’”

“‘You need to talk with the site foreman,’ he said.”

“I spoke with the site foreman and told him what my interest was and he asked me how much rebar I wanted.”

Sam had his bike, so he request just three pieces of rebar.

“He said I could come back tomorrow at 7:30a.m. and get ten pieces!”

Come back tomorrow and see the security guard at the gate.

October 1, 2011

The following day, Sam returns to the Pulaski Group construction site with a shopping cart.

“I looked for the security guard and explained why I was there. I mentioned the foreman’s name. He didn’t know who I was talking about. He was disrespectful, but once I got his attention, he got on his cell phone to call his supervisor. He handed me the phone.”

“The supervisor told me to leave the site immediately, but he would be there in 15 to 20 minutes. I handed the phone back to the security guard and went outside the site’s gate to sit and wait for the supervisor.”

“The security guard came back to me. He feared he would lose his job.”

Sam had put in a good word about the security guard with the supervisor: “He is doing his job,” Sam told the foreman.

“But then I noticed the security guard brought something to tie the gate. He tied the gate, looked at me, and pointed to the gate.”

More than 20 minutes passed.

“A police car pulls up. I noticed the car was going against the traffic down Rittenhouse.” A male and a female.

The male officer asked Sam if something was wrong.

“I have no idea.”

Sam said he was waiting for the site supervisor to arrive.

“‘No, that’s not what you’re waiting for,’” said the male officer.

Sam mentioned the site foreman’s name.

“‘You are waiting for us.’”

The police officers exit their car.

“‘The foreman doesn’t own anything and couldn’t give you anything,’” said the male officer.

“‘Do you notice you look different from everyone else here?’” asked the female officer.

“‘You know the drill. They lied to you to get rid of you. They called us.’”

Sam told the officers that he would come back on Monday.

“‘You will be arrested.’”

“I am not a derelict. Not out of my mind, but I was placed in the police car. When I asked why? I was told that they had to run me through the computer.”

“They were disappointed. I do not have a record.”

He doesn’t get it…

“I get out of the car while the officers continue talking, telling me that I didn’t get it. Everyone there on the construction site was white.”

“‘They don’t want a damn thing to do with you!’”

“I tried to prove them wrong.” Sam explained again how he, a resident of the community, respectfully approached the Pulaski construction site. How he, a man, approached another man, and asked respectfully for rebar, for stone. How he, a man, was told by a man to come back. Come back tomorrow. How he, a man, a resident of Germantown, a citizens of the U.S. believed that, as a human being, he had communicated respectfully with other human beings.

Today—in the year 2011

Is Sam wrong?

Reposted with permission from BlackCommentator.com. Related Video: White Privilege: Racism, White Denial & The Cost of Inequality