[Ben E Lou]

The church I was a part of in the Lowcountry was intentionally planted smack-dab in the middle of one of the most crime-ridden areas, one that was heavily black with a little Hispanic thrown in for some flavor. (Walter Scott was killed about four blocks from the church.) The church itself (at least originally before we started making inroads in the neighborhood) was middle/upper middle class and heavy majority white. We had a lot of interaction with the North Charleston PD, and at one point the chief asked us if people involved with our church would put church bumper stickers on their cars so they would be more easily identifiable. They didn't specifically mention race, but something along the lines of "because so many drugs are sold here we tend to pull people over who don't look like they belong here."

I found the same to be true in rougher parts of Atlanta. It didn't matter what race you were there; if you were in certain areas in a nice-ish car, you had a good chance of being pulled. The YL Office in DeKalb County when I first moved there was near some very rough areas. I made a wrong turn in the first week or two I was there, pulled onto a side street to turn around, and was pulled over. I didn't have a particularly nice car, but it was a fairly new Ford Tempo. After a brief conversation over my license and registration, the cop just flat-out asked what a "guy who looks and sounds like he's got a decent life is doing in this neighborhood."