Story Archive

Someone Only Saw a [Black Man]

An Oakland, Calif., resident saw an African American male walking around people’s houses and called the police. The man was Kevin Moore, a firefighter the city council had honored a decade earlier for his “bravery and heroism.” He was wearing his fire department uniform, carrying a clipboard and a radio, and inspecting the vegetation. One of Moore’s white colleagues said no firefighter of her race had been the subject of such a call. Local residents had been alerted that the fire department would be inspecting their properties to make sure plants did not create an easy path for fire to spread from one house to another. (AC/San Francisco Chronicle) ...Which is especially important if someone’s planning to burn a cross.