A Black father and veteran drove around his former neighborhood on a military base to get his 1-year-old daughter to sleep, only to find himself blocked by a white man demanding to know what he was doing there, a video shows.
“You keep driving in front of my house for some reason or another, and I would like to know why… It’s weird,” said the man who stepped into the middle of the road in just his socks to block the driver at Fort Hunter in Savannah, Georgia.
He was later identified as a Sergeant First Class. He ominously added that “where I’m from,” those who circle the block are people who were “about to get shot or you’re looking for somebody to mess with.”
Jarrell H. Patton, the father recording the encounter, pushed back on the man’s outrageous entitlement. “Sir, what? This is not GTA. This is not Call of Duty,” he later said in a video recap of the incident, noting the military base is gated and requires valid identification for entry.
He stood his ground in the moment as well. “Is it any of your business?” I’m driving around the whole block. How am I just driving in front of your house?” he shot back, turning the tables on the man by peppering him with questions. “What’s weird about me driving around?”
@snackbandits “I couldn’t make this up if I tried. Does anyone know who this is? This happened on a military base — Fort Hunter in Savannah, Georgia.” #drivingwhileblack #racism ♬ original sound – Snackbandits ®️
“You want to literally come in the middle of the road, and stop my car, and you have no idea what I’m doing. ’Cause I’m just driving around the block. Do you own this block?” the increasingly distraught father asked. The resident said he owned a nearby house, in a meek attempt to justify his actions, and then insisted on taking a photo of the man’s license plate.
“Being a concerned neighbor doesn’t give you the right to question people like you’re the law enforcement,” Patton stated in the follow-up video, where he clarified that he was not speeding or making stops; he was doing what so many parents have done before: driving around to get a baby to sleep.
“I didn’t respond with yelling. I responded with boundaries because I don’t owe anyone any explanation for peacefully driving my baby around on a public street. That’s not suspicious. That’s parenting,” he said.
Despite not needing to explain himself to a stranger, Patton did stop the car briefly before leaving to tell the “nosy” resident exactly why he was circling.
“I really knew you were going to do some sh*t. But it’s all right, I’ll be right back. I’m going to go put my daughter away, and we can have a man-to-man talk,” he said.
Patton moved out of the housing complex seven months ago and confirmed that he went back for that “man-to-man” talk, but it seems there’s still some animosity between the two, as Patton addressed him sternly in his video:
“I hope this reaches your command team because you’re an absolutely disgusting person for what you did. You profiled me.”
Great Job Grace Jidoun & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
