In response to The Miami Herald's Leonard Pitts Op-Ed which ran Wednesday in the Charlotte Observer "I am Trayvon Martin" (which is here) Lem Roberts says he too is the victim of racist and arrogant George Zimmermans living here in Charlotte.
Racism is alive and well, I just experienced it in Sedgefield
I am a 40 year old African-American male. I pay taxes, have a good job with the public school system and hold a bachelor’s degree.
None of that mattered Wednesday as I took my evening walk through Sedgefield, where I’ve lived for the past year and a half.
I was two blocks from home when I was stopped by police because they received a phone call that a suspicious black man was walking through the neighborhood – my neighborhood.
Even after I showed the officer my license, with my address, he decided to run my information and asked if I had ever been arrested. Eventually, he let me go.
I just wanted to thank the Sedgefield community for refusing to let the Floridians one-up us. We can be just as racist and arrogant as the best of them.
Lem Roberts
Cedar did a little poking around over a cup of coffee and a keyboard and found 17 CMS Employees named Roberts on the payroll none of them are named Lem or anything close. (Lem is a nick name for Lemuel great name if your born of a Jewish family).
A search of property owners in the Sedgefield neighborhood fails to turn up any recent new home owners named Roberts.
Hard to say if Lem Roberts is for real or if the recent events happened as "Lem" has portrayed them. Hard to tell if Lem is unhappy with the Officers or his neighbors, or both.
Cedar's Take:
What Cedar knows first hand is that Sedgefield is a neighborhood that has been under attack by thugs and thieves and the residents have a very strong awareness effort going on. Call it Neighborhood Watch or call it Racism, being Black in a neighborhood tying to regain its predominantly white middle class status in the "evening" is asking for trouble.
I'm not saying it isn't wrong that someone called the cops on Lem for "walking while black", but until the crime in Sedgefield goes away, (no time soon) or Lem gets to know his neighbors better he needs to carry some id.
I'm also not saying Lem needs to stay at home, in fact just the opposite. Lem needs to get out more, walk often, wear the same hoodie every night and soon people will think "oh that's just Lem".
And so it goes....
New Yorker Pamela Held handed her cell over after a NYPD traffic stop and apparently the NYPD Officers helped themselves to some interesting video and photos.
Cedar is not sure if the resulting media interest is what Ms. Held had in mind but the following video depiction of the events and photos are pretty comical.
Anthony Weiner
He really should change his name.
Speaking of Name Changes Josh "Tank" Watts apparently has a new name and job.
According to a comment posted on CP's story about the infamous wood head's attack on a wheel chair bound Marine, Watts has changed his name to Ben Pittman and is working at the Harris Teeter Distribution Center.
The prior CP story is here.
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