What does wearing a suit get a black man in Los Angeles? A night in jail.
My friend "John" was pulled over for speeding. The police asked him if he had had anything to drink. "Yes, one beer." John did not smell of beer, as I talked to him about 15 minutes before he was pulled over.
The police took him outside of his car and had him perform some field sobriety tests. A very athletic person, John passed with ease. Yet the police administer a breathalyzer.
John blows, but the breathalyzer was, according to the police either, "not functioning properly," or, the results were "inconclusive." They thus cuff him and stuff him into a police car - on to the police station. Who knew that the police could arrest someone when their own equipment "malfunctions."
John goes to the police station where on the most sophisticated machine at the station, he blows again. A .07, within the legal limit. The police decide he should blow for a third time. A .08, just enough to arrest him. They throw him into a drunk tank, impound his car, and force him to spend the night in jail.
Perhaps if John had been white, he would not have been arrested before there was probable cause. But he was a black man in a suit. And in Los Angeles, he got what he deserved.
