TUCSON, Ariz. — Steven Hildreth Jr. was pulled over for a traffic stop by the Tucson Police Department and took to Facebook to share the experience.
“I’m a black man wearing a hoodie and strapped. According to certain social movements, I shouldn’t be alive right now,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, Hildreth is unharmed, and his encounter with law enforcement went perfectly smoothly. His account of the stop was shared about 100,000 times on Facebook.
He explains in the post that he was pulled over because his headlight was out. When the officer asked if he had any weapons, he told him he was a concealed-carry permit holder and had a gun on his right hip. Because Hildreth’s wallet was in his back-right pocket, the officer had to disarm him to check his ID.
Hildreth wrote that he complied, and after the officers returned, they let him off with just a warning because he had been cooperative.
“Maybe if you treat police officers with respect, they will do the same to you,” he wrote. “I’d like to spread the word about an example of men who earned their badges and exemplify what that badge stands for.”