Let me ask you if this happens to any of you:
You go somewhere where you're in close proximity to law enforcement personnel and they act weird around you, cutting you sidelong glances, acting nervous, standing up straighter, keeping their hands near this pistols, etc...
I had been subconsciously noticing this for months. It used to not be this way, or I used to not notice. I used to work near the Department of Public Safety and dine at places troopers and rangers dined at in droves. No problem. Nothing out of the ordinary.
But lately - over the last two years or so - if I go to a burger place or restaurant where there's a sheriff or policeman or trooper, they seem to act real skittish around me. The phenomena had been registering as an "oh that's weird" thought but it was never uttered or brought to the forefront of consciousness until I took my second-oldest son to P. Terry's a few weeks ago.
Two APD officers were walking out as we were walking in and they both passed us warily, looking at me and acting uptight.
Johnny was like, "What is it with you and cops, dad? Why do they always look like they're scared of you?"
I'm like I don't know. So we discussed it over lunch. My theory is that they can tell I'm 1/8th black and they're racially profiling me. Johnny's theory is that I look like some guy in the Walking Dead who kills people with a baseball bat.
I don't know what it is. I just know it's weird. Puts me on guard.