'You could be the reason someone gets killed' - 911 dispatcher tells white people to take a minute before calling the police on black people

This year, there have been a string of high profile examples of white people calling the police on black people in the United States, simply for existing in public spaces.

Just a few examples include a white woman calling the police on a black family for having a barbecue by a lake in Oakland; the arrest of two black men for sitting in Starbucks without buying anything; and a white woman calling the police on a black woman for taking a nap in a common room at Yale University.

Now, an ex-911 dispatcher is asking white people to take a moment and think twice before calling the police on a black person for just doing something day-to-day.

Speaking to VOX, the former dispatcher described how she received racially motivated calls to 911 every day of her career.

Examples of the things white people called the police on black people for ranged from a black person pushing a cart through a white neighbourhood, to a black person parking their car in front of a white person's house.

In a stark warning to white people who don't think twice before calling the police on black people, she explains how it's literally a life and death issue.

Think before you call the cops to handle your feelings about a barbecue, or where someone is parked, or if they’re playing music on a Saturday afternoon.

If you get it wrong (and all of us, living in the privileged bubbles of our own creation, often get it wrong), you could be the reason someone gets hurt or even killed.

Many studies have shown that white people are consistently more likely to have positive effects from calling the police, as they're more likely to be seen as law abiding, whereas blackness is construed as suspicious and threatening.

As numerous horrific examples attest, including the high profile case of the shooting of unarmed black man Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the shooting of Gregory Hill in Florida by a Deputy Sheriff, to name a few, black men often pay with their lives for simply existing in white spaces.

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