Philando Castile, the man who was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop as his girlfriend live-streamed the aftermath, had been stopped 31 times by police for, as family and friends said, “driving while black.”
The 32-year-old Castile has been stopped by Minnesota police a total of 31 times in the 14 years that he has had his license, and he was charged 63 times, usually for minor violations.
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The charges included speeding, failure to wear a seat belt, driving after a revocation, no proof of insurance, improper display of original plate and parking violations. In all, Castile was found guilty of 43 violations and has paid out hundreds of dollars in fines.
Beyond the traffic violations, however, Castile had absolutely no criminal record, which has led many to ask whether or not police were treating Castile differently because of his outward appearance, and family and friends believe he was the victim of racial profiling.
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His cousin Damion Pickett, said of the fatal traffic stop that cost Castile his life, “He was stopped because they think every African-American does crime but it doesn’t happen like that. He was ‘DWB’ – driving while black. They think that of everybody, especially guys with dreads. You cannot label one person just off a few people because every black person is not that.”