Though he’s never been in legal trouble, Thomas said he is regularly profiled, pulled over ostensibly for speeding—presumably because he’s a thirtysomething black man with tattoos driving a Lexus through his middle-class Charlotte neighborhood. Though the experience is frightening, he always looks forward to the moment in the exchange when the officer runs his license, and it comes back crystal clean, with the vehicle registered to his wife, a third-generation operator of a successful bail-bonding company. “I don’t have the leverage to get smart or act crazy when I get pulled over,” he said.
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