A white officer named Bobby White had been sent to respond. Rather than issue a ticket, Mr. Johnson recalled, the officer asked if he could join the game. Mr. White became a celebrity in Gainesville, Fla., and was nicknamed “Basketball Cop.” Sports stars came to play pickup games with the Gainesville teens. “He didn’t look at us like we were criminals,” Mr. Johnson, now 22, said. This May, someone sent her another video of Mr. White: A cellphone recording of him slamming a Black teenager into the hood of his patrol car.

Source: New York Times August 15, 2020 18:22 UTC