AP/Julio Cortez
People march in protest on the West Side Highway after it was announced that the New York City police officer involved in the death of Eric Garner was not indicted, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, in New York.
While folks rallied in the streets of New York City, people also took to Twitter to have a conversation about "white privilege and policing," reports Buzzfeed.
The hashtag #CrimingWhileWhite was sparked when a writer for the "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon," Jason Ross, tweeted about his own experience of a crime he committed and was able to get away with. He then asked others to tweet their own stories:
OTHER WHITE PEOPLE: Tweet your stories of under-punished f-ups! It's embarrassing but important! Let's get #CrimingWhileWhite trending!
- Jason Ross (@jasonjross) December 3, 2014
The hashtag began to trend nationally. Here are some of the tweets:
Party broke up, 20+ cops, weed, coke & Molly found. Underage consumption DEA came, cars searched. No one got arrested #CrimingWhileWhite
- Allison Semans (@Allison_Leann) December 4, 2014
Caught as teens for speeding on Interstate. 8 people in sedan, half in laps, none w/ seatbelts, two drunk. Let us go. #CrimingWhileWhite
- Donna Dickens (@MildlyAmused) December 4, 2014
I shoplifted regularly for 3 years. Never concerned with getting caught because "what's the worst that could happen?" #CrimingWhileWhite
- Joe (@notstephcooper) December 4, 2014
14- took my dads car to a party. Pulled over for running a stop sign, had a shotgun in backseat (hunting) "Get home safe" #CrimingWhileWhite
- Mrs. Eric Berry (@Miss_Facetious) December 4, 2014
Buzzfeed spoke to some of the people who used the hashtag and got their stories at length, like this one from Joe Arguelles, who confessed to shoplifting (in the tweet above):
Arguelles told BuzzFeed News that as a teenager and young adult he shoplifted "once or twice a month" for three years. He was never particularly concerned about what might happen to him because the most he expected to experience was "a slap on the wrist."
Years later, Arguelles came to see that mentality as tied to his status as a white man. "If I weren't white, I assume I wouldn't have been doing it in the first place because my thought process would have been different," he said. "Now I'm more conscious that that's not a luxury everyone has."