Screenshot : Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office

I’ve always maintained that unlike Kanye’s MAGA hat, White Privilege is an actual superpower. While not quite invisibility or flight, it bestows its possessors with the unique ability to circumvent suspicion, culpability, or other negative experiences that people of color routinely endure.


It also includes a wide assortment of systemic benefits and advantages that I don’t have time to list in full, but apparently one of them includes kicking 1-year-old toddlers who just so happen to be black and getting a slap on the wrist for doing so—even as a repeat offender.

The Wichita Eagle has the scoop:

In an interview Thursday afternoon, [Lashantai] Whitaker recalled what happened around 7:20 Sunday morning: The family had just stepped into the Dillons grocery store at Douglas and Hillside. The 29-year-old Whitaker, who is pregnant and due to give birth in a couple months, was walking just ahead of her 11-year-old daughter, who was holding the hand of 1-year-old Jhavii. “It happened so fast,” she said. Whitaker heard a thud. Her daughter screamed that a man had kicked her brother. The man kicked her son from behind with his cowboy boot, causing the boy to fall face down, she said. The man tried to leave the store but bystanders tackled him and held him until police arrived, she recalled. The man went on a rant, Whitaker said, yelling the “N word” and saying he was a white supremacist. “He sounded like a madman.” Her son, who will turn 2 in June, began to scream, Whitaker said. “He’s never cried or screamed that loud” before.


If all this sounds as outrageous as it does confusing, please allow me to provide some context.

The guilty party in this is Mr. Trace Riff. A 31-year-old perennial fuck up with a lengthy history of mental illness, drug abuse, and violent crime. He also just so happens to be on probation for a felony meth charge.

The above encounter just so happened to be his second incident involving Wichita police in as many days. Did I mention this dude has a history of mental illness, drug abuse, and violent crime? Did I mention he’s already on probation?

Let’s look at his criminal record:

The public record of Riff’s criminal past stretches back to 2002, when he was 15. He was arrested on suspicion of attempting to elude police, burglary and larceny of and from an automobile in Edmond, Oklahoma, after a police chase ended in a car crash, according to a report on NewsOK.com. ﻿In Oklahoma City, Riff was convicted of DUIs in 2007 and 2008. The next year, he was convicted of domestic abuse. Four years later, he was convicted of possession of marijuana and public drunkenness, according to his criminal history worksheet filed in Sedgwick County District Court.

In Las Vegas, Riff was convicted of domestic battery in 2014, his criminal history shows. By 2015, Riff was back in Oklahoma, where he was convicted of felony possession of methamphetamine, which carries a four-year sentence in that state, possession of paraphernalia and obstruction, according to records in Oklahoma. For that, he was placed on probation. Riff ended up in Wichita sometime between his 2015 conviction for meth and April, 29, 2016, when he was arrested in Wichita for assaulting a law enforcement officer. After that, Riff spent nearly two years in and out of jail, prison and a mental hospital in Kansas. During 16 months of supervision, he absconded four times, including as recently as Sept. 17, Kansas Department of Corrections records show. Less than a month later, on Oct. 12, Riff was released from state supervision.


So taking all of that into account, after assaulting a 1-year-old child and hurling racist slurs, this happens:

A Wichita police report says the incident was classified as a case of “battery” and “resist” where the man was suspected of using alcohol. A “personal weapon,” which would include a boot, was involved, the report said. Riff was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County jail on Sunday on suspicion of ethnic intimidation, battery and resisting police, an arrest report says. Hours later, around 3:30 p.m., Riff was released from jail on his own recognizance, meaning he was released without making a payment. If he doesn’t show up to future court appearances, he will have to pay $3,500. Riff does not have any special bond conditions, sheriff’s Lt. Tim Myers said.


What the fuck?

In what realm of reality does this even begin to make any damn sense?

Oh that’s right. It doesn’t.

“I don’t understand,” said Yolanda Frierson, grandmother of 1-year-old Jhavii Fry who is entirely justified in her disbelief. “He’s out just hours after he attacked a baby.”


And got off virtually scot-free despite a history of burglary, larceny, DUIs, domestic battery, possession of marijuana, public drunkenness, felony possession of methamphetamine, possession of paraphernalia, obstruction, and a bunch of other absurd shit.

Oh, and again he’s currently on probation.

So like I said, White Privilege is definitely a superpower. Because if anybody’s ass should be in prison, it’s this guy.