If you don't believe racial profiling exists in Hamilton, explain what happened to Coun. Matthew Green this week.

And then convince me how under the exact same circumstances the same thing might happen to a white man.

Let's recap:

A young, clean-cut, well-dressed African Canadian is standing on the street in broad daylight looking at his cellphone.

He's waiting for a bus. He's a bit underdressed for the weather so he moves across the street out of the wind.

A police cruiser rolls up and the officer inside starts to peremptorily question the man.

What are you doing there?

Where are you going?

There's no explanation for the grilling, no suggestion that a crime is being investigated. The questions are arbitrary.

Are you from this city?

What's your name?

When the man says his name is Matthew Green, lo and behold, the squeezing suddenly slackens.

Are you the city councillor?

Green chooses not to confirm that, yeah, he's the guy who replaced the late Bernie Morelli in Ward 3, the new broom who, incidentally, is an outspoken anti-carding champion.

But in Green's account of the incident you can almost hear the penny drop for the officer, sense the gut-clenching oh-oh, feel the sudden switching of gears from confrontation to solicitation.

Are you OK? the officer asks. As if the encounter is really a condition check, a well-meaning inquiry into Green's welfare instead of an unjustified street check.

The Hamilton Police Association has urged people to wait for the "whole story" before passing judgment, noting, quite correctly, that we've only heard Green's version.

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That's fair enough. But Green's story has a couple of things stacked in its favour.

The first is verisimilitude. That's a big word that basically means a thing that has the appearance of being true or believable. That quality is rooted in Green's written harassment complaint to the agency that investigates public complaints against police.

From the specific questions and replies to the confrontational tone and his sense of intimidation, the report smacks of probability and authenticity. As well it should. Green's political and personal integrity are on the line here. There will be no public forgiveness for distortion, no mercy for fabrication.

The second point in Green's court is that carding and police stops based on racial stereotypes is a policing reality, whether conscious or unconscious, whether acquired or systemic.

Data from across Ontario consistently shows that visible minorities are disproportionally stopped for questioning by cops. Hamilton police say they have never used random or race-based street checks. But that's not the anecdotal experience of many.

The rules of engagement are going to change. In January, 2017, new provincial regulations require police officers to tell people why they are being stopped and to inform them they don't have to answer questions. Police will also have to provide a written record of their interactions to the individuals they question.

In Green's case, the police union suggests the officer may have been concerned that he was underdressed for the weather and that perhaps Green should thank the officer for his kindly intervention.

Somehow that doesn't summon the word verisimilitude. Nor does the word spring to mind when police brass say the dramatic decline in street checks last year was not driven by orders from above in response to public and media heat.

So, there's Green, waiting for the bus, looking at his cellphone. Tell me, what's the likelihood of a young, clean-cut, well-dressed white man being randomly questioned by police when there's no suspicion of wrongdoing or evidence of distress?

Green is a light-skinned black man, but possibly not light-skinned enough to escape the racial stereotyping and targeting that's not supposed to exist here in Hamilton.