* Statehouse reporter Dusty Rhodes is a longtime pal of mine and she posted this on Facebook early Sunday morning…

That moment when your kid arrives home in a cop car bc he was playing Pokemon Go with friends past curfew in Leland Grove. Luckily, all those years of training him to be respectful and cooperative with cops paid off, and he is safe. Huge thanks to Amy Ballinger-Cole and Ben Cole for telling the officers that Evan is a great kid.

Dusty’s son Evan is black. Dusty is white. If you aren’t familiar with Leland Grove, it’s a suburb within Springfield that is 97 percent white, 0.44 percent black and has the highest per capita income outside of the Chicago metro area.

* Dusty posted a follow-up yesterday…

Warning: This is long. But it’s also long overdue. I should’ve written this at 2 a.m. Sunday. But I’d like to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to Ben Cole. The incident with Evan and Pokemon Go and police — the whole thing has taken a while to sink in. And many of my friends have commented “it all turned out fine” or words to that effect, as though I should feel grateful that my son — innocent of any crime — actually survived his encounter with police. I am grateful. But I’m mainly grateful to Ben and Amy Ballinger-Cole.

If you’re around kids (and we are talking about a child here, despite the fact that he’s 6 feet tall and has facial hair), you know that they’re easily provoked into defensive words, gestures, or exclamations. And such gestures from a black male can be easily misconstrued. When Evan got home, he told me that one of the officers kept accusing him of lying. “I emptied out my pockets, mom, just to show him I didn’t have ANYTHING.” Even as an older adult, I know how frustrating it can be to argue with someone who refuses to believe you.

The fact that first Ben and then Amy were right there is what probably saved the entire situation. Their presence meant that Evan (not the most articulate child) didn’t have to argue alone. Their presence meant that he felt supported and affirmed. Their presence meant that the two officers knew that homeowners (potential “burglary” victims) were vouching for the innocence of my son. Their presence meant that WHITE people were saying he’s a good kid. Their presence lessened the provocation, the friction that was building between Evan and the officer accusing him of being a thief.

There are so many ways this could’ve turned out wrong. I didn’t write this very well. I may come back and edit it again. Evan’s dad, Randy Erwin, is also still processing this experience.

* Evan’s dad explained more in reply to someone who asked what their 15-year-old kid was doing out after curfew…

He was in front of a friend’s house with children his age who lived in that house. But instead of telling them all to go inside, and despite the pleading of their parents, the police singled him out because of his skin color, and using the curfew law as a pretext, took him away in a squad car.

Aside from the hyperpartisan ravings, my social media streams are filled these days with rantings about cops, black people and Pokemon Go. So, this has everything. But let’s try to avoid ranting here or silly armchair judging.

This isn’t about cops, necessarily, or the plight of black kids.

It’s about a real life mom who got the scare of her life, and about two parents and a kid struggling to make sense of it all.

…Adding… Dusty updates in comments…

I need to correct something Evan’s dad said. Evan’s friend was also taken home in a squad car, and she’s white. So both kids got the ride. That said, I’ll also add that Amy and Ben tell me their teenage daughters +friends frequently walk to the nearby supermarket or church playground late at night, and have never been stopped for curfew violation. So I guess they haven’t experienced the Grove’s rite of passage yet.

Like I originally said: I’m still figuring all this out. The only thing I know for sure is 1) I’m grateful Amy and Ben were there, and 2) my kid won’t be walking anywhere after dark ever again.