Black Americans are disproportionately affected by false police reports, so when Terrance Wadley defended himself, calling a white police officer “ridiculous,” he wasn’t overreacting.

The father picked up his daughter from school at Kennedy Elementary in Mankato, Minnesota, and parked in the school parking lot, just like any other day — except this time, the police were called.

A white teacher who had parked in the spot next to him falsely accused him of bumping her car door and reported the supposed scratch to the local police.

A teacher at Kennedy Elementary in Mankato, Minnesota, called the cops after seeing a scratch on her car. (Photo: TikTok/ Terrence.Wadley)

The officer who arrived appeared to immediately side with the teacher and was about to take statements for a report, but Wadley’s quick thinking proved the accusation was unfounded. In a video going viral on TikTok, he can be seen opening his passenger-side door to show that it was impossible for it to have reached the teacher’s car to cause a scuff mark.

“I saw out of my window, the two of you whipping the door shut,” the teacher protested. When he asked to see the damage, she broadly gestured to an area on her driver’s side door, and then quickly reversed course and acknowledged there was no damage after all.

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“This little dent must have been from a different time,” she told the officer after she was caught fabricating the story.

Visibly upset, Wadley declared the situation “ridiculous” and turned to the cop who was on the verge of making a report. “I’m glad I tested it out because she would have driven away, and you would have run a whole statement,” he said.

“Terrance, we’re not doing this,” he told the shocked dad, before claiming he would have checked the parking lot security cameras before escalating the situation.

Wadley noted that the cameras were too far away to capture an alleged door scratch, but that seemed irrelevant to the officer. “I get that, but you can still show the door flinging open,” he responded. “You’re being ridiculous,” he told the dad.

“I’m being ridiculous? By just protecting myself? I’m glad I did the basic investigation work,” responded Wadley.

A 2022 report by the National Registry of Exonerations showed that Black Americans are seven times more likely to be falsely convicted of serious crimes than white Americans. While the three crimes with the largest number of exonerations are murder, sexual assault, and drug crimes, there are many instances where non-Black citizens weaponize the police against African-Americans for even the smallest slights.

In a follow-up video on Sept. 12, Wadley was still shaken, but he confronted the police officer anyway, saying, “You don’t have the right! You work for me. I pay taxes,” at which the officer shook his head no, and said, “I don’t work for you.”  The father indicated in the comments that he is filing a complaint about the officer with the Mankato Police Department.