In this cartoon, it shows a grandfather listing behavioral rules to his grandson, in case he gets stopped by the police. This cartoon relates deeply to the Human Rules Theory described in the chapter 5. The list includes warnings like “don’t run,” “don’t put your hands in your pocket,” and “don’t ride around with a broken taillight.” Even though these are not formal laws, they’re rules born out of lived experience. This can also be interpreted as the troubling experience with police brutality, especially within the Black community, where interactions with law enforcement can be even more dangerous compared to others. Human Rules Theory explains that such rules are not universally fixed, but socially constructed, culturally specific, and dynamic, shaped by real-world experience and social systems.

The cartoon further illustrates how certain groups live by following unwritten social rules. While these rules don’t carry legal consequences if broken, unlike law, they can still result in severe, even fatal, outcomes due to how systems of authority interpret those actions. This adds a deeper layer of urgency and emotional weight to the theory.

In my experience, I remember my mom giving me a similar talk before I got my driver’s license. She told me to always keep both hands visible during traffic stops and speak calmly, even if I felt nervous. At the time, I thought she was overreacting, but now I realize she was trying to prepare me, a young adult who just got his license and is driving a sports car, for a system that doesn’t treat everyone equally, where rules are applied differently depending on who you are.