Reply #15: i'm so sorry that happened to you.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

One time I was rear-ended and when the cop got there he sort of seemed like he didn't want to be there and was rushing thru the entire episode. I was a teenager and had never been thru a situation like this, so I wanted some way to identify the officer in the event something was overlooked so I asked him for his badge-number and his card and he said "Oh we're going to play that game are we?"

I honestly was dumbfounded by the comment, when I asked it not as an accusation but just in case. . .

I've also been told that I smell by a cop who pulled me over one time. He was basically calling me a stinky hippy. I didn't smell but he was certainly trying to get a rise out of me.

I'm white, and in my teenage years I encountered enough police harassment to get an idea of what kind of assholes are out there - and I think I earned an early appreciation for what kind of harassment might be encountered by an African-American - though I admit I probably have no idea.

During my college years I lived in a predominantly African-American neighborhood and witnessed the heavy-handed police presence on a regular basis, when meanwhile - in the "white-neighborhoods" there wasn't a cop to be seen.

I really feel bad for what you had to go thru, and I wish the situation were different. Give those fu**ers hell. And keep us updated.