Back on election night, 2000, I was driving home from NYC with a friend. We were in a late 80's model Buick, Maroon 4 door. It was an old car, and it finally had a heart attack on the NYS Thruway near Yonkers. The car passed away 150 feet from the exit. It was pretty late at night; I recall it being dark. We called a friend that I knew in the area and went back to the car to wait. He had a truck and a chain and would help us get the car off the road and put us up for the night. It would be about a half hour to 45 minutes till he came to get us. I fell asleep in the front seat of the car. My friend stayed vigilant and waited behind the steering wheel.
I heard a tapping on the window. It was a State Trooper. I thought this was great. We didn't have to worry about kooks on the highway this late at night. My friend rolled down the window and the police officer asked him to get out of the car. I drowsily awakened as he opened the door to get out. The friend was pulling out his wallet to show his license and registration. Then the police officer shines his flashlight in my eyes. He told the friend to please walk to the back of the car. He then walked around the front of the vehicle toward my window. I started at that point to get a funny feeling about what was going on.
The officer told me to roll down the window, and asked for my identification. He then proceeded to ask me why we were sitting on the Thruway at nearly midnight. I began to explain the story. He interrupted me and asked what was in my backpack in the back seat of the car. I told him it was art supplies and work-out clothes. At this point, he asked my friend to walk over and stand near the trooper vehicle. Now I knew something was definitely wrong. He told me to get my bag. I proceeded to ask him why. Once again he said "Ma'am, please open that bag." Again, I asked '
Why, officer? We are waiting for a friend to pick us up' . He asked a third time, now seemingly irritated at me. I started shaking from fear and nervousness. I really didn't get what was happening.
I got the bag, he opened it up, and I started to tell him that he did not have a right to do that. From over near the officers vehicle, I hear me friend calmly tell say: '
Raine, don't.' He shook his head telling me to let it go and not push the situation. I was really confused, as what this officer was doing was a search of the vehicle for what appeared to me no reason. He went thru my bag, with my art supplies, and my gym clothes, and then he found what I forgot was in the bag. A weekly pill ox filled with the vitamins and things I was taking to stay healthy as I was working out. He shined the light in my face again. At this point he asked me to tell him specifically what each of these pills were for. He asked me,
why should I believe you, and I immediately stood attention, asking him
why shouldn't you? We haven't done anything wrong, and you are treating us as tho we have.' I was ready to ask him for his name and badge number when again, I heard me friend say again, '
Raine don't'.
The officer proceeded to check out the rest of the car. I was shaking with fear, I really was. When he finally got done searching the vehicle, he said that he was going to call a tow company. Apparently he forgot the fact that we both told him that we were waiting for a friend to pick us up, and since we were only a few yards from the exit, he would tow us with his pick up. My friend asked if he could talk to the officer, and reminded him of this. The officer would have none of it, citing Thruway laws, etc. We were towed, literally 150 feet, at a cost of $150 dollars. My friend was issued a ticket for parking illegally, but no arrests were made that night.
I forgot to mention to you, my friend is a black man. I am a white woman. The officer? Also a black man. He proceeded to tell me that we literally got caught 'driving while black' - or in my case - 'driving
with black'. Little did I know how close we both came to sitting in a trooper barrack that night. I was furious, scared and angry for the rest of the evening - so much so that the only thing that could bring me out of it was those wretched election results. Did the officer have a right to do to us what he did? I don't know. The perception of crime is very different from one person to the next. I saw no danger, but evidently the cop did. My friend probably saved me a lot of grief asking me to be quiet.
To this day it bothers me. Seeing what happened to Professor Gates bothers me. I do not like that we live in a day and age when the law can simply say they perceive a crime in order to justify the violation of privacy, be it a gym bag filled with stinky clothes, a trunk of a car, or one's house. Police may have to do their job, but they shouldn't be breaking the law to do it. I learned it can happen to anyone.
"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three — what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact." -- President Barack Obama:peace: and :heart:
Raine
(I wrote this on July 23, 2009,
http://www.fourfreedomsblog.com/Blog.php?Act=ViewBlogPost&BlogID=764 )
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