Police On My Back

 

What I don't know is a lot, but I'm convinced of at least three things: 

We have gun, racism and policing problems in this country, and they ain't necessarily exclusive of each other.

These are far more complex issues than most people are willing or able to deal with, so the fallback position is to let political persuasion, ideology, social standing, ethnicity or personal situation set the tone for our own mostly-unexamined opinions.

That's the wrong thing to do, but you know... HOOMANS.

I'd wager that other than the occasional traffic stop for a moving violation, most 'Murricans have little to no interaction with law enforcement, and la-de-da good for them. I wish I could count myself among those 'Murricans, but that ain't the case.

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Real World Cop Stop #1: It was sometime in late 1974 or early 1975 when my Cousin and I were chowing down some fast-food while sitting in my '57 Chevy in my hometown of La Puente, California. All of a sudden, several police cars raced up and and surrounded the car, the cops jumping out and pointing their guns at us.

We were both frozen in mid-bite, eyes wide open, when a voice over the loudspeaker said "REMAIN CALM AND DON'T MOVE!" We complied. 

A few moments later we were outside my car, food dropped on the ground, bent over the trunk lid with hands cuffed behind our backs. A few minutes later, they were uncuffing us and apologizing for their mistake. It seems a grocery store had been robbed less than 30 minutes earlier and the APB went out for two dark-haired young men driving a brown '57 Chevy... we fit the description. However, while we were cuffed and our records were being run, a radio call came in saying the real culprits had been snagged.

No harm no foul, and the cops were really nice to us afterwards. They left and we stood there, stunned and still hungry.

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We depend on the police to deal with law-breaking criminals and to leave the rest of us alone so we don't have to think about those criminals. We expect cops to be judicious and objective with their authority, to know in advance how to correctly handle every situation they respond to and to never break any laws while doing so.

This is very hard because of HOOMANS.

Here's the conundrum: Policing is an extremely difficult career choice that only a certain kind of person is willing to take on. Once badged, cops are asked to deal with the very worst examples of humanity on everyone else's behalf, yet are expected to maintain a high level of empathy and professionalism even though they're exposed daily to the worst examples of humanity.

Cops are HOOMANS, too.

Try this on: you have a job that requires constantly dealing with awful people doing awful things who would prefer that you don't exist, which means it can be difficult to remain objectively judicious with your authority, to not overreact, to not resort to base instincts. It's the same for anyone who served in the military on an active field of battle.

After a while of dealing with awful people doing awful things who would prefer that you don't exist, pessimism and antipathy and anger begins to seep in. What was once a noble calling becomes a debilitating exercise in survival, leaving you filled with trepidation and angst and anxiety and a daily fear for your own life.

A soldier in battle knows it boils down to 'kill or be killed'. For law enforcement, that mindset becomes dangerous when dealing with the public, especially if you know the likelihood that those awful people doing awful things who would prefer that you don't exist are armed, oftentimes more heavily armed than you.

So... there you are, a duly-sworn law enforcement professional filled with all the bad juju that dealing with The Awfulness brings, regularly confronting situations that YOU JUST KNOW is gonna get out of hand.

That right there is what we refer to as a MINDFUCK, and it often turns all bad real fast. Why? Because HOOMANS.

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Real World Cop Stop #2: In 2002 while working at a tire testing autocross event in a Phoenix suburb, my co-worker and I were driving back to our hotel after having dropped off our clients and their rental car at Sky Harbor Airport. There we were, two bald-headed Mexicans cruising the nighttime Arizona freeway in a Yellow Corvette convertible that I'd rented for the autocross shootout. Top down, tunes up, rolling at the speed limit because Yellow Corvette, the offramp to our hotel literally within sight.

I hadn't noticed the police car pulling up fast behind me until he lit up the night with his gumballs, strobes and spotlights, so I quickly pulled over to the shoulder. Within about a minute, four more cruisers joined us by the freeway, two of them sliding in front of the Corvette, blocking our path. A minor freeway jam-up ensued alongside.

Loudspeaker: "DRIVER AND PASSENGER... STAY INSIDE THE CAR." After a long couple of minutes, two cops approached both sides of the car with their right hands resting on their guns.

Him (to me in the driver seat): "Sir, is this your car?"

Me: "Good evening, Officer... no Sir, this car is a rental that I picked up in Tempe several days ago."

Him: "Sir, do you have proof of that?"

Me: "Yes Sir... right there in the console."

Him: "Sir, please give me your license, proof of insurance and the rental agreement... and do it slowly."

Once he had my papers, I was asked to exit the car and follow him back to his cruiser.  My co-worker also got out but was asked to follow another cop to his cruiser in front of the car.

We spent the next 30 minutes individually fielding myriad questions about the car, our work, why a Yellow Corvette, where we lived, yatta yatta yatta all to allow them lots of time to run our licenses and the car's registration to see if they could trip us up by giving conflicting answers.

Eventually they seemed satisfied that we weren't gang-banging car thieves, gave us back our docs and without a word, jumped back into their cruisers and blasted off, leaving us there in the dark by the side of the freeway.

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These days, people are afraid of the police. Of course, NO ONE wants to get pulled over, but the general feeling among many civilians is that the protocols, protections and guidelines we always assumed were endemic to law enforcement when dealing with the public... well, they seem to have gone MIA.

Yes, we hear inflamed and overhyped accounts via the 24-hour 'no sparrow shall fall' news media about every single thing that happens across our vast nation involving law enforcement, but it seems we've lost a valuable sense of trust in the men and women who choose to wear the badge.

That is a BAD THING.

The more we mistrust law enforcement to do right by us, the less likely we are to understand and accept the vital role they play in our lives. Once lost, that trust is woefully difficult to rebuild, and anyone who lives in an area with a crime rate above 'almost zero' will attest to how strong that mistrust, apprehension and suspicion can be.

I have relatives who worked in policing during the 70's and 80's, and they were amazing examples of all that is good about law enforcement.  One of them worked as a Detective at the infamous Rampart Division of the L.A.P.D. and witnessed some of the most egregious acts of policing misconduct ever documented.

Even though he'd just recently retired from the force, that same relative was shaken and scared at the results of Rodney King's 1991 beating, the ridiculous trial and the public outcry and violence. He feared for his comrades... and for the rest of us, too. He knew where it all came from.

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Real World Cop Stop #3: About 12 years ago, my wife and I were leaving her parent's home in Lakewood, California in her 2000 Blue VW Beetle. I was driving towards the freeway on a surface street and exceeding the 35mph speed limit by a mind-numbing 10mph, when out of nowhere a police cruiser jumped in behind us and lit up his 'pull over now' lights.

Once stopped, I waited for the officer to come up to the car, my license and registration at the ready. When he did arrive, his right hand on his holster, he asked me to get out of the car and follow him to the back of it.  Once there, he asked me if I'd mind putting my hands over my head so he could handcuff me 'for my own safety'. Natch, I did.

At this point, I still had no clue why he stopped me, let alone cuffed me. He inspected the car's interior and informed us he stopped me for exceeding the speed limit and that another guy with my name had an outstanding warrant. He never did explain the cuffing or car inspection, admonished my speeding and let us off with a warning before letting us go.

WEIRD.

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I'm technically a 'person of color' who doesn't appear at first glance to be anything other than a vanilla white dude. However, I have no doubt... NO DOUBT... that if I'd been of a darker skin tone, those Cop Stops could and probably would have gone much MUCH worse. That's not conjecture, but many vanilla white hoomans who deny that reality simply haven't experienced the stomach gut-knot when The Man decides to pull you over and you ain't a white dude or chick.

And now... a bit of comic relief:

Real World Cop Stop #4: In 1975 while attending junior college, I was dating a really lovely and wholesome girl that I'd met I can't remember where, and for our second date were headed to The Ice House comedy club in Pasadena.

We were rolling in my bitchin' BRG 1968 Triumph TR-4A, a really cool but absolutely awful car that would eventually cost me a great job because it kept breaking expensive British parts. My date loved the car, and we enjoyed the drive that evening from West Covina to Pasadena, the night filled with promise until I got lost and did an illegal U-turn within blocks of our destination.

I got pulled over in a nanosecond by one of Pasadena's Finest, so I figgered to get an embarrassing ticket and then drive away, but NO. After The Man took my license and registration to run, he came back to the car:

The Man: "Sir, do you know you have an outstanding warrant out for your arrest?"

Me: "Wait... WHAT?!?"

The Man: "Yes sir... a warrant's been posted for 'non-compliance of vehicle equipment violation' for this very car."

Me: "BUT BUT BUT... that violation's been cleared! It was for missing windshield wipers and I got it signed off and everything!" 

At this point, I gestured towards the new windshield wiper arms that had been on order from the U.K. for months and had just arrived a few weeks earlier. Didn't matter.

The Man: "Sir, I'm afraid I'm going to have to arrest you on this outstanding warrant. You should have made sure it was cleared up before you drove this car."

Within a minute or so, I was handcuffed and pleading with him to please reconsider but no dice. He then told me that my car would be towed to a yard unless the young lady would be willing to drive the car away.  She didn't know how to drive a manual transmission but would call her Dad and Brother to come out and retrieve my car.

So on our second date, her and I (me cuffed) were in the back of a police cruiser headed for the Pasadena Police Station. AWESOME. She called her Dad, explained the situation, and I heard a huge peal of laughter over the station pay phone... he though it was hilarious. To his credit, her Dad and Brother drove all the way out to Pasadena on a Saturday night, picked her up at the station, retrieved my car and drove them both home. 

The following 12 hours of incarceration in the Pasadena jail are a story for another time. Suffice it to say I didn't go to L.A. County jail the next morning with the other Saturday night lawbreakers, and I bailed out soon afterward with the help of my Uncle Rick. The feeling of walking out of the police station on a Sunday morning was exhilarating.

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I don't pretend to know first-hand what it feels like to be a considered suspicious person simply because of the color of my skin or where I live or the people I associate with. I can only imagine what it feels like to be a law enforcement officer, considered by many with contempt or derision or fear, any time they find themselves involved in a traffic stop with the public, the most dangerous thing cops have to do.

Nevertheless, I do know we have a long way to go, as a society, before we can honestly say we treat each other with compassion or understanding or empathy.  

It doesn't have to be that way. I think we can all do better. I know I can.

"I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it." - Maya Angelou

Todos las imagenes, gracias a Google Images; video de The Clash 'Police On My Back', muchas gracias a YouTube; Apoye a su policia local.