Curious to take the temperature of the room. I have. I'm a white male, who has had one speeding ticket in my life. That's the extent of my troubles. I feel like the numbers may surprise people. When I was 20, I had just moved out in my own. I worked a third shift job and went home to get some sleep before my next shift began at 1. I live in an apartment that was a duplex. It was an old house concerted to an upstairs and a downstairs unit. An old lady had lived downstairs. She owned the place. She had access to my apartment but I didn't have it to hers. She had a stroke and a guy was there getting an estate sale together. At some point when I went to sleep, he called the cops on me, claiming my Ford Focus had put a huge dent in his F250. My Focus had no damage. The cops came INTO my apartment from downstairs, yelling at me that they needed to talk to me. "This is the police, we need you to come downstairs" they yelled from in my apartment. That's how I was woken up. I go outside and the cop lays out the scenario. He thinks bumper sticker residue is possible damage and wants me to confess. I told him I didn't do it and it was clearly bumper sticker residue. I said I'm sure I would have noticed if I had inflicted that damage. He suggests I may have had my music up and not noticed. Basically, it boiled down to me having to meet their traffic investigator and line up my bumper to his dent. Despite no damage, if it had matched up, they told me they were going to pin it on me. I showed up that night with receipts and witnesses for where I was during the three hours this supposedly happened. Luckily, when I backed the car up, my bumper was a foot lower than the damage. I almost got screwed, though. Have you ever been done dirty by the cops? I'd like to hear your story.
Also, I've seen a Puerto Rican kid get threatened arrest for littering if he spit again. And then, a white guy in a mental ward, who threatened to kill myself as well as about ten others, was handcuffed behind his back, and then slammed to the ground, face first, from his feet, for threatening the cops.
Yep, but nothing like what black folks deal with. I pissed off a cop in this yokel town I lived in SW of Fort Worth. I zoomed past him when he had a person pulled over. Granted, I wasn't in the lane next to the parked cop (you need to get over or go 20mph under) but he jumped in his car and gave me three tickets. Turns out he had his door broken off by a person speeding by his parked car, so he was sensitive about that sort of thing. I got a lawyer and got out of it, but after that, the yokel cops would pull me over any time they saw me. I ended up going to the chief of police and threatening to get a lawyer. After that they would still sweat me when I was driving around. I never really fit in as I didn't have camo in my daily wardrobe. We moved pretty soon after. I know that cops would pull me over when I was younger because I was a young punk. Profiling. I had a cop take my keys when I was blasted drunk in a Galveston bar and throw them in the gutter. Honestly, I don't know if I hate what he did but he was a dick about it. They even do it to their own. My neighbor, a cop, when through hell a few years ago when internal affairs tried to pin a shooting of a fellow cop on him. They ended up solving the case when they caught another guy with a gun that matched ballistics but never even apologized. He's the nicest guy ever. Link to story https://abc13.com/houston-metro-police-officer-shooting/4112363/ I've been 'on their side' too, when I worked as a doorman in Galveston so I saw how they think. The cops would come warn me about 'thugs' coming down the street and the manger would tell me to jack the cover way up when they would come to the door. It's funny because some of these thugs would whip out a fat roll and pay the $25 each, then proceed to spend hundreds in the bar. Anyway, nothing like what black folks deal with, but cops deserve the rap they get as bullies.
I was once pulled over and had my car searched. The LEO who pulled me over gave no reason why they wanted to search my car and complied with no question or complaint. Here in Minneapolis walking down my street during the daytime I was stopped by a plain clothes LEO. He showed me his badge. He asked me who I was and what I was doing in the neighborhood. When I told him I lived there he asked for proof. I showed him my drivers license and said that there had been reports of break ins into garages and that he stopped me because i was walking funny and thought I might've been kicking in garage doors. He let me go because I proved I lived there. Not here in the US but in Indonesia. I got shook down by the local LE for not having an international driver's license. I had to pay them the equivalent of $20 to let me go.
I was coming back from a college party near drunk and a cop stopped me after running a red light. He asked for my license and insurance but never mentioned anything about smelling alcohol from the vehicle. I also had an open container I hid in the behind the backseat. After he gives me my info back he asks where are you heading? I said I'm going home to a such and such address. He simply looked at his watch and told me I was lucky he's getting off work and to head home immediately which of course I did. That's the closest I've come to being victimized by the cops..."knock on wood."
Try having long hair and a K101 bumper sticker while driving north on Hwy 59 in the 70's... Good times with Sheriff Humpy Parker.
Along time ago, at former job, one of my coworkers from California got arrested in Houston cause he fit the description of some dude who mugged a lady downtown. The lady picked him in a lineup of random dudes. Obviously he did not fit the description or the RACE of the mugger. Dude had to get a lawyer and waste lots of time and money in court cause some lady can't remember who mugged her.
Nope, but when I was pulled over once for a speeding ticket, the cop on his way to approaching my car put his hand on his gun which made me have a little bit of a panic attack. The interaction went normal and he moved his hand off after asking a few questions. I don’t know if that’s normal or what but it scared me. My father experienced a fair amount of police brutality back when he was young, he was once pistol whipped by cops trying to get him to rat on some friends, that partially detached his retina, which healed thankfully.
Never victimized.... when I was in college in San Marcos I was with a friend at a gas station. The gas station clerk hit on my friend so I yelled something as we left the store.... Apparently the state trooper (who I didn't see) thought I was yelling at him so he followed me to my apartment complex, turned the lights on, and asked my what my "malfunction" was. Was really confused more than intimidated. Nothing happened, went into my apartment and went about my business.
For a long time I believed I was in a particular incident. I don't know when but at some point in my life I let go of that belief and realized had I not been running my mouth and acting the way I was I wouldn't have been 'manhandled' (ewww doesn't read well). My actions dictated the rough housing I received. But I remember at the time, I would've fought to the death if the would've let me. And I held a resentment for a very long time. In no way, do I equate that with what people of color have to deal with. That's a high class problem and I'm a dumbass for thinking I was in my right to act that way. I'm really lucky it happened the way it did or else I would've been charged with resisting or possibly assaulting. They tossed me around and took control of the situation REAL FAST. Thank God. I didn't care for the 18 hour processing in and the 18 hour processing out part either. I swear the concrete in jail is harder than normal concrete. It hurts to lay down on. I'm also glad I did not take the advice to find the biggest and baddest and punch them in the mouth when I went in. That would've have gone well for me. Just trying to lighten it up bit, as the OP put it.
I was 16 in Katy TX back in the 80's. Katy cop followed me through town then pulled me over 1/2 a block from my house saying I didn't signal (I did). He then mistook an IBC rootbeer bottle for a beer bottle and busted it on the ground when I pointed out what it was, then gave me a field sobriety test I passed, then had dope dog search my car dog hit on the lingering odor from a friend I just dropped off, tore my car apart searching, never found anything, gave me a ticket for not changing the address on my license (we had moved recently 1 block over). other than that being a middle aged white male has afforded me the privilege of not being hassled
Not personally. Oldest sister was molested by a cop during a routine traffic stop. Had no probable cause for even pulling her over. No ticket was issued. Just a cop that decided to feel up my sister in front of my two nieces in a minivan at the time in Williamson County. I got an aunt who lives near Westgate in Austin that's in her 80s and lives on her own. She has her daughters and sons that live within a less than 5 mile radius from her that come by daily to check in on her. One day my aunt decided to hangout with a next door neighbor without notifying her kids who are in their 50s with families of their own where she was. One family member dropped by only to see the front door unlocked and her mom missing. So she filed a missing person's report and APD responded. Towards the end of the day my aunt walked back home only to see 4 APD in her front lawn that were looking for her. She had to pee and didn't want to be bothered by the cops. Somehow a scuffle emerged where my aunt was thrown to the ground and made black and blue all over her arms neck and shoulders. 4 roided out APD cops convinced her own kids that she was in the wrong and had to go to group therapy at St. David's Austin Lakes. Her social worker didn't even understand why she was there and found her to be of full mental faculties. It was supposed to be a situation where the cops were sent to help find a potentially missing woman, only to rough up the missing person they were in pursuit of and then got away with it. For reference my little 4'11 Hispanic aunt is an extremely Catholic woman that has most of her furniture acquired from Church Bazaars and whatnot. Literally everywhere you turn is either a picture or statue of Jesus or the Virgin Mary when you walk in that house. No criminal record. No history of violence or even being verbally abusive to her family. So I don't know the reasoning why it took 4 cops to slam an elderly woman to the ground that was just trying to go in her home to go pee. Third instance is regarding a friend of mine with chronic seizures who passed away on the 14th of August last year. She had daily seizures which would prompt calls to dispatch to send first responders to help. My very very very dear friend had a service dog. APD was first to arrive and came into her apartment to help. Her service dog I guess was being protective and they ended up tasing her dog and locked it in her bedroom. The dog in all my experiences was extremely well behaved but would occasionally act like a puppy when really happy but no history of aggression. That experience prompted my chronically ill friend to lose trust in first responders. She feared her service dog would get killed if she needed to rely on dispatch for help when having other major seizures. So people like myself and another friend of hers that lived all the way in Kyle while she lived way north closer to Pflugerville and Wells Branch would be her EMS so to speak to rush her to Cedar Park ER in the middle of the night instead. I live in SW Austin near Dripping Springs and Oak Hill, so even without traffic, it'd still be a good 45 minute drive to get to her apartment then another 20 minutes to load her up safely, and rush her as safely and fast as I could to the hospital, only to have the hospital run out of ICU beds and discharge her in the middle of the night hours later, prompting me to get up at early dawn to take her back home after dropping her off. I've been so disappointed by healthcare in Austin and LEO in general as of late.
I went back to a fraternity reunion when I was 28 years old, at the time, I had a Lotus Esprit twin turbo, the police followed me around and pulled me over at the hotel - and like questioned me for over an hour - I had done nothing other than driving a sports car - they thought I was a drug dealer...... I wish I knew then what I knew now about asking them if I am being detained, or to not answer police questions ever.....they kept trying to find something to arrest me over and tow my car away. FInally a friend pulled up and they let me go......what a bunch of BS. DD
nah, I'm old white and middle class even when I was a long haired wild eyed crazy kid, I could show my college ID and walk away
I've never had a single problem. I have always swallowed my pride and have been overly respectful to police officers. I know that it affords me the best outcome in a given situation. In saying that many of the interactions when I was younger were not given respect back and were overly rude back to me. Dismissive and flippant would be an understatement with some of the interactions. Which if you think about it could lead many to be rude back if they were not inclined to be which then escalates situations.
Yes .... I got the absolute crap beaten out of me by a police officer who patrolled our neighborhood for being stoned and driving. I was real ****in high ... Dude handcuffed me to a tree in the back of the neighborhood park as he and his partner commenced to beating my ass with their nightsticks. Took me back to my truck and said don't let me catch you again .... That was almost 40 years ago and I can still tell you that bastards name.
I've been threatened to never be seen again by police in two countries, does that count? lol I've been pulled over and called a derogatory term related to a nationality on a couple of occasions. But the most racist interactions I've faced have been at American, German and Dutch airports. A Dutch immigration officer said I must feel really proud that my country spent its money buying a visa waiver from the EU. I just smiled. His co-worker checked him. I've been there more than a dozen times, I've never had another racist interaction in the Netherlands except with a Turkish shop owner. In general, I am Middle eastern with tan skin and a well groomed beard. 80% of the time I'm wearing a plain black tee and blue jeans, i just can't be bothered to think about clothing more than that. I understand that I roughly fit a profile lol but have some f*cking nuance. If I travel with a girl I'm generally fine. If I travel alone, I see so much freaking racism in airports and airplanes. One of my all time favorite subtle racism is when white people are surprised I speak English pretty well. Even if you think it's not common, why would you be surprised in this day and age? lol My 2 brothers were filming an episode of something in Texas (Austin I believe) and they were wearing Arabic clothing. A man showed up in a truck with a shotgun and started aggressively questioning what they were up to, even though there's a whole (partly American) film crew there. The guy told them not to cause any trouble and f*cked off. They were shooting a food show.
All I can say, if you plan on being in Rural Oklahoma for any length of time, change your Texas plates. If you drive up there for a visit, make sure to follow every law. Okie cops love to pull over Texas cars.
Driving while white: I was at a bar on Westheimer when it closed at 2AM. I started driving home when a cop pulled me over. My headlights were off, because it was bright as day under the streetlights. I was probably over the limit and had that unmistakeable "I'm going to jail" feeling in the pit of my stomach. But the white cop never got out of his car, just stared over at me from his car, and shouted "Turn your damn lights on!" I believe if I were black, I would have been toast.
