This country is no stranger to police brutality. American Police Departments seem to be breeding power hungry, violent, racist, fragile masculinity ridden police officers. Until recently, I had never personally had a negative encounter with a police officer, but after hearing about the fate of Tamir Rice, Jerame Reid, Freddie Gray and countless others who were wrongfully, viciously murdered by police officers, I wasn’t law enforcement’s biggest fan.
Last week, I had my first run-in with a clearly very insecure, rude-for-no-reason, pissing contest enthusiast cop. I’ll set the scene: three harmless girls in a mini-van, on their way back from the beach, driving on a dark highway through a very desolate, never-heard-of-it town in Maryland. This highway was poorly lit and lacked road signs. Being that my friend is a qualified, safe driver, she was actively looking for signs to instruct her on the speed limit etc., but there were none. So, until she found one, she was doing what the law stipulates you do on a highway: keep up with traffic. Highways are the only roads that your driver’s education teacher will tell you that speeding is acceptable because you must keep up with traffic, going too slowly is dangerous.
As my friend turned a corner, the first sign in upwards of 10 miles became visible and as she began to slow down, flashing red and blue lights invaded her rear view mirror. She pulled over, confused at what she had done wrong, and waited in the car for the police officer to come and explain her mistake. When the officer approached the car he had his flashlight out and first pointed it at me in the backseat and then at my friend in the driver’s seat’s face.
“You were driving 52 mph in a 35 mph zone,” he said.
“I’m sorry sir there were no signs until that one and I was slowing down—“
“License and registration” he cuts her off, takes her information and goes back to his car to process it.
When he returned, he gave her a ticket for $105 for going FIVE miles over the speed limit. He then went on to discourage her from contesting the citation in court, intimidatingly saying that if she contested and was found guilty the fine would be higher. For the record, this is completely untrue, the police officer was trying to manipulate my young, female and, in his opinion, impressionable friend.
The entire time he spoke to her he was aggressive, abrasive, rude and had an all-together awful attitude. Because he had this frightening attitude my an inhabitant of the ho-dunk town we were driving through should contact their municipality about the lack of signs on this highway. Never mind the fact that, as I’ve already explained, on a highway the speed you are supposed to go is the one that best enables you keep up with traffic. Have I mentioned that while this officer was verbally abusing my friend at least 10 cars drove by all going much faster than 35 mph?
This police officer did not pull over my friend because she was speeding. He pulled over my friend because she had a District of Columbia license plate so he assumed she was black. Traffic officers in these little towns have citation quotas to meet and racist tendencies to help them decide which driver to fine for no reason. She may not have been black, but she was young and female, so an easy enough target to help our police officer prove his was bigger than ours. The color of our skin could have saved our lives in this situation, but that is just the problem.
This country is chalk full of police officers in small towns just like the one who pulled us over. These officers feel as though they have something to prove, they demand unwarranted respect, are hostile and most of all they believe they yield massive power. The police officer that pulled us over spoke to us like we were criminals. We may have been supposedly driving too fast for his liking, but there was no reason to speak to us as though we had just killed his first-born. Not everyone is a criminal; in fact, most people are not criminals and should not be treated as such.
While this officer berated my friend in his abrasive tone, I couldn’t help but stare at his weapon-ridden belt. He had a gun, a Taser, and a nightstick. Why does a traffic cop in Denton, MD (population: 4,359) need that many weapons? The speeding ticket he wrongfully wrote for my friend was probably the most “crime” this officer had seen all day.
Today, society has outgrown the need to have police officers pulling people over for speeding. If a city really wants to crack down on reckless driving on their roads, they should install speed-detecting cameras. Technology has removed the necessity for a police officer to discipline citizens for menial mistakes. Involving police officers puts civilians in danger. They cannot defend themselves verbally for fear might offend the weapon happy officer. Or god forbid the person danes to not be Caucasian because that makes them a dead man walking when facing an American police officer. Too many people have been killed by police officers to allow officers to continue to unnecessarily interact with civilians. Installing cameras as speed traps instead of having racist, quick-to-aggression police officers could save lives.
Police officers are supposed to make civilians feel safe, but they don’t do that. These cameras are not a solution to all police brutality, but unlike a police officer, a camera is unarmed and non-prejudice.
As for the rest of the police officers in the country that cannot be replaced by technology, we need to have them all undergo psychological and psychiatric evaluation. We cannot have armed law enforcement that is racist and seeking to assert their dominance. The era of hot headed, power hungry, and prejudice police officers must end because as long as it continues more lives, especially Black lives, will be lost.
