Ride Along

On Saturday I went on a ride along with the MVPD just for fun because you know me, i'm a curious person. It was overall really fun and exciting. We gave some lady a traffic ticket and even "chased" down a man. A bit scary but good experience.

Along the way I was watching and analyzing how the cop was acting or what were his "reasons" for his actions.

It first started by stopping an asian lady for not making a stop at the intersection, he pulled her over and gave her the lowest ticket. "So I wrote her a ticket called a break ticket. 'Cut her a break'" Basically he let her get away easily. But In my mind I was thinking, "Would've he have given that person a bigger and fat ticket if she was black or mexican?" I wanted to ask him but I didn't want  it to be uncomfortable.

Later we got a call about a man on a bike resisting to stop, so we were racing to get to the location. By the time we got there there were 2 cop cars there already. And then later 3 more arrived. Turned out it was a black young man. He pulled the "race car" by justifying that the cops were pulling him over because it was dark and he  was black. "You guys are racist. Just because it's night and you see a black young guy, you think he's dangerous. I live down the street, I went to the go buy some chips." I honestly found it necessary to have all those cops there for just one man. He was being searched and told not to leave, I wasn't able to catch the reason why was stopped. Maybe because he didn't have his traffic lights. I noticed how I reacted. The Cop told me I could come and watch, that's when I knew he felt  that the young black man was not dangerous. I approached the situation, and I noticed how I was keeping my distance from him at first because I felt like he could have been carrying a weapon or something. I'm not racist or anything but maybe stereotype. But when I knew he wasn't dangerous at all, I took a few steps forward to watch closer. Later a different cop told me that It would be better if I went back to the car...

Later that day, the cop and I approached another african american man at the liquor store who happened to be an expired drug addict. He was homeless and  living in his car. Once again I had the same reaction, and once I noticed he was a good changed  man, I felt more open and comfortable getting closer. As you can see there is a lot of race role key playing, and I witness happening.

The cop was very young, good looking, and really nice. He was clearly not what most of social media portraits. He just wanted to do his job and make sure everything is under control.