Today on the way home from work, I am pulled over by the cops. The reason for being pulled over is not clear, even after the dozen or so times I've played it over in my head and talking it over with Akilah.
It goes a little something like this:
We get of the freeway behind one of my coworker friends and I am trailing him about 2 cars back in the fast lane. It's rush hour commute, so no one can or is going faster than 65. Kiki and I are talking about the weekend and I see in my peripheral vision a car pulls up into my blind spot. I HATE when cars hang out back there, because if I have to make a sudden move - bam instant accident. So I speed up a little, still doing within the speed limit. I really cannot go anywhere, because there's a car in front of me, but by moving up it gets the car out of my blind spot. The car in my blind spot, sitting about in my 5 o'clock, speeds up again to sit in my blond spot AGAIN. As I look over to see wtf, I see the ram bars, hood...it's a cop. And just as I realize it's a cop, he shines is light inside the window of my car. Then he pulls behind me and lights me up. I look at the speedometer and I'm doing 66 and I'm confused. So I pull over, and the exchange goes a little something like this:
Officer: License, registration and proof insurance
Me: My license is in my backpack behind me, and I am going to reach for them.
::Hand over my license and registration::
Officer: What were you doing? Why were you speeding up? There was nowhere for you to go.
Me: Well officer, all I saw was a car in my blind spot and I was trying to get that car out of my blind spot. It wasn't until the last second did I identify you.
Officer: Well you were in the fast lane and I wasn't a problem. So you didn't have to worry.
Me: True, but as I said, all I saw in my peripheral vision was a car there and I wanted to get the car out of my blind spot.
::Kiki hands me my proof of insurance that was in the glove box under other papers. I hand the officer the proof of insurance. At this point another office comes along side the passenger door and shines his flashlight in the door.::
Officer: Yea, I figured you'd have to have insurance for one of these. You ever gotten a ticket for being stupid? (direct quote, Kiki confirmed)
Me: Well, I hope not today.
Officer: Excuse me?
::Hands back documents::
Officer: Well drive safe out there
This exchange has been playing in my head over and over again. I even asked Kiki, did he really ask me if I have ever gotten a ticket for being stupid? Yea, he sure did. On top of that, I was doing the speed limit, going with the flow of traffic and not driving erratically. So what gives?
Part of me is thankful he didn't give me a ticket. The other part of me is like, wtf? Was that really harassment. Was that really DWB (Driving While Black for the unitiated)? We were driving through one of openly known racist areas of San Diego, so it doesn't summarily explain it. It sure helps puts thing in context. But he didn't give me the ticket, so that must put the DWB argument to rest, right? Or does it? May be by my pulling ahead everytime he pulled up along side me, was considered suspicious behavior and thus probable cause for the stop.
The whole thing just seems odd.
I called my friend to see if he saw me get pulled over, and he was like, "that was you??" It seems in the officer's zeal to get behind me and light me up, he himself cut off another motorist who was forced to slam on his brakes to avoid the officer. As my friend put it, the front of the car dipped so where the headlights disappeared for an instant.
Afterwards, we ran errands and headed up. I started getting texts from friends asking where the hell I away. Met up with them at Newport Pizza in OB, which was GREAT. After a couple of hours of that, Akilah saw The Day the Earth Stood Still. Which was a pretty good flick all in all.
Posted by tony at December 12, 2008 12:47 AM | TrackBack