So the other weekend while driving home from a party, we got pulled over by the cops. Thankfully, J was driving and after answering a slew of questions and showing our registration/ID, we were let off. But the incident reminded me of several things. For one, privilege. As we pulled off the exit with the lights flashing behind us, my heart began pounding and a thought flashed through my head: thank goodness we aren’t black. Seriously, after all the exposure in the news in recent years, I just don’t trust law enforcement like I used to. Sure, they have a very difficult job… a job that I would never ever want no matter the pensions or perks, but still, over and over again, PDs across the country have done horrible things.

The good thing is, Bubbey is white and on top of that, he has some world-class level EQ. Immediately off the bat, the officer was asking where we were driving from, where to, and he had all these leading questions:

Were you at the downtown bars?
No. We came from a friend’s house.

What were you doing there? Where are you headed? Have you been drinking?
REPEATED questions about drinking, even after J gave answers.
So if you were to take a breathalyzer, it would show one drink at dinner three hours ago?
Yes.
Really? Are you sure?
Yes.

The cop said Bubs committed multiple vehicle violations:
1. He changed lanes without a signal,
2. He was speeding above 80 mph,
3. and he was unaware of his surroundings.

First of all, when J merged from the exit ramp onto the freeway, he kinda cut off the guy in the big black SUV but also, the guy didn’t bother to slow down and continued to ride his ass. Then, to get away from this agro dude, J changed lanes and the guy just followed on his ass, so he changed lanes twice and the guy was still on him. Then he just continued for a few miles with this asshole riding his butt. As it turned out, the big SUV was the cop!

So J wasn’t unaware, he was trying to figure out how to distance from this agro driver. But he gave none of those explanations. He just said, he knew he was speeding but thought it was 75 not 80. Also, he thought he had depressed the blinker. And he saw the car behind him but didn’t realize it was a cop.

I mean, I gotta say, had I been in the driver seat, all would have been over. I probably would have mentioned that Mr. Copper was riding my butt, making me nervous and causing me to speed up. Yeah, see: what and how info is communicated is VERY important. Nevermind that I used to be a communications professional. Haha, all bets are off when it comes to dealing with the popos.

When I asked Bubs where he got all that wherewithal, he credited all his gangster movies. It’s all about the mind games and strategies. Shrug. That Godfather shit sure came in handy!