We Got Pulled Over...

This was not expected. I was in the car with my boyfriend at the time. He was taking me to my birthday dinner. I was so excited. My make up was BOMB. so we are coming up on this common road where I live in my city of Gainesville, GA. The cops love to sit at the top of this hill for a speed trap. So... I warned my Avery to slow down. It was not in time.

We make direct eye contact with the officer, and I just knew. He flicked on his lights and pulled us over. I tried to direct Avery the best place to pull over. I wanted to ensure it would be a place with plenty of witnesses. I was not afraid of the speeding. I was not afraid of the blue lights. Heck, I know a lot of the officers in my area due to the nature of my job. I was just afraid for my boyfriend and I. I was afraid for our lives.

I looked at him, and said, "Get your ID and insurance out before he comes and show your hands." My boyfriend is Black and I was worried that I would lose him. I felt, at that very moment, that we could do everything right, and still be harmed. I kept looking around the car to make sure there was NOTHING that looked suspicious, nothing sharp, no edges, and I kept my hands visible near the dashboard as well. I didn't even hold my phone (rare when I'm not doing that).

The police officer has no idea who he pulled over. This could be as simple as a regular, routine traffic stop for him, or something much worse. The cop has no idea I work for the state or that we have family and friends that love us, and will miss us if something happens. He has no clue. He does not know us. He is just doing his job... What he does know, is that we are Black.

So, although we had been doing nothing wrong, my gut still dropped. I thought that this could be our last day on Earth, my last breath and my last interaction. I could die from this interaction. Am I being dramatic? Some may say so. Especially if you were any other person. I have not had bad interactions with the cops, and I have always been one to be like, "Just comply and you will be ok". Nope. Too many stories where Black people are doing NOTHING, and still get murdered. Driving while black is serious. I don't care if you disagree. Also, I am not saying that people not of color do not have bad interactions with the police, and also should not have to say that...

Back to the traffic stop. So, the officer was nothing but polite. My voice was shaky, and I thought he may let us off easy if I told him it was my birthday. He laughed. I thought, "YES. I got him to laugh, we are going to live". I used the most "normal" voice I could, that way we would not be defined by our dialect or speech. My boyfriend kept his hands on the wheel. There was small interaction between everyone. While I was waiting for the officer to run Avery's license, I started to tear up. I was so scared. All those horror stories and real life stories started flooding my mind. I even thought of my own headline - "Black woman and man shot by police headed for dinner due to presumed weapon when it was actually a wallet". I saw my face on posters at Black Lives' Matter protests. I saw Facebook posts in memory of us. I saw my parents upset. Every bad scenario flooded my mind.

The officer came back, handed us a warning, and let us go on our way...

WOW. JUST WOW. I cannot believe I was shocked that the interaction did not go south. It lasted all but 10 minutes, but felt like hours. I am sad that I assumed this cop would have thought I was dangerous, or that Avery was. Can you blame me? Can you blame Black people in general? People might say that some of what I said was too much earlier in my post, but think about it. I was empathizing with every Black person that has ever been in ANY interaction with someone in blue. Aside from the officers I know and love, the officers I do not know have a place in my mind. I got lucky that day.

(Side note: I held back my scared tears so I wouldn't inflict damage on my make up).

"Driving while black" distorts not only the perception and reality of the criminal justice system, but also the social world. For example, many African-Americans cope with the possibility of pretextual traffic stops by driving drab cars and dressing in ways that are not flamboyant so as not to attract attention. 160 More than that, "driving while black" serves as a spatial restriction on African-Americans, circumscribing their movements. Put simply, blacks know that police and white residents feel that there are areas in which blacks "do not belong." Often, these are all-white suburban communities or upscale commercial areas. When blacks drive through these areas, they may be watched and stopped because they are "out of place." Consequently, blacks try to avoid these places if for no other reason than that they do not want the extra police scrutiny. It is simply more trouble than it is worth to travel to or through these areas. While it is blacks themselves who avoid these communities, and not police officers or anyone else literally keeping them out, in practice it makes little difference. African-Americans do not enter if they can avoid doing so, whether by dint of self-restriction or by government policy."

• David A. Harris, The Stories, the Statistics and the Law: Why 'Driving While Black' Matters University of Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 2, 1999, 84 Minnesota Law Review 265 (1999). Available at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles/113

I was going to insert some more articles, but I'll let you do your own research...This article is not meant to be political, just my personal experience about an experience I had. Thank you.