I am deeply upset with a recent encounter with police, I think I was discriminated against - what should I do?
Today I was driving home from a nice park at 9:00 p.m. Just after sunset - I live in Dallas, but I work in Plano, Texas - an upscale part of the Metroplex - I was sitting at the park after work having a smoke (tobacco)... JUST before I exited the Plano Jurisdiction into the neighboring city, Richardson - an entire circus of lights lit up behind me... I look in the mirror see 5 police cars - apparently they were following me for the past several miles. Background: I drive a very old Volvo station wagon, and I am dark skinned. I pulled over into a residential district and they surrounded my car - lights blazing... A female cop approaches the window and asks me to step out of the car - didn't even ask my for my license or anything - just made me step out of the car... I see another three cops (all white) they step out of their cars - they administer a sobriety test over and over – I passed it like three times, and the cops take turns giving me the test… by now there are like three police officers directly involved with me, and two cop cars just sort of parked around my car in the front and two behind me – I really couldn’t tell… The female cop meanwhile asked if they could search my car, by now there are five cops at the scene – I was completely frightened and intimidated seeing as how there were a whole bunch of cop cars behind me – I said yes (knowing I don’t have anything) – although I was starting to shake out of nervousness. The cops all questioned me, asking if I had been smoking marijuana, if I was on any drugs, if I had been drinking… They kept administering a sobriety test (it’s like each cop took their turn)… Then one of the cops just started searching me, stuck his hands in my pockets, under my shirt, etc – didn’t even ask, just kind Don't tell me they were doing their job - you don't need five cop cars to do what they did... I'm just so pissed off... didn’t even ask, just kind of flipping me around… like: “I’m gonna ask you again, you have any drugs blahblahblah).†The dude was HUGE – he was gigantic… They asked me so many questions: where I was from, where I was going, etc… I answered all the questions… All in All, I was detained for about 40 minutes until the cops told me I could go... When I get back to my car I find that the female officer doing the search had left a mess – my ash tray was spilled out, the contents of my glove box were on the seat… Overall, I don’t think they had any reason to stop me let alone search me – I was driving fine – they didn’t even ask me for insurance or DL – I think they were just picking on me… They let me go because I had nothing – and who ever called was definitely lying – perhaps he/she saw a brown guy in a beat up car driving through a white neighborhood – I don’t know… All I know is that I am upset at the way I was treated, talked to, and handled by the Plano police department -
Law & Ethics - 4 Answers
People's Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
Answer 1 :
I'm so sorry you had an experience like this. I cannot even imagine how you remained calm. You need to contact a lawyer and find out if you have a case. Those police officers should be held accountable for what they did. Even if you aren't looking for a monetary gain from this, you should still report it.
Answer 2 :
Im sorry to tell you bud but theres nothing you can do. Cops are going to be cops and they will always win no matter what you do or say. If been arrested twice for deffending my self with witnesses all around saying i did not start anything . But, still i ended up in jail for a night. Enough about me though. It might of been a good thing that they stopped you now because you are in there recrds and they probably typed in there computer that they couldn't find anything. But, if something like this happenes again then you should deffinetly look into talking with some of the locals that are a little well know around town. Hope i helped
Answer 3 :
Sure sounds like they got a huge ego to satisfy, sadly the problem is getting worse and worse, You guys got it rough in Texas too http://www.badcopnews.com/category/texas/ On a lighter side, Texas and Florida are topics here too, lots of stuff, goofy and important http://www.fark.com/
Answer 4 :
I don't see anything that even suggests it was because of your race. In many parts of the world it is routine for police to show up in herds for minor or routine incidents. I can't count the number of times I have seen 5 or 6 squad cars reporting to an incident that only requires one unit. If any call comes in over the radio it seems like every officer within a 5 mile radius who is not otherwise occupied feels compelled to respond. You, of course, will argue that you were not driving in an erratic or suspicious manner. They, of course, will respond that you were driving in a suspicious manner or will say that they received a call describing a driver similar to yours. They always make this claim. I assume that they get a lot of calls where someone says, "I'd like to report a human being driving a car with 4-wheels acting in a suspicious manner within a 5 mile radius of the city." You clearly fit that description. Unfortunately, filing a lawsuit against the police to claim that the stop was unjust is almost impossible to win. You can't prove gross negligence. You can't prove willful intent. You can't prove racial profiling. Even if you could, you have no damages. You were detained and inconvenienced for a short period and then sent on your way. Even reporting the incident for police conduct isn't going to get you anywhere because it doesn't come close to qualifying as any violation of the code of conduct for an officer. It's just one of those annoying things that officers do as part of their normal routine when they really should be patrolling high crime areas looking for rapists and murderers.
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