Michael Brown is Dead Because He Did Not Say, "Yassuh, Massa"

[brewens]

123. Here's an encounter that even as a white guy would not turn out the same these days. About 1981

on a snowy New Years Eve, I was struggling to get up a hill in my car with a buddy riding with me and I had been drinking. Not much yet because it was still fairly early but I'd had a few. I was going to get stuck and have to back down the hill so I bailed out onto a side street that was marked Do Not Enter! A cop saw me and before I could flip around and go back down the hill, he pulled me over.

The officer came up and asked for the usual DL and registration and I quickly and politely appologized and explained that I had to pull in there or end up backing down the hill, a much more dangerous option. The cop reasonably agreed and said he could tell that's what I was doing and asked if I'd been drinking? I told him yes, but I wasn't drunk. Talking to me, he evidently sized up that I was obviously not very drunk, if at all, and told me that if I was going to drink any more, he'd better not see my car again that night and that was the end of it.

White or black, there is no freakin' way that happens these days! The system now is that in a case like that, another cop would be on the scene immediately, and smelling alcohol, you'd get a field sobriety test and probably have to blow, no matter what. If you managed to pass that, you'd still get a ticket. It would be your fault for driving in conditions you weren't prepared for. The second cop, usually a shift supervisor, is there to make sure his guys don't give you a break.

Cops are more cut throat these days in general. No doubt they are much harder on minorities. The days of the really good guy cop, just out there doing the job and not really giving a shit about nailing people are over.