Dear MSM,stop calling Sandra Blands arrest a "routine traffic stop".

[Moostache]

34. I am a Missouri resident...

I hate it here in East Kansas, but that's another point entirely.

I was stopped by Highway Patrol in the St. Louis are in June for a speeding citation. I have no doubt whatsoever that I was guilty, but the flow of traffic and where I was (far left lane of a 4-lane interstate) made it very difficult to pick me out aside from the make and model of car I was driving (a convertible roadster with tinted windows that make it very difficult to determine the race of the driver).

I am Caucasian, Eastern-European heritage, 4th generation American. In other words, I'm pretty much lily-white.
Once the officer raced up to pull me over, and I merged over across 4 lanes of traffic to pull over on the side of the interstate, he took my license and registration and disappeared back to his squad car.

When he returned to the car, ticket in hand, he informed me that "I am not going arrest you today" as a formal greeting.
I was shocked, so I said "Why would you arrest me for a speeding ticket?" (It was 78 in a 60...not even the threshold of 20mph over the posted that can get you a reckless driving charge added on...)

He then said, "You have a warrant for your arrest."
Now, I was totally stunned...I don't have any warrants I thought...what the hell is this?

So I said, "A WARRANT??? For what???", truly quite dismayed at this point.

He then said, "Well, since the whole Ferguson 'thing', we don't arrest drivers for minor offenses any more."
He actually sounded disappointed, like he lost out on a chance to arrest someone - though he certainly did not seem to have any intention of that 'someone' being me.

I found that to be an extraordinary statement.
And it got me to thinking about the entire stop in a different light.

The officer was on the shoulder of a major interstate highway, during the late-morning rush hour. There were numerous other cars "speeding" at that time, including me. My car just happens to be a bit flashier than some others, and was an easy target. I don't know what this officer's thought process was when he made the decision to hop into his car, slam on the gas, whip out across 4 lanes of traffic and pull me over...maybe he really did think I was an imminent threat to public safety (amongst the dozen or so other cars doing between 75 and 80 in the left lanes)? Maybe he thought it was his public duty to make such a risky traffic stop?

But his "Ferguson thing" comment made me think there might have been other motivations. Like I said, the windows on my car are tinted (to the legal limits), but its possible that anyone looking at the car from the side would be unable to tell the race of the driver beyond making assumptions and stereotype decisions. His disappointment in informing me that he would no arrest me "this time" was palpable.

The whole thing was strange; but I noticed that he made a hyper-aggressive drive to pull me over, then became almost disappointed when he discovered I was white and that even though I had a warrant for my arrest, he was not going to do anything about that either.

Turns out that the "warrant" was for an unpaid license issue, not an actual citation or moving violation and that a clerical error in the county courthouse was what led to that not being expunged from the records.

The kicker in all of this?
I later went to the online fine collection center to find out my fine and pay the ticket. The system reported an error and said that I would need to use the automated phone line instead...

So I called the number and waited on hold for 45 minutes, then the phone system told me there was an error and that I would need to contact an operator for assistance. After another 45 minutes on hold, the operator told me they had no record of the citation number I was holding.

That ticket (to date, and now 45 days+ later) has never been turned in.

There's a lot of ground in this story to make assumptions. Right or wrong, nefarious or not. I am just having a hard time believing that if I were black, driving the same car in the same situation that the outcome would NOT (*edit) have been something far, far different.

Equal justice under the law. THAT is my over-riding principle. The law is the law for everyone or it is not a law worth regarding. Rich or poor. White or Non-white. Or any distinctions you can think of...if the law does not apply evenly and fairly for all, then justice is a myth and the law is mechanism of control.

Its harder and harder to see our laws as being just any longer when they CLEARLY have disparate application depending on the race of the people involved.