Reply #32: **Warning: Stereotypes used in the following story are sometimes reality**

[pacalo]

In 1971, I was visiting a college friend way deep south for the weekend. We were on our way to the beach on the Gulf of Mexico & we were about to enter a small town, in which my friend warned me was a speed trap. For the stretch of the entire town, maybe a couple of miles total, the speed limit was 20 mph. My friend told me to go 15 mph because the police were known for watching for out-of-town license plates.

Sure enough, just a moment after I entered the town, a police car (with a very old, grumpy driver at the wheel) emerged out of the roadside brush. I pulled over, confident that I had done nothing wrong. :eyes:

"Hello, officer."

"You were going 22 miles per hour in a 20 mph zone."

"Are you sure? My friend here, from (a neighboring town), warned me about the speed limit; in fact, I was going slower than 20."

"You'll have to sign this ticket."

"But I wasn't speeding. I was going no faster than the car in front of me, which you didn't stop."

"Sign on the bottom line."

At first it crossed my mind to refuse to sign the ticket at all, but then I took the ticket & signed my name in an exaggerated fashion, meant to signal dissent to anyone who later might have viewed the ticket.

"You sassy kid! I stand out here in hot weather keeping my town safe & you sass me like that? You follow me to jail!"

I followed him back to the station, crying my eyes out at the injustice. My friend was dumbfounded; she knew I had done nothing wrong & she was embarrassed about living so close to the crooked town.

When I got inside, the police officer had toned down his behavior, but he explained to the room full of his colleagues that I had been "sassy". After several moments of standing there, still crying, it was clear that nothing was going to happen; the officer had no grounds for keeping me there & following him "to jail" was just a tactic to scare & humiliate me. Several officers approached me in a consilatory manner, asking if I was okay. I was so angry that I ignored them, & asked if I could leave. Yes, I could leave, but my driver's license would be kept until I paid the ticket.

Monday morning, I went to the sheriff's office in my town to report what had happened & he was very sympathetic & helpful. He knew about the police department in the town, asked for my ticket, & said he'd call a friend of his.

Thank goodness tasers weren't the rule of the day back then. On the other hand, I might have been a very wealthy woman right now at that town's expense.