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Health & Fitness

Why I stopped you? Because you are Black…

November 5th, 2013 approximately 8:35 p.m. I was pulled over by a police officer today in Dedham, Massachusetts. I was on my way to the gym (going the same way I have been going for the past month) only about 5 minutes away when I noticed the flashing cop lights behind me. Just as anyone else would, I wondered what could I possibly be getting pulled over for. The officer came up to my passenger side window and asked for my information and I asked him “can I please ask why I am being pulled over?” He replied to me “because your license plate light is out”. He asked me where I was going and coming from while he shined his flashlight on the book bag in my passenger seat. I told him that I was coming from Mattapan and on my way to the gym in Dedham. I let him know I was unaware of my “license plate light” being out but he proceeded to his vehicle to look up my license and registration information. I am from New York and currently still a permanent resident of NY even though I have been staying with a friend in Mattapan (trying to search for journalism related job opportunities.). Keep in mind Massachusetts has certain laws to determine residency which would require you to have MA plates and convert an out of state license to a MA license.

The officer came back and told me, much to my surprise, that my license had been suspended. This comes as news to me since I called the DMV to check the status of my license in August. I was inquiring about a ticket I received the previous spring in Western, Massachusetts that I appealed but never received a response for. The DMV told me my license was all good and that I had no violations on it. With that ticket having been my first speeding ticket (He said I was doing 67 or 68 in a 55, although the conditions of the weather were terrible and where I was traveling was a downhill path on the road. There were also cars going faster than mine with their high beam lights on going in the other direction as well.) I thought maybe they tossed the ticket since it was my first one. They did not. He then proceeded to ask me how many times I had been arrested, as opposed to actually asking me if I have ever been arrested. I answered him saying “uhhhh zero times…” (slightly annoyed by the fact that he assumed I had been arrested previously). The officer said he would not arrest me since I had no criminal record, but my car would get towed. While we waited for the tow truck, he had me sit in the back of his cop car to show my suspended license on his laptop and asked me  “You don’t have an uzi in that backpack do you? I wouldn’t want to get shot…” This did not amuse me at all and I said he could check my bag if he wanted to.

So to make this story a lot shorter, my friend and his aunt came to pick me up and he was  getting ready to drive me back to their house, when something told me to just check my license plate. The license plate light was never out, which is the reason why the cop claimed he initially stopped me, he also wrote that reason on the citation.

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So I ask you, why did he stop me? Maybe because I am black and was wearing my hooded sweatshirt on a cold dark night. This is unacceptable, disgusting, costly, disappointing, and down right disrespectful.

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