Thread by @khadastrophic

I'm just sitting here remembering the time when I was arrested in NJ.

I was driving to my internship and racially profiled, pulled over for going 6 mph over the speed limit and arrested for ibuprofen I had in the car. The cops rifled through my entire car looking for drugs and

even destroyed cookies I was bringing for co-workers from my second job at a fast food place. They tore each one apart as I looked on helplessly. They went through my trunk as I watched. What triggered the search? Supposedly a small bag of earrings I had in my purse from a recent

job interview. "Drug paraphernalia" according to the police report. Add a 'small plastic bag' to the list of things Black people aren't allowed to carry.

Anyway, I have a lot of vivid memories from that experience-the terrible public defender, the things the cops said outside

my cell door, the feeling of being alone and shackled by a stranger. The white woman in the red car in fast lane who sped by me right before the cop pulled me over.

The fear.

But this morning I'm thinking about how I reached out to the ACLU for help and they told me that it

was my word against the cops-- and that the cops always won. I was on my own.

Cellphone cameras have literally transformed public safety for Black people. It doesn't mean that we are not still terrorized, but it does mean something that we get to have a day in court with those

who abuse us. It protects our lives from being destroyed by people like this.

Police officers continue to get MORE AND MORE federal funding despite the regular corruption uncovered in FEDERAL investigations of police precincts all over the country.

https://twitter.com/ggoplayaa/status/1419032143901208581

Anyway, in case you're wondering, investigations of the police force that arrested me eventually uncovered their corruption, too (and part of me hopes that my complaint I filed after my arrest contributed to that investigation in some small way).

They had already been busted

for corruption in the late 90s by federal authorities, about 6 years before my arrest: nytimes.com/1998/10/13/nyr…

A few years ago the AG's office investigated after the chased a man to his death falling off a cliff. I can't even imagine how many people's lives in they ruined in the time since my arrest.

nj.com/bergen/2018/07…

The entire police building burned down last year, destroying all their records.

Oh.

abc7ny.com/alpine-palisad…

And me: I refused to be bullied into pleading guilty, wanting my day in court. They dropped all charges.

And I got the job for which I had those earrings!

I worked as a journalist investigating abuses of people in power for the next couple of years after that.

I'm still Black.

I should add that despite being arrested by a police force that had literally been found leading an organized robbery ring only a few years before my arrest, I still had everything against me. But I was a recent college graduate with a full scholarship and a public school

teacher before my arrest-- I had never had as much as a ticket.

I was still terrified but felt I could get sympathy in court. Not everyone targeted like this feels that way. Most Blacks do not and for good reason.

I still remember one other thing. As I approached my public

defender for the first time, he was talking to another Black man client. The man explained that the defender had just made an agreement for payments that would be impossible for him to make.

The defender put on a Blaccent to tell him maybe he shouldn't be driving around with

his homies smoking weed. This was his legal representation.

He told me --as I explained that I had only sped up because my car was breaking down and I had no phone-- that if I were a real teacher I'd know enough simple math to stay at the limit.

The legal system.

I managed to get a decent lawyer as a young Black person with no job ONLY because my scholarship donor, Stanley Weithorn, paid for one.

I sometimes think about how many things could've gone wrong in my life from this single incident.

Footnote -->> this video is in dispute as deceptively edited, tho still seems
shady to me.

Here's some cases of cops planting evidence that's been verified:

themarshallproject.org/records/4692-c…

And more verified police wrongdoing that stands out to me:

https://twitter.com/khadastrophic/status/1383275525519536128