Musings by Zalala, HRH Empress of Planet Claire!

Are the Cops Protecting Us or Putting Us in Danger?

Why We Live in Fear--a Gun Story!


This morning I was in the middle of a potential shoot out at the local gas station...I pulled in to the busy Feathersound Choice Market in Clearwater/Feather Sound to get gas this morning at 1135 and there was a Florida Highway Patrolman with his arm outstretched with a gun in his hand and cocked to the side. He was the first thing I saw as I was pulling in. HE WAS AIMING AT A YOUNG BLACK UNARMED MAN PARKED RIGHT NEXT TO THE GAS PUMP!!! The black man was tall, well dressed and had his hands in the air. I froze, my car idling, about 30 feet away from the pump I was pulling into. I was thinking, one wrong move by this cop and we all go up in a fireball!!! When the officer secured his gun and put it at his waist I pulled in to the pump--there was really no other place for me to go, as there was traffic behind me. At that point, about two more cop cars pulled in, and the first officer pulled his cuffs, got the man on the ground, cuffed him and he and the other cops that had come out of the other cars proceeded to taunt and interrogate the man, accusing him of stealing the truck and leading them on a wild car chase across the Bay to Bay Bridge, the whole time as they pulled all of his belongings out of his pockets. I pumped gas, as I observed the whole scene. I did not hear the Miranda being read. The cops made no move to pick the man up and put him in one of the cars to question him, they just left him, face down on the ground and continued to humiliatingly taunt him in "old fashioned, good ole' boy style." Needless to say, I paid for my gas and left in a hurry, thinking I had escaped the possibility of being burned alive and in complete shock and fear that this had happened. The whole incident took about 15 minutes and the man was still on the ground and still being accused of stealing the truck, smoking crack, drug dealing, etc., as I pulled away. As I drove to Tampa to go to work, my mind wandered through a whole bunch of questions. Would a white man have been treated differently? Did the cop know that he was endangering about 20 lives when he aimed his gun at the man near the pump? Should I trust the fact that his aim was true and that the gun would not misfire? Because the cops made a bust, would these possiblities ever be brought up? Is reckless endangerment of innocent bystanders ever a factor when a bust is being made? It is supposed to be!!! I am angry. Now I have to live in fear when I go to get gas at the local gas station, not from anything a criminal can do to me, but from the men my taxes are paying for who are supposed to be protecting me!!!

posted by Zalala @ 4/28/2004 08:43:00 PM