Women Drivers and Making Fun of Racism

Hello there!

Long time no talk, I suppose. Nothing much to write about, honestly. But yesterday was quite different. It may honestly have been my favorite law school class to date.

The class is “Criminal Investigation”, i.e. “Things You Need To Do When Trying To Arrest Someone.” It covers when warrants are needs, when you can perform search and seizures, etfc. Yesterday we were covering when cops are allowed to search cars, and which parts they may look in. Here’s a basic rundown: When a cop stops you, if he has probable cause, he may search the passenger compartment of your car, and any closed containers therein. They may not search the trunk.

We then reviewed a case where this concept was used, the facts are as follows: Cops saw a SUV full of black people behind them on the road. The cops turn right at the corner, and slowly drive down the street. The SUV stays at the stop sign for an “abnormally long” amount of time. The cops decide to pull a U-turn, and, seeing this, the SUV turns left and drives away “at a high speed.” The cops pull over the SUV, and the person in the front passenger seat “had a baggie of cocaine in his lap.” Cops searched the whole car, at the scene of the arrest, and found more drugs. All passengers were convicted and the search was deemed lawful.

At this point, the prof goes, “Now look back. The drugs were sitting in the guy’s lap. Let me tell you, this is bullshit. It would never, ever happen this way. But this all comes in before a grand jury, you can’t refute it, because you’ve got a cop saying this and your witness is a person with drugs on him running from the cops. He’s screwed. What do people think of this? How much does this happen?”

At this point, I knew I was in for a good time. You see, I go to school in Liberaltown, USA. Government and police, be damned! I closed the webgame I was playing, sat back, and prepared to enjoy myself.

One girl raises her hand, and you have to realize this chick is very liberal: “I think this happens all the time. It’s happened to me several times. Once I was pulled over because a cop said my license plate light was out. He told me to get out of my car so he could search it, because he smelled marijuana. I definitely had none on me, and told him he certainly did not smell any. He made me get out, leaned me over the car, cuffed me –

Prof: “Took you into an alley, pulled your pants down.”

Girl: “Um, and put me in the back of the car, and his partner, a woman, told me ‘You may as well let it happen, we’re going to do it regardless.’ While I was in the back of their car, I could see that my license plate light wasn’t out. They tore apart my car, crumpled important papers for work and everything. I couldn’t believe it. And I’m just some white girl.”

… just some white girl? Amazing.

Prof: “And I know I joke about the pants thing, but it happens. I worked in DC and it’s worst there, I think. I had boys come in and tell me these things, and they weren’t complaining, because they expect that kind of abuse, they were just telling the facts.”

A little later, another girl raises her hand and says, “But we still maintain some sort of power, I mean if we report these things, they can get in trouble. It’s what I would do.”
Liberal girl: “But there places where people can’t do that. They won’t get listened to.”

2nd Girl: “You can’t tell me there are entire populations of people who can’t go and report inappropriate behavior from police officers.”

She got laughed at.

Through the whole discussion, the prof was making racial jokes the whole time. He wasn’t being racist, mind you, but was an equal-opportunist when it came to the jokes. At one point he told a couple stories about minority lawyers getting pulled over and charged, and tearing apart the officers and departments that harassed them. Then he goes “I think minority lawyers should carry some sort of sticker on their cars. That way police can be all ‘Look! A black person! Oh shit! He’s a lawyer, back off!”

All in all, a good class.

~ Nick
Set sail from sense, bring all her young.