Aimeé
Writer Sean Trainor decided to share an experience he had as a younger person hanging out with a friend who had become a cop. He spent the night riding along in his buddy’s car, seeing how he operated while on the job.
A long time ago, when I was younger and dumber, I did a police ride-along with a high school classmate who had gone on to become a cop.
It was one of the most chilling and radicalizing nights of my life. (Thread)
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
Trainor noticed that his classmate didn’t actually have very much to do. In fact, he went out of his way to stir up trouble, checking every license plate in his database even if there was nothing about a vehicle worth checking on.
He was especially attentive to cars that looked beat up and to drivers who were not white in neighborhoods that mostly were:
My classmate was so bored that he’d punch pretty much anyone’s plate into the database. But he devoted special attention to beat-up cars or drivers who looked “out of place” — which typically meant black or brown drivers in predominantly white neighborhoods.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
These efforts were mostly fruitless, but when another cop would have a traffic stop, they’d rush over to join, looking for some “action.” That action was harassing drivers for minor infractions, which were mostly over anyway by the time they arrived:
To punctuate his boredom, my classmate would respond to other cops’ traffic stops. When he heard another cop had pulled someone over, he’d turn on his lights and tear off into the night.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
And at one point they arrived on the scene in time to participate in the harassment, and Trainor says he was horrified:
In this instance, a colleague of his had pulled over a car for some trivial reason — a broken tail light or expired registration — and then discovered that the driver was, as I recall, an ex-convict driving with an expired license.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
Not content to leave this poor guy with a warning, the officer who initiated the traffic stop asked him to step out of his car for a conversation. As they were talking, more and more bored cops rolled up, including my classmate.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
Eventually the scene came to a boil. I don’t know exactly what happened. I seem to recall the guy taking a swing at a cop or raising his voice. Regardless, he wound up face down on the curb, his hands cuffed behind his back.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
As we drove away, my classmate told me that, because this guy had violated his parole, he would likely do a multi-year stint in prison.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
The big action of the night was sending a father back to prison over an expired license after cornering him. Trainor said that this is what the system was clearly designed to do, and though he was appalled by his friend’s behavior, it wasn’t actually anywhere near outside the line of legal police action:
My classmate wasn’t an exception to his department’s rule. He wasn’t a “bad apple.” As he told it, he was doing exactly what his department expected him to do. He saw himself — in fact had been trained to see himself — as a dog protecting sheep from wolves.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
In short, nothing he did made anyone safer. He didn’t protect or defend a damn thing, except white supremacy and class domination. His entire shift had been devoted to profiling, harassing, and intimidating people.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
But, objectively, I know that nothing I could have said would have made a difference. Even if I had convinced him to quit, someone else would have done his job exactly as he had. The problem wasn’t my classmate. It was the whole rotten system designed to terrorize people.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
The cruelty isn’t an accident; it’s the point.
— Sean Trainor (@ess_trainor) June 7, 2020
A lot of people responded to Trainor’s account to share that they had witnessed many scenes exactly like this one:
you’ve never seen 5 cop cars at a traffic stop? maybe you don’t live in a small town
— i bless the rains down in castamere (@Chinchillazllla) June 8, 2020
I figure it’s more because a) it’s easier for the cops to get to a given traffic stop in five minutes, and b) they’re more bored, just like the rest of us in our small towns, hahaha.
— i bless the rains down in castamere (@Chinchillazllla) June 8, 2020
Just passed a scene exactly like this in Baltimore earlier today.
— Laura ‘Abolish Police’ Fetzig, noted bisexual (@femalehysteria_) June 9, 2020
We had been in the car for an hour, he had run at least a dozen cars and not found anything to warrant stopping someone.
— Matt Robold (@rumdood) June 8, 2020
I never thought about the mere presence of more police amping up the stress of the situation, but you’re absolutely right. I got stopped for a minor traffic violation and when a 2nd car pulled up halfway through I absolutely freaked out. Even though I knew it was nothing.
— SuperKellyFragileMysticAlyeskaDocious (@yeaitsyourmom) June 8, 2020
┏┓
┃┃╱╲ In this
┃╱╱╲╲ house
╱╱╭╮╲╲ we love
▔▏┗┛▕▔ & appreciate
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ex-cops who know ACAB
╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲
▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔— ed SNARKEY (@sarabeth2021) June 8, 2020
I know that it’s not a sexy story. No one got hurt. No one died. But it was that the OIC had felt the need to say “don’t shoot *this* black man *tonight*” was what really stuck with me.
All cops really and truly are bastards. Abolish the police.
— Attack and Dethrone God🌹 (@WesPDX86) June 8, 2020
Funny when everything clicks into place after you hear a story from inside the car.
