Your experiences resonate with me. Not law enforcement. Former Marine. Samer deal though. I used to live down south. Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas... I feel you.
While reading this, I flashed back to December 1983, on a Sunday night (10 pm-ish) driving from my future mom-in-law's home to my apartment in Irving, Texas. I had spent the day with my fiancé and his folks, while doing my laundry for free. My car still had Connecticut license plates, as I had been in Texas for 3 weeks, busy securing a job and renting my apartment.
I was pulled over by a cop with lights flashing and siren blasting. It was so dark (no streetlights) I didn't even know he was behind me until I heard the siren. I knew I wasn't speeding, nor were my taillights/brake lights out. I had been warned by my fiancé that Texas cops were NOT like Connecticut cops. So, 21-year-old me was scared when he strutted up to my open window.
He demanded my license and registration. After he took those items from me, he demanded to know why I was out "so late." Before I could answer that question, he demanded to know where I was coming from and where I was going. He was so intimidating and I was so flustered being on a very lonely stretch of road with no streetlights and no other cars around. I was genuinely afraid for my physical safety. He kept my "papers" and continued to aggressively ask personal questions that I knew I shouldn't answer.
He was the quintessential Texas police officer, huge beer gut, with a self-important swagger, and mean, gruff voice. Finally, I asked him why he had stopped me, as I knew I wasn't over the speed limit. He refused to answer me and shot back, with "what were you doing at your fiancé's house? Since my clean laundry was folded in 2 baskets in the back seat, I told him I was doing my laundry. He then pulled out his flashlight and shined it in every window in my car by walking a circle around my car. I must tell you at this point that he is white and I am white, but I'm also female. Apparently, being female in Connecticut does not equal being female in Texas.
I began to doubt that he really was a police officer. Perhaps he's a crazed lunatic dressed up like a cop so he can pull over young women and rape them. I'm serious here. Why did he shine his flashlight in my car and walk all the way around it? Cops can't ask, "where are you coming from or where are you going," can they?
I think he was satisfied with scaring me to death (I'm in tears) and walked back to his car to sit in the driver's seat for at least 10 minutes. Not a single car had passed us during this whole time. I made my mind up that if I saw a car's headlights coming toward me, I was going to jump out of my car and try to flag the car down.
He finally came back to my window and handed me my license and registration. I couldn't roll my window up fast enough. So, a fucking asshole cop in Texas got his jollies off by terrifying a young woman in an unfamiliar environment JUST BECAUSE HE COULD. In 1983, females in Texas were regarded as just a notch below a cowboy's horse and it was a hard lesson to learn.
Thank you for sharing your story. I could feel my heart rate rising in sympathy with your terror. When I was a grad student intern at the Dow chemical plant in Freeport, TX in 1995, our multi-ethnic group had a long weekend and we decided to drive to NO. Nothing happened to us on that drive, but a local white male employee who worked with us warned us to have our Dow badges and student IDs with us. He said if we were pulled over anywhere along the way, we should make sure to let the officer know that we would be missed.
Your experiences are so very troubling. They also give a foundation for the evidence of malfeasance of the federal agencies.
I’ve never had that experience; I’m white, pass for a guy most of the time (especially when using the women’s restroom, but I digress). I can say that in 26.5 years of patrolling a large Oregon county, I NEVER made a race-based stop.
I do think that what is happening in Minnesota is 10 fold worse than anything I’ve seen from “normal” cops. It is a disgrace and a disaster.
And Vance has the audacity to go to Minneapolis and blame local police for the tension there because they should be cooperating with ICE. This madness has been unleashed and it's going to be very difficult to put a lid on it. Still, we must push forward and keep pushing back.
I’m so sorry. I’m so sad. I’m so disgusted. I just… I just cannot comprehend it all. We are the arts, the sciences, the compassion and kindness and then we are the cruelty and meanness and hatred. And we are all literally all Homo sapiens. All I do is cry. Every day. I give lots of money, I work with shelter animals and I see kindness in people every single day and it’s not enough.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and as a law enforcement officer. Am a 68-year old white woman and will never be able to have the same experiences as yourself or a woman of color. Have throughout the years been appalled at the bigotry, racism that is at the rot of this country. In the capacity of my professional life expressed that was protective of all that I had the sheer privilege to work with and are life long friends. What is occurring now even so prevalent makes me physically ill, the nausea sticks in the throat.
When PM Mark Carney went on in his speech in Davos about this:
“Havel called this ‘living within a lie’. The system's power comes not from its truth, but from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true, and its fragility comes from the same source. When even one person stops performing, when the greengrocer removes his sign, the illusion begins to crack. Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.”
As the world order removes their signs the American people need to remove their own.
Many have, we know what we see, hear and feel and are out in protest, writing our Republican elected officials to speak the truth. It’s sad to say that they will not have the courage to do so. They will remain in the rot of their own racism and bigotry.
As Carney said, “The powerful have their power.
But we have something too – the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.”
My sign as per PM Carney remarked has been removed when I was 8 years of age when watching a black & white television seeing MLK Jr. with a large group of people kneeling and praying instead of crossing a bridge after witnessing Bloody Sunday on television.
The American people will have to decide whether we all will deal with the deep roots of bigotry or not. Am humbled by your sharing of your experiences and expertise. Thank you.
Thank you and sorry so many of our fellow Americans treat others in such a deplorable manner. I grew up in small town Indiana and saw and heard horrifying stories. This is a reckoning for all the past sins of this country. In my opinion, it has been a slowly simmering civil war for years. Will this escalation boil over? There must be full accountability - there must be truth and reconciliation. Surprisingly Mark Carney, PM of Canada, voiced it before our leaders by applying a lesson from Vaclav Havel:
"We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim."
“If it’s happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim… It has to stop”
Someone I deeply respect calls what’s happening “daily acts of conscious cruelty.” It’s hard to know what to say anymore. The pain, despair, disgust, fear, and more sit in my gut like a boulder. I try constantly to keep my hope above water. Truth-tellers like you are making it easier, even when your posts are hard to read. Truth is immensely important right now, as is integrity. Thank you for your continued hard work.
Subscribe for Free Democracy Lantern PSAs—right at grandparents’ fingertips! 🧓📲🕯️ We boost indie media + pro-democracy candidate posts by replying with truth-tuned poems. Boosting our comments so TRUTH can grow! 🌱
The accountability gap is the real issue here. Masked agents with no badges basicaly leaves victims with zero recourse, and that's by design. I've seen how fast trust evaporates when law enforcement operates without transparancy. The fact that off-duty cops are getting boxed in just for driving while looking a certain way shows how deeply this goes beyond any legitimate enforcement purpose.
I appreciate all the research, reporting, and personal experience that you put into this ! Thank you.
Your experiences resonate with me. Not law enforcement. Former Marine. Samer deal though. I used to live down south. Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas... I feel you.
While reading this, I flashed back to December 1983, on a Sunday night (10 pm-ish) driving from my future mom-in-law's home to my apartment in Irving, Texas. I had spent the day with my fiancé and his folks, while doing my laundry for free. My car still had Connecticut license plates, as I had been in Texas for 3 weeks, busy securing a job and renting my apartment.
I was pulled over by a cop with lights flashing and siren blasting. It was so dark (no streetlights) I didn't even know he was behind me until I heard the siren. I knew I wasn't speeding, nor were my taillights/brake lights out. I had been warned by my fiancé that Texas cops were NOT like Connecticut cops. So, 21-year-old me was scared when he strutted up to my open window.
He demanded my license and registration. After he took those items from me, he demanded to know why I was out "so late." Before I could answer that question, he demanded to know where I was coming from and where I was going. He was so intimidating and I was so flustered being on a very lonely stretch of road with no streetlights and no other cars around. I was genuinely afraid for my physical safety. He kept my "papers" and continued to aggressively ask personal questions that I knew I shouldn't answer.
He was the quintessential Texas police officer, huge beer gut, with a self-important swagger, and mean, gruff voice. Finally, I asked him why he had stopped me, as I knew I wasn't over the speed limit. He refused to answer me and shot back, with "what were you doing at your fiancé's house? Since my clean laundry was folded in 2 baskets in the back seat, I told him I was doing my laundry. He then pulled out his flashlight and shined it in every window in my car by walking a circle around my car. I must tell you at this point that he is white and I am white, but I'm also female. Apparently, being female in Connecticut does not equal being female in Texas.
I began to doubt that he really was a police officer. Perhaps he's a crazed lunatic dressed up like a cop so he can pull over young women and rape them. I'm serious here. Why did he shine his flashlight in my car and walk all the way around it? Cops can't ask, "where are you coming from or where are you going," can they?
I think he was satisfied with scaring me to death (I'm in tears) and walked back to his car to sit in the driver's seat for at least 10 minutes. Not a single car had passed us during this whole time. I made my mind up that if I saw a car's headlights coming toward me, I was going to jump out of my car and try to flag the car down.
He finally came back to my window and handed me my license and registration. I couldn't roll my window up fast enough. So, a fucking asshole cop in Texas got his jollies off by terrifying a young woman in an unfamiliar environment JUST BECAUSE HE COULD. In 1983, females in Texas were regarded as just a notch below a cowboy's horse and it was a hard lesson to learn.
Thank you for sharing your story. I could feel my heart rate rising in sympathy with your terror. When I was a grad student intern at the Dow chemical plant in Freeport, TX in 1995, our multi-ethnic group had a long weekend and we decided to drive to NO. Nothing happened to us on that drive, but a local white male employee who worked with us warned us to have our Dow badges and student IDs with us. He said if we were pulled over anywhere along the way, we should make sure to let the officer know that we would be missed.
Oh, Sarge…
Your experiences are so very troubling. They also give a foundation for the evidence of malfeasance of the federal agencies.
I’ve never had that experience; I’m white, pass for a guy most of the time (especially when using the women’s restroom, but I digress). I can say that in 26.5 years of patrolling a large Oregon county, I NEVER made a race-based stop.
I do think that what is happening in Minnesota is 10 fold worse than anything I’ve seen from “normal” cops. It is a disgrace and a disaster.
And Vance has the audacity to go to Minneapolis and blame local police for the tension there because they should be cooperating with ICE. This madness has been unleashed and it's going to be very difficult to put a lid on it. Still, we must push forward and keep pushing back.
I’m so sorry. I’m so sad. I’m so disgusted. I just… I just cannot comprehend it all. We are the arts, the sciences, the compassion and kindness and then we are the cruelty and meanness and hatred. And we are all literally all Homo sapiens. All I do is cry. Every day. I give lots of money, I work with shelter animals and I see kindness in people every single day and it’s not enough.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and as a law enforcement officer. Am a 68-year old white woman and will never be able to have the same experiences as yourself or a woman of color. Have throughout the years been appalled at the bigotry, racism that is at the rot of this country. In the capacity of my professional life expressed that was protective of all that I had the sheer privilege to work with and are life long friends. What is occurring now even so prevalent makes me physically ill, the nausea sticks in the throat.
When PM Mark Carney went on in his speech in Davos about this:
“Havel called this ‘living within a lie’. The system's power comes not from its truth, but from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true, and its fragility comes from the same source. When even one person stops performing, when the greengrocer removes his sign, the illusion begins to crack. Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.”
As the world order removes their signs the American people need to remove their own.
Many have, we know what we see, hear and feel and are out in protest, writing our Republican elected officials to speak the truth. It’s sad to say that they will not have the courage to do so. They will remain in the rot of their own racism and bigotry.
As Carney said, “The powerful have their power.
But we have something too – the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.”
My sign as per PM Carney remarked has been removed when I was 8 years of age when watching a black & white television seeing MLK Jr. with a large group of people kneeling and praying instead of crossing a bridge after witnessing Bloody Sunday on television.
The American people will have to decide whether we all will deal with the deep roots of bigotry or not. Am humbled by your sharing of your experiences and expertise. Thank you.
Thank you and sorry so many of our fellow Americans treat others in such a deplorable manner. I grew up in small town Indiana and saw and heard horrifying stories. This is a reckoning for all the past sins of this country. In my opinion, it has been a slowly simmering civil war for years. Will this escalation boil over? There must be full accountability - there must be truth and reconciliation. Surprisingly Mark Carney, PM of Canada, voiced it before our leaders by applying a lesson from Vaclav Havel:
"We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim."
“If it’s happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim… It has to stop”
Someone I deeply respect calls what’s happening “daily acts of conscious cruelty.” It’s hard to know what to say anymore. The pain, despair, disgust, fear, and more sit in my gut like a boulder. I try constantly to keep my hope above water. Truth-tellers like you are making it easier, even when your posts are hard to read. Truth is immensely important right now, as is integrity. Thank you for your continued hard work.
(📣🎁 Copy, paste, screenshot—GO! 🕯️ Boost your comments so TRUTH can grow! 🌱)
🕯️🇺🇸🫱🏼🫲🏾🙏🏼 We Keep the Light On
When morning comes with frosty hues,
We tell the tale that someone knew.
A nurse who healed, a friend who cared,
In darkest hour, he simply was there.
No anthem bold, no shouting cheer—
Just calm resolve to stand right here.
He reached to help, to raise a hand;
That’s love, not fear, that shapes this land.
Some say “He threatened”—so they claim,
But eyewitness and video frame
Show only truth in moments passed,
Not wild tales told to win headlines.
They gather where snow lays deep,
Holding lanterns while others sleep.
They speak his name with reverent breath,
Not letting lies define his death.
“Why must we mourn?” a mother cries—
Because too many truths are disguised.
We keep the light on in memory’s place,
So justice’s flame will not erase.
We march in peace on snowy streets,
Not for vengeance, but what peace meets.
Calls for accountability spread—
For every tear, for every thread.
We tell the world what he truly was,
A healer first, with no applause.
A nurse, a neighbor, a caring soul,
Who stood for others as his goal.
When critics speak with hardened tongue,
We share the truth with every rung.
For history remembers those who stand
With facts and love across this land.
So lanterns glow now every night,
Not just in darkness, but in right.
And every voice that chants his name
Adds fuel to that glowing flame.
Because freedom grows where truth is heard,
Not silenced by a narrative blurred.
And we keep the light on—steady, strong—
To honor what he stood for all along. 🕯️🇺🇸🫱🏼🫲🏾🙏🏼
#ResharingBrigade #GrandparentsForTruth #IndieMedia #ProDemocracy #SupportUkraine #SupportPalestine #SupportAfghanVets #PeoplePoweredPolicies
____________________________________________
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(Free to share (noncommercial) Optional credit: Clarissa Sr. - substack.com/@clarissasr@473548) 📣🇺🇸🕯️
Canada has a Mark Carney - WE have a trump!
What a comparison.
Thank you for this. Policing has turned towards military operations rather than a public service.
https://aaronhall0.substack.com/p/stolen-valor-in-urban-policing?r=lmr8g&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
The accountability gap is the real issue here. Masked agents with no badges basicaly leaves victims with zero recourse, and that's by design. I've seen how fast trust evaporates when law enforcement operates without transparancy. The fact that off-duty cops are getting boxed in just for driving while looking a certain way shows how deeply this goes beyond any legitimate enforcement purpose.
The optics of professional police are fading.
https://open.substack.com/pub/aaronhall0/p/stolen-valor-in-urban-policing?r=lmr8g&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
[NYT 1/22/26] Jack Smith: "if we do not hold the most powerful people in our society to the standards of the rule of the law, it can be catastrophic”
Resist MAGA gangster authoritarianism! Vote Sane #VoteBlue!
Thank you for all your links and cited resources. Very informative.