Bad cop story. One time I was driving with friends in the car. We were all probably about 17 or 18 years old. We are coming up to a red light when one of us was like “hey let’s get snacks!” Because it was like 10 PM there was like nobody around, so I throw my car in reverse to back up and get in the turning lane to stop at the gas station. Admittedly a bit of a dumb traffic maneuver, but only because someone could have flown up behind us speeding while we were backing up… which the cop did, before he pulled us over for an unsafe lane change.

Anyway it all was fine at first like obviously we are uncomfortable, and I’m worried that I’m going to get a ticket, but the cop was respectful enough when he asked for my license and registration and told me why I was pulled over. Anyway, my car was a mess as I was kind of a slob about it at the time, so I told him it would maybe take me a minute to find my documents, and could I please look through the glove box, like. I expressly told him that I was going to be doing that, so that he wouldn’t be alarmed thinking I was going to grab a weapon or something. So he said that’s fine and went back to his car.

Anyway, as I’m looking around for my documents, I guess “backup” arrived, and it was this young cop who decided to approach the car. Without me even being aware of this, he saw me going through the glovebox and went full cop mode “PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE CEILING!!” to me and my dumb teen friends. Obviously I do, and I look over, and the dude has his GUN drawn, pointed right at me. Holy shit.

Now this was a long time ago, and so I wasn’t aware then of the huge issue of police escalation/brutality/violence like I am today, and also I was a white boy in the suburbs, so it wasn’t something I’d really thought about, but seeing a gun drawn at my face two feet away was pretty scary. Anyway, the situation resolved when the first cop saw this and pretty much was like “woah dude what the hell are you doing??” and called him off. I didn’t get a ticket or anything. But my friends and I were all pretty shook up. I’m pretty sure we all just went home after that. This was like 12 years ago now, I’m almost 30 today, but it’s still crazy to think about, especially knowing what I know now. Like how if I’d happened to be a black kid in that same situation, I very well could have been killed in my little suburban hometown. And I always think about it when I see people saying “just comply and everything will be fine” because of how I clearly explained to the cop what I was doing, and STILL had a weapon drawn on me.