How many FBI agents does it take?
Last month, I visited friends in Washington, D.C. One afternoon, I noticed three unmarked vehicles with flashing blue lights stopped in front of the house. I went outside to join my host who had been gardening and was now watching. Two DC police, plus two men in tactical gear with “U.S. Government” on their jackets and two women with “FBI” jackets all stood near their vehicles. I began videoing.
My friends own their house. They also own a house two doors down, which they rent to a woman and her family. In front of the rental, the police had seen a young Black man and woman seated in a parked car with the engine running. The police checked, and the license plate was expired. When they checked the drivers’ license, it too was expired. The police told the young man to get out of his car. They handcuffed him. The man said that he had been sitting and talking with the engine running because it was cold. The police said that counts as driving. They were going to arrest him and take him in.
The renter came out and asked what the problem was. My friend joined her at the curb. The renter identified the car as her family’s and the man as her son. The police told her the plates and his license were expired. The mom called her lawyer and began to explain the situation on the phone. She and my friend wrote down the DC officers’ names and badge numbers. The police released the man and drove away.
Is there serious crime these officers could be solving? Do DC Police now investigate every parked car with the engine running, or just the ones with Black “drivers?” What would have happened to this young man if his mom, his white landlord and a white observer recording video had not been there? Is this young man’s crime truly more harmful than the many fraudsters, drug king pins and bomb throwers pardoned by Trump?
Richard Cairn
Amherst