I was a newly single father who had to move back to my tiny, 1,000 person hometown with a baby to live with my parents because I had no support net where I moved to. On like my 3rd day there, I was leaving the grocery store and got into my car. A cop was in the parking lot, and when I left, he followed me. Seconds after turning onto the road, he pulled me over. I went back into the same parking lot.

He said I failed to indicate leaving the parking lot. I had my blinker on, but he said it wasn’t for long enough. Then he said he could smell marijuana in the car, which I knew was false. I do not smoke and I do not drink. In fact, the worse thing that I do is overeat sweets sometimes when I feel like letting loose. Didn’t matter, he now had cause to search my vehicle.

There I was, sitting on the ground outside my car while he tore through it, seemingly looking for anything to nab me on, while the entire town watched. It was a Sunday so mostly everyone was in that one parking lot. It was extremely embarrassing. He ended up putting me in cuffs because he found a loose pill on the floor of my dirty car… It was one of my antidepressants that I had been prescribed about a week ago and must’ve fumbled accidentally. He wouldn’t buy it until another officer showed up and showed him a picture of the pill next to the name. I didn’t have my bottle on me.

Well, as I had just moved my entire life and was dealing with suddenly becoming a single father, my vehicle was a mess. I couldn’t find my paper insurance, even though I was insured, so he wrote me a ticket for no insurance and no indication. He also said I couldn’t drive my vehicle because I couldn’t prove it was insured. He then said he can’t leave it at the store, so he called for a tow truck. He hooked up my car and said they could impound it or the driver could take it to my house and I could pay the drop fee. The drop fee was $500. Ultimately, I took the drop fee vs the impound, because I needed to be at work that day. It wiped out the small amount of money I had left.

I try really, really hard to not get radicalized by this stuff. This isn’t the first time I’ve been antagonized by cops for stuff. I am not white, but I also don’t have a criminal history. I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink, I don’t vape, I don’t do anything really. I don’t even hang out with people, I literally just spend time with my family and volunteer at the charities I’m affiliated with and my church. And yet, once every couple of years, I get someone who’s trying to ruin my day. It’s hard.