Police and Corruption

[Iron]

Yesterday, while traveling with a friend in the night we were stopped by a police operation.
Here in Rio de Janeiro, such police operations, called blitz , are very common.

Well, one of the cops comands us to stop at gunpoint.
With a 9mn handgun pointed at me he orders me to step down of the car.
I comply, and so does my friend. He does a search on me, my friend and starts searching the car.

This friend of mine, for my surprise, had a bottle of vodka stashed in the car.
The policemen with the handgun says that will drag us to jail for driving drunk.
None of us had consumed any alcohol or were driving fast. But anyway, the officer and my friend started to argue. My friend showed no fear so the policemen tactic was to accuse us of wanting to buy drugs.

Now the Orweillian part : their basis for the suspicion? I was travelling on the back seat and I am black.
No speculation on my part, they stated this.

They started speaking to us like we were two criminals that they were going to "set us straight", pointing guns at us, me and my friend remained calm, and talked our way out.

In the end one of the officers "advised" me to no travel on the back seat, leaving the caroneer seat vacant anymore, or the car could be shot down without warning.

Not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this post, if not I ask to the moderators in charge to correct my mistake.

 

[abbyjo]

Jedi, this is very weird indeed and i can imagine your being very rattled.

I have had many such encounters, none involving a weapon being pointed at me!!!!!! I do however, live in the United States, not that it should make a difference. May I ask where you were located when this occurred? In Rio?

Calm seems to be the key to getting out of it. I never ever have any booze in the car unless it is wine in a grocery bag. [reference to illicit substance deleted]

I do not give people rides unless I know them very well personally. I always plan my trips ahead of time, do it as fast as I can and if I am feeling "lost" in any sense of that word, I head over to the nearest coffee shop to regroup. I use GPS. Take this FWIW, I've been driving in California since 1978. There were many other unprovoked encounters with police, not involving cars...if you want to email me privately, I'd be happy to share honest details and compare notes. Be vigilant!

Peace,

abbyjo

 

[shijing]

Hi abbyjo --

Please refrain from referring to any illegal substances on the forum. I think this has been mentioned already, so I just wanted to remind you of this part of the forum rules:

Two: Please don't post messages about your illegal pastimes and habits. Cassiopaea.org does not wish to appear to condone such practices, for reasons that should be pretty obvious if a little common sense is applied. If you do post such stuff, expect it to be deleted immediately. It is also inadvisible to post about illegal pastimes from yesteryear, drug use for example, (unless you are disavowing all such usage). The reason is that by doing so you run the risk of attracting lurker "drug buddies", which you probably don't want to do.

Although I know you were mentioning this with the intention of giving Iron helpful advice, we really do want to avoid all references (both direct and indirect) for the reasons stated above as well as for those involving liability.

 

[Iron]

What I failed to mention in the first post, now re-reading it, was that the officers were throwing accusations around with the purpose of getting us scared, and with us scared coerce us for money.
A very common practice.

I was very surprised when the officer found alcohol stashed in the back seat. A lack of perception on my part I suppose.

 

[anart]

if you want to email me privately, I'd be happy to share honest details and compare notes. Be vigilant!

Just another reminder to please not encourage people to 'email you privately' - as it is not a good idea. Discussions should occur on the public forum, for everyone's protection.

 

[Iron]

I want to stress in the case that its not clear, that I do not use illegal substances.
There is enough prejudice aimed to me without me doing such practices.

 

[Al Today]

Iron, I wish there was something of wisdom I could say,,, but alas I have nothing. I do feel extreme guilt for living in an area where the police are not quite as flagrantly corrupt as yours. I think it's coming here though. That it's only a matter of time until corruption where I live grows to a point where the corrupt no longer have fear of reprisal. This BBM does seem to be going to Hell.