Went to get a basket ball from my now husbands home with another friend of mine who was a white girl. I had only been to his house once or maybe twice and got lost every time I tried to find it. We circled the block about 3 times (I drove his car as to hopefully not stir up trouble) we found the house and his dad was outside waiting on us, I grabbed the ball popped the trunk, put the ball in the trunk and drove off only to get lost again. When I FINALLY found my way out on to a main road I noticed I was being followed. I got maybe a quarter mile down the road and suddenly out of nowhere I was being surrounded by undercover agents and drug force police men with k-9 dogs ( I mean the works!) Now a little back story to this is it was night time, and my now husband did live in the outskirts of a well known drug area.
When the first officer who came up to the door (gun drawn) yelled for us to put our hands up. My friend (scared out of her mind) was also confronted with an officer with a gun. They went through the whole routine and got us slowly out of the car. We had to stand away from each other and not speak. The officers immediately sent in the k-9 and took flashlights to the car. My friend an I had no idea what was going on. We were told that the car we where in had been on their watch list and when I drove around “suspiciously” they finally had a reason to pull it over.
My friend and I (still shocked) were told that we had to shake our bras and get a slight pat down (by all males!) We denied that, and they said we would have to stay until they got a warrant! Knowing that we couldn’t get to our phones and we had our friends waiting on the ball we went to get for them, we went ahead and agreed to it. They tried in every way fashion and form to find drugs in that car! Even went as far as to saying they were in the BASKETBALL! They did not want to believe our TRUE story, and treated us 100% unfairly. (In our eyes at that time) we complied with them, did everything we could possibly do to make them understand we were telling the truth. And they still talked “down” to us. Finally after finding absolutely nothing to keep us on they politely handed us our information and let us drive off with no harm done.
As we were driving we cried! We felt violated, and wronged!
When we finally got back to our friends (who expected to hear us say I was racing someone ) they immediately realized something was wrong and talked us down from our adrenaline rush.
The police were eyeballing my now husbands car because he was a black man near a highly drug trafficking area. His response to this day makes me love him even more. He didn’t complain and ag on the concern that he was being targeted.. he simply stated the fact that I DID look suspicious and they had a job to do. (In the moment I wanted him to be angry WITH me, but he had something I didn’t quiet have yet…. the heart of Jesus!) He couldn’t see it the way I saw it simply because his heart wouldn’t allow him to.
I look back now at the way everything was handled and I have to say that being surrounded with a gun in your face is very intimidating! I can understand the fear of not knowing if you’re going to make it out alive. I can also understand that as an officer you never fully know what you are stepping into when you approach someone AND compliance is so very important. What it ultimately boils down to is you’re both afraid! Add fear in an already tense situation and it can lead to some awful things. I can’t stand on either side of the fence.

I say we tear the fence up, make a fire and try to discuss together how we can get past this.

Prayer:

Lord please allow for strongholds to be broken. Show us how to see what you see. In Jesus name. – Amen