"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Judah wrote:

When was the last time you were stopped on the street for no apparent
reason and asked to produce your ID card under threat of being thrown in
prison without due process if you happened to forget it at home that
day?

Atlanta, Georgia, 1973.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to
have
been looking for it.

An aggressive cop stopped me in my quiet neighborhood a few months ago and
demanded ID. I was taking a late night walk in sweat pants to burn off a
few calories. I told him I didn't have any ID and was in my own
neighborhood not bothering anybody and unaccustomed to being accosted by an
officer pulling his cruiser over into my path, blocking me. Then did he
ever become hostile and told me to take my hands out of my pockets. I did
as he said until they became cold and back into my pockets they went. This
time he threatened me with handcuffs and jail, and then he went off the
charts when my hands went back into their pockets. "Take them out!" he
snapped.

"No, I won't," I said, as I turned my pockets inside out to show him there
was nothing in them "and if you arrest me you'd better have a damn good
reason in law for it." He began to reach for me as if to grab my arm and I
quickly stepped back, pulling away from him. "Now you've assaulted me," I
said. "I have lived here in this town for the better part of two decades,"
I said firmly, "and this is the first time in my experience I have been
menaced by a law officer."

"I am NOT 'mentacing' you," he says.

He was so taken aback he went completely silent for a moment, then said,
"OK, move along then." Which I did, almost leaving in a trot. Off he went
in the other direction spinning his wheels and screeching his tires.