Those Crafty Police
On occasion, I'll go hiking with Shab at a looped trail at Oakland's Redwood Regional Park. It has lots of creeks and trees and the trails are pretty lightly travelled. Mostly dog owners. Every time I go, I bring my Kali sticks and practice twirling, defenses, and strikes. I've been doing it for about a year. Once, we even passed some park rangers riding on horseback while I was practicing while walking with Shab. They seemed pretty cool.
Today, after the 40 minute hike, when I get back to my car, there's a police truck parked behind my car. I didn't think much of it, so I packed my sticks and Shab and I got in. One of the officers then gets out and tells me that my registration appears to be expired. I show him my temporary certificate, proof of insurance, and receipt of payment and tell him that I'm waiting for my sticker to arrive. Then, he asks me what's in my bag, and I tell him that I practice martial arts, and I use my sticks on the trail. What's funny is that Gura accidentally smacked me in the eye on Thursday so I had a scar and a black eye while I'm explaining this to the officer. Anyway, he asks for my license and politely tells me that he's giving me a warning, as opposed to a citation for having the sticks.
Apparently the officer knew that I was there and knew which car was mine, so I'm thinking it's pretty safe to assume that someone felt threatened, or irritated enough by my "trail practice" to call the cops. It's not like I can't pick up a stick while I'm on the trail and do the exact same thing, so why would someone even bother to have them waste their time telling me to not have a stick on a trail. Then Shab brought something up to me that I hadn't noticed. I was the only black person there. It kind of put things in perspective.
Oh well, another day, another brush with an officer. It used to be a more regular occurence, until the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a front page article on Officer's harrassing mixed race couples a couple of years ago. Then it stopped. Oddly enough, that article came out a few weeks after I explained my fourth incident at Moluv. Maybe that site is still good for something other than cool web sites.
Today, after the 40 minute hike, when I get back to my car, there's a police truck parked behind my car. I didn't think much of it, so I packed my sticks and Shab and I got in. One of the officers then gets out and tells me that my registration appears to be expired. I show him my temporary certificate, proof of insurance, and receipt of payment and tell him that I'm waiting for my sticker to arrive. Then, he asks me what's in my bag, and I tell him that I practice martial arts, and I use my sticks on the trail. What's funny is that Gura accidentally smacked me in the eye on Thursday so I had a scar and a black eye while I'm explaining this to the officer. Anyway, he asks for my license and politely tells me that he's giving me a warning, as opposed to a citation for having the sticks.
Apparently the officer knew that I was there and knew which car was mine, so I'm thinking it's pretty safe to assume that someone felt threatened, or irritated enough by my "trail practice" to call the cops. It's not like I can't pick up a stick while I'm on the trail and do the exact same thing, so why would someone even bother to have them waste their time telling me to not have a stick on a trail. Then Shab brought something up to me that I hadn't noticed. I was the only black person there. It kind of put things in perspective.
Oh well, another day, another brush with an officer. It used to be a more regular occurence, until the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a front page article on Officer's harrassing mixed race couples a couple of years ago. Then it stopped. Oddly enough, that article came out a few weeks after I explained my fourth incident at Moluv. Maybe that site is still good for something other than cool web sites.
posted by moluv at 9:34 PM
1 Comments:
that's stupid. crazy police.
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