The Officer
By Bashar Jawad
He isn’t mad; he isn’t mean, and he definitely is not angry! But he is a racist! His name was________ and he has been working for the Albuquerque Police Department for about seven months. He stopped us at a corner right in front of a Chinese restaurant. He sat in his car for quite awhile and then came walking towards our car.
Right as he walked over, he seemed like a nice guy but I was wrong! He wasn’t! The second he looked at my mom, he made a weird face and said right away, out loud, “give me your registration and your license.” My mom was then wondering why he had pulled us over so she asked, “May I please know why you pulled me over?” He then said, “I can’t tell you why until you give me your registration and license.” My mom then said, “I have the right to ask why I was pulled over,” so he replied, “I NEED your registration and license now!” He had no manners at all!
My mom sighed and looked for her registration. She couldn’t find it because we had just got our car back from the dealership yesterday. She called my dad, who is in the Police Academy, and was currently with another officer. Immediately, my dad was on his way to us. When he arrived he solved her problem, but my mom was so angry because when the officer saw my mom with a scarf on, he acted weird and had no manners at all. Just because we are Muslim, we were treated with no manners.
Officers are not supposed to be mean to people, they are supposed to be nice and not racist! They are here to help the world when the world needs help. They should not be judging people based on religion or race. Obviously, this officer was. They should just focus on their job and not on people’s race. Being a police officer is all about helping the city to become a better and SAFER place, not a meaner and more racist place. If this officer had better manners, this would not have been such a big problem.
He had no right to talk to my mom in an impolite way just because he is a police officer. Also, he threatened my mom that he had the right to tow our car, which had nothing to do with the subject. He stopped my mom for no reason because he said that our break light wasn’t working. But when he pulled us over, apparently, he said it started to work again magically and of course he didn’t tell us that until he gave us the tickets. He ended up giving us two tickets but that didn’t matter, all that mattered was that this officer didn’t have a thing called RESPECT!
photo credit: Elvert Barnes