Devin Sandiford

I've never had any traffic tickets.

I come from a really religious family, so I actually have never had alcohol, even though I'm 21 years old.

So I'm like, I don't know what's going on.

Before I can process this, I see the lights of another car coming in, and it's another police car, and it pulls up behind me, and it's shining its lights on me, and another officer gets out.

And finally the first officer comes back and he's asking me all these questions.

He wants to know where am I coming from and what am I doing here?

And then he asked me if he can search my car.

And I pause for a second because I know my rights and I know I can tell him no, but as a black person, I also know that that could make me look more suspicious that I'm hiding something.

I'm not hiding anything.

So I tell him, sure, you can search my car.

And he begins to search my car and he looks all the way through with his flashlight.

And when he finishes, he asked me if he can search my trunk.

And I think to myself, no, like don't search my trunk.

Like I haven't done anything.

And as I'm thinking this, I see another police car pull up and now there's four police cars and six officers all surrounding me as I'm sitting on the curb and I feel like the scum of the earth.

And I tell him he can search the trunk and he searches through the trunk and he eventually goes back to his police car and I'm just sitting there and I'm so frustrated because I had been doing everything I was supposed to be doing in my life.

I was double majoring in biomedical and electrical engineering.

I was working 35 hours a week to put myself through school.

And I was even thinking about my parents' money and easing their minds to not have to do these long drives.

And still I'm sitting here on the curb surrounded by cops like I'm a criminal.