Devin Sandiford

And finally the officer comes back and he hands me my license and registration and he says, you're good to go.

I just, somebody called about a suspicious person and when I saw you park your car I thought you might be trying to get away from me.

Which makes perfect sense because usually when people are trying to get away, they take their time to back their cars into a parking spot and step out slowly and wait for you.

That's how you get away.

And I know it's a complete lie.

And what strikes me in that moment is it doesn't matter if it's a lie or not.

That this police officer is in a position of power and he can say anything he wants and I can only just sit there and take it.

And I'm so ashamed that I just sit there, and I don't fight back, and I don't resist, but I also don't want to end up dead.

And as I'm sitting there, I think about my uncle, and I visualize what I've always thought about, even not knowing the story, that his face is face down on the ground, dead somewhere.

And I just say, whatever, I gotta get back into the hotel and just let go of this.

And as I'm walking away, he looks, the police officer looks at me and says, you know, you have that nutter butter in there.

It looked like you had a really great dinner.

And this really throws me off because he laughs to himself and I'm like, this was a joke to him and this is not a joke to me.

And I walk inside the hotel and all the people who know me from the days before, they're like, oh my goodness, I can't believe that happened to you.

Like, are you okay?

Like, can we report this?

Like, what should we do?

And I tell them, no, I don't want to report it.

I just want to get to my room and I want to get in my bed and hide and pretend like this never happened.

And so that's what I do for my whole life.