Shit Just Got Real 9

There are so many times in life where someone does something wrong and then someone responds in an even wronger way and then the next thing you know all hell breaks loose. How can something turn from a traffic stop to a mother with a minivan full of kids being shot at and the mother and her 14 year old son under investigation? Easily apparently.

The mother Orianna Ferrell got into it with a state officer in New Mexico after she was pulled over for speeding. She was doing 71 in a 55 mph zone. The cop told her “I'll be right back, go ahead and turn the vehicle off for me.” So when the cop heads back to his vehicle she decided “Ain't nobody got time for that!” and sped off. Why? I don't know yet. But it was a bad idea. So he catches up to her again and starts yelling at her ass. “Get out of the vehicle! Get out of the vehicle right now!”

At this point the cop is over her bullshit and tries to yank her out the car. Now, you can say he is wrong for this but as a fan of equality they would've yanked a grown ass man out the car as well. Her 14 year old son decides its time to save the day until the cop pulls a taser out.

“You're already facing evading charges right now, you ran away from me OK?” the cop said to her. She said “Sir, I pulled back over. I didn't run away. You see my children, I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm just trying to take them to the Rio Grande.” She gets out of the car and starts talking to the cop and then she tries to hop right back in. The cop tries to pull her right back out and her son tries to get at the cop. The boy then jumps back in the car and the cop starts smashing the car window in.

Ferrell drives off once again and a cop starts firing rounds at her car. Yes. The car that is full of children. So after a four minute high speed chase where mom drove on the opposite side of the road she finally pulled over at a hotel and gave up where she and her son were arrested. The mom was charged with fleeing police, child abuse, and a misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia and her son with battery of an officer. Stories say that the family is from Tennessee and were on an “educational road trip.” Oh, I'm sure they learned quite a bit that day.

Now. This is in the news mostly for the fact that this is a Black family. I can say that. It didn't take the death of Trayvon Martin to let people know that the police can be real assholes. Cops do crazy shit all the time. As rapper Macklemore says in his song A Wake “Now every month there is a new Rodney on Youtube. It's just something our generation is used to.” If you are Black chances are you've been fucked with by the police for no reason. I had guns pulled on me but thankfully I was not shot at. Speaking of which...

What does that do?! Let's say for funsies that there weren't any children in the car. This isn't an 80's action flick where you shoot a car enough times and it explodes. I assume that if a cop pulls out their gun that they are going to fire it. I believe they assume the same thing. The cop that called for backup probably just said (there's video of all this by the way) “Help! Request backup! High speed chase! Blackers!” when he should've said “Female driver with multiple adolescents fleeing scene! Request backup!” So cowboy cop shows up all “I'll handle it!” and starts shooting at the car like some kinda Charles Bronson asshole.

Of course there have been no charges pressed against the cops because, well, you know the rules. Should the cop have fired his weapon? No. Should Ferrell have fled the scene twice? Fuck no! Especially with a car full of kids. Both the cops and the mother made stupid decisions where multiple lives were put in danger. These kids were at the mercy of adults who are very bad at decision making. I wonder why she fled the scene? Why was the cop shooting at a car going in the opposite direction of him? Lots of unanswered questions.

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