This bothers me a lot. And I don't know why.

I know why it bothers me...it's not right. I would be terrified to be in that position and have no Earthly idea why in the world it was happening to me. It would take everything in my power to keep me from bolting, truth be told. I'd be wondering what in God's name they were going to do next for no reason whatsoever.

Ugh, that's awful.

When my youngest was about four, I got pulled over for speeding. It was in a construction zone, at the bottom of a hill and I was in the process of slowing down but I didn't do it fast enough. It was happened right after Florida changed the rules about speeding in road construction areas and they were heavily enforcing those new rules.

Anyway, this ginormous police man pulled us over. I have a big SUV, and he was looking down on us, so you know he was HUGE. He had on mirrored sunglasses, a stony face and a not all that compassionate demeanor. My son, who was in the back in his car seat was terrified. Where on earth he got the idea that he should be scared, I have no clue, but he started crying immediately. As I rolled down the window to do what the police officer said, my started crying harder begging "please don't take my mommy to jail" (again, where did that come from?? I have had zero interaction with any one in uniform.) He was crying so hard, I wanted to get out of the car to check on him, but the policeman wouldn't let me. He never once tried to do the Officer Friendly thing, and kept frowning at my son-who was all but hysterical.

I didn't get a ticket, but did get a long lecture-with my son crying in background and begging the policeman not to take him or me to jail. It was awful and he still remembers it today.

At least these guys apologized to the kids.

I would be seriously mad. I am glad she took this public.

I don't expect a police officer to be Officer Friendly at all times. But I would expect in the face a obviously distraught child and in a non-threatening and non-emergent situation for an officer to be a bit more ... compassionate toward a crying child who is scared of HIM. A greater lesson would have been to see that the officer was not someone to fear.

I understand your frustration. Let's assume the officer was following protocol and as you said you were in a construction area so you getting out of the vehicle was not following protocol or safe. 

I think sometimes we think of ourselves as white suburban non threatening moms but the same rules apply to us as well. 

The police departments in my area do many community outreach events during the year. Funny that one of the first posts in my Facebook page was a community event where a friend of mine took her kids to and they are sitting in police cruiser, wearing gear, silly mugshot photo's. 

I agree.

We had a snafu with our registration with a brand new car.  We traded in our old car right at the same time that the registration had been due, and it got completely messed up.   The first registration card I received was blank and there was no sticker with it.   So we were without the proper sticker for that license plate for awhile while I tried to figure out what was going on.  Eventually I had to pay all over again, the sticker finally arrived, and then out of nowhere I received a refund.   

Anyway, one day at a stop sign, a police car was stopped behind us, and I said to DH "Great, we have no current sticker and an officer is behind us."

And he absolutely did stop us.  And DS got so nervous.  And I didn't know why at first, but later it dawned on me that when we would travel, if we saw an officer pulling someone over we would joke around saying that the person must have been speeding and now they were in "big trouble".  DS would laugh and we'd remind him that it was important to follow the rules when you drive.

So now all of a sudden we were being pulled over and the poor kid wasn't laughing.   

But when I turned my head to tell DS that it was okay (DH was trying to explain the mess to the officer.) the officer immediately stuck his head in the back window and said "hey buddy!  It's fine.  I just need to talk to your Dad about a sticker he needs for his car.  It's missing and we need to find it.  Everything's okay."  And DS noticeably calmed down once he knew that no one was in "big trouble". 

And we obviously learned from our mistake and were much more careful about joking about that kind of thing.

As a white woman who raised both a white & black boy the same ages I can tell you that in Texas that racism is truly alive & going strong! This happened not far from me, Forney is a Podunk little town, not at all saying that those officers are racist. I can tell you that my 2 boys experienced racial profiling often in the "white bread" town we live in. My boys would get pulled over driving bc there was 1 white boy, 1 black boy in a nice, new truck & the police wanted it make sure they weren't committing any crimes in it, you know, like burglary. These 2 boys were star football players, one was in the theatre, both had great grades, well liked in the community etc but as far as the police were concerned if there were a white boy & a black boy in the vehicle they had to be up to no good. The boys are now men, 26 & still get treated the same in our community. They both are university graduates with good jobs. Racism is everywhere in the world.

delila

I saw this story last night and it still pisses me off. I realize law enforcement agencies are probably feeling some extra pressure right now but it is evident there are some police officers that need some further training. Or better yet, get off the force (thinking of the OKC police officer who was just arrested for multiple rapes).

Yes seriously. It was a serious question. I'm thinking about when I drive on the highway at night (which they were because they mentioned an exit) and when I'm behind a car in the dark  (which the police were) I can not tell what color people are. Maybe you can when you are driving beside them, but if you're behind them you might be able to tell some are kids based on the height, but color? Maybe it's because I'm not ever looking for it or thinking about it. I would love to hear what the cops had to say about it after.