I've just received an email explaining what happened. The Police Department had just received a phone call telling them that a woman was being assaulted, had been thrown to the ground, and that people were leaving on foot...
But you know, that still doesn't make me feel better......This never happened to me in Europe. I have been stopped on the street by police and asked to show ID, and I once had a student who was a member of the Surpreme Court in Slovakia who told me that such behavior violated the Slovak Constitution.... but that was not as unnerving as having a bright light shone upon me, blinding me......No, I don't feel better.
I continue to feel that if you are a pedestrian in El Paso, Texas, you have fewer rights than everyone else....
In any case, I've sent the following email to the police...
I've been thinking about your message, and, even given the new information youhave kindly provided, No, I do not agree with you. I do not think that the officer did the right thing. It was not necessary to be so aggresive in the way he "inspected" me. His behavior was very impersonal and aggresive--as I said before, it was tantamount to assuming I was a criminal. He or she shone a very bright blinding light on me. I did not even know it was a police car when this happened. I did not know who it was, and for all I knew it was the behavior of a criminal gang. It was disconcerting. And that was completely unnecessary. It was not the most prudent or wise behavior. The officer could have spoken to me. That would be enough to prevent my anxiety. And, in any case, you cannot tell by looking and shining a spotlilght on a person what a person has done five or ten or twenty minutes ago. No, I do not agree with you that this was good or justified behavior. It was not necessary to behave in that provocative and aggressive way. It was acase of jumping to a conclusion.
I am now posting an email I have just sent to the Police Department of the City of El Paso.
File this under "Fascist America", or "Police State USA"...
The incident described below happened between 9 and 10 pm on the sunday evening before the state holiday called "Labor Day"....(not that this matters to the offensive nature of the behavior).
Monday, September 6, 2010
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to demand an apology for mis-behavior by an El Paso Police Department employee.
Every evening I walk for my health. I walk up and down Sanders Avenue. Tonight, as I walked down the street, a car approached. The car shone a very bright light (additional to the headlights) in my eyes, partially blinding and disorienting me. I was shocked and surprised.
This was unpleasant, aggressive, and rude. It was inexcusable. I was an ordinary citizen taking a walk. There was no reason to violate my peace so rudely. My peace was broken in the most aggressive and barbaric manner.
But, as the car passed me and turned, I saw that it was a police car.
As I continued down the street, once again a police car approached me. Once again a light was beamed at me—not for so long as the first time, but it was still disorienting and unpleasant.
One basic right in a democratic society is freedom of movement. Before democracy appeared, ordinary people were tied to the land and needed to get permission before they traveled. That principle of free movement was destroyed tonight by an employee of the El Paso Police Department.
If I have to be inspected by the police before I can continue a harmless and fully legal activity like walking down the street, then my democratic right of free movement has been abridged.
Another basic democratic right is the presumption of innocence. If a policeman or woman approaches me with suspicion, and beams a spotlight at me, aggressively disturbing my peaceful exercise of democratic rights, that arbitrary and disrespectful act robs me of an elementary freedom I am owed as a citizen in a democracy.
This is inexcusable, a blatant abuse, harassment, trampling on the rights of free citizens. I protest. I demand an immediate apology.
Mark J. Lovas (Ph.D.)
Note: ON the context--If You Are A Pedestrian You Do Not Have Any Rights!
In the past year, in El Paso, Texas, I have had cars try to run me over, even when I was crossing at a light. I have had cars speed by shouting obscenities at me. And, now, to the joys of being a pedestrian in El Paso, Texas, I can add: being harassed by the police....ALL UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCES THAT I NEVER HAD IN EUROPE, NEVER HAD IN "EASTERN" EUROPE!
Is America a civilized country? Is El Paso civilized? I think not.
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