I have a story to tell now, because I NOW realize it wasn’t all that funny, AT ALL.
When I was in graduate school, a friend and I decided to drive from NYC to Miami to visit his girlfriend, so since we had little money we went for a drive away car through an agency. We picked up the car, only 100 miles on it and delivered it eventually to a rich old lady in Miami.
On the way there, I was driving in SC on 95, and going about 95 when a cop popped out going the other direction, and he immediately went into the wide grass divider and came up behind me lights blazing. He came to the car and told me to come out and get in his car. So, we’re sitting there, him writing a ticket and suddenly he says “I would have shot your friend, I thought he had a gun”. I didn’t even pay attention to that statement. It was not in my reality. I looked up and my friend was in the rear window trying to take a picture with a camera. This was a black cop. I paid him cash right there, I think $80, for bail as he said. I wasn’t going to go back for court day, that’s for sure. Whatever....I was glad to be gone, although I was not left with much cash any more.
I thought it was a joke, really, but I have just realized these days the kind of situation that could develop. I guess that cop was a good one and took the time to determine there was a camera in my friend’s hands.
Decades later, I now have full picture of that day.
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