LAPD officers will begin wearing body cameras next Monday

I can only speak for myself:

over the past 33 years, I've had thousands maybe even millions of interactions with white and black people. I've been insulted, but I've never been violated or abused. (knocks on wood)

In the past 7 years, I've been pulled over 4 times, and was a passenger a 5th time:

first time: as a passenger, two cops demanded me to step out so they could search me. two more came by and watched. no tickets.

second time: I got a ticket for driving my dad's car that had expired inspection stickers. Maybe this is worth noting. I'm mixed race and drove the car for about 3 minutes before I was ticketed, and my dad is white and apparently he had been driving around for 2 months without getting a ticket. Anyhow he was pleasant.

third and fourth times (back to back days): Pulled over because the windshield had just been replaced and there were no stickers, provided the old stickers on the old piece of glass, registration, and license. Officer comes back and says, "Everything looks good. Please step outside of the vehicle so we can search your car." I was threatened with resisting and obstruction if I did not comply. each time there were 5 other officers watching this happen. No tickets.

the very next day I was pulled over again for the stickers. I was pulled over by a black officer that let me go within 2 minutes.

A year ago I was walking on the sidewalk, and accidentally walked into an open area of a sidewalk that was restricted. A white state trooper immediately got aggressive and yelled, "Why the FUCK are you on MY sidewalk?!" put his hand on his gun and his other hand on my chest and yelled at me to get of of his sidewalk. He said, "if I see you again I will take you down!" since then they have extended the barricades make it clearly off-limits.

I've encountered 19 officers in the past 7 years and all but two of them abused their authority or ignored other officers who were violating my rights as an american citizen.

Is it really irrational for me to fear police?

/r/news Thread Parent Link - latimes.com