by 
Saturday Night at 42nd and Central in South Central LA with Mobile Justice.
A couple of weeks ago while wrapping up a storytelling event me and two sisters saw someone being pulled over by the cops so we walked down to the corner to watch. Not to be nosy, but to be vigilant of their behavior.W e made sure to record and stand in the open within their eye shot so that they could see that we were watching and recording.
In the times we live in you can never be too trusting that police will do their jobs without violating citizens. We don’t know what they pulled the brother over for. We did see that his drivers side door was inoperable so he had to get out of the car from the passenger side. I doubt if it was for the door though. They likely ran the plates and something came back. I bet he wasn’t even speeding. He likely fit a profile. He was just Black in South Central.
What bothered me was that they handcuffed him. He had done nothing to warrant being cuffed. He was complying. They cuffed him and made him stand facing a building instead of being able to see what they were doing. Another cop car arrived and at that moment I was like “Forreal? 4 cops for one man?!” They searched his trunk, found nothing, uncuffed him and handed him a ticket.
The brother was shook because as soon as he was able to drive away he drove all of 100 feet and turned into a car wash. He also parked, got out and walked to the side walk. Surveying and talking on him phone. He never washed the car.
I also learned of an app called Mobile Justice that allows you to record the police and send the video to your nearest ACLU office. The purpose of the app is to Record, Report and Witness. The app can be downloaded for about 20 states in your app store or at https://www.aclu.org/feature/aclu-apps-record-police-conduct
So the question is: Is it protocol to handcuff someone without just cause?
by