I just saw this and wanted to respond. I may have related this story before, but I shall again.
Many, many moons ago I worked at a convenience store. I went in every night at around midnight regardless of my shift to do "the daily"; an accounting and balancing of the daily intake.
This particular night, a family friend sent in two teenagers to me. I didn't have any prior knowledge of their situation. It was a young man and woman; under 18. Apparently they had been living with her family and had been kicked out. He was black, she white. From what I understood, that played a role. It was the middle of winter; dead cold. I thought about bringing them home to my house, but someone here objected due to not knowing them at all. Hell, I didn't even really know them. They were friends of friends, but I wasn't going to let two kids go cold.
I decided to try to put them up for the night in hotel and figure out something better in the morning. The NCAA Tournaments were in town, so most hotels were booked. I decided to avoid the city as they were likely full and headed out to a nearby inner suburb. That suburb was Crystal, MN.
We went up where I knew there was a row of motels/hotels, with me going into each one only to find they were full. It was getting late at this point, maybe 2-3 a.m. As I was driving back, planning to bring them to my home regardless of objections, I was pulled over by the Crystal Police. Nobody was on the road, just me and them.
I knew, instinctively, WHY we were pulled over. The young man was sitting in the back seat and he had a massive afro. They claimed I was driving 'erratically' as their reason for the stop. This was well before my time as a bus driver, but I am a good driver. I knew it was pretense as a reason to pull us over.
They then called in backup. They put each one of us in a vehicle to verify our story about "why we were out there at that time of night". I presume they assumed that we were out either dealing drugs or seeking drugs. Once they determined that our stories were all the same, they sent them back to my vehicle.
I asked them if they could help us out. I had two teenagers with nowhere to go on a cold, winter night. They had nothing. They showed no interest at all and even gave me some flippant comments. I was losing my temper with them at this point and proceeded to yell at them, "What good are you?" You pulled me over on false pretenses hoping to get an easy bust because you assumed we were up to no good, and I know why. You can't even direct us to assistance?"
They let me get away with that.
I know why.
p.s. I relate this story for a few reasons. DWB, of course and white privilege, but also because the problem is bigger than just the MPD. When we see talk about disbanding the MPD, nobody is mentioning the other local police departments in the entire metro area, of which there are many. I also left out the part where when they approached my vehicle they had guns drawn.
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