I have lived in Los Angeles for less than a year, and already, the amount of encounters I’ve had with law enforcement almost matches the amount accumulated before I moved here.

That’s a lot of stops, while driving AND on foot. While Michael Cherkasky- a monitor appointed by the court to hold the LAPD to their agreement with the Department of Justice to reform their patterns of corruption, brutality and racial bias- feels the LAPD has made vast improvements my experiences convince me otherwise. In the last two months I’ve been pulled over 8 times for things like a tail light, loud music, and “just looking suspicious” as one officer told me. That stop, as well as one other out of the 8, have resulted in searches. None of these stops resulted in tickets or citations.

I was put in the back of a squad car while being searched on a traffic stop for looking like a robbery suspect that JUST came over the radio. While in the back a call came in that we were fighting with the officers, of course an error, and ANOTHER squad car came over to investigate. Meaning I was pulled over WHILE being pulled over!

I was even arrested and thrown in jail in front of my home one Friday evening because police mistook me for a burglar that another officer was chasing. The officers that handled me weren’t interested in investigating the fact that I was in my home the entire time they were looking for the actual perpetrator. Instead of searching my actual car and home, they rushed me around the corner to celebrate with 15 or more other officers in the most disgusting “We Got ‘Em” fashion. Meanwhile I sat in the backseat and my neighbors, who I’ve never seen before that night, told the blissfully ignorant officers that they were arresting the wrong individual.

I suppose I should be grateful that I didn’t suffer the fate of Rodney King, who was beaten by police. I just had my freedom suspended for a weekend until actual detectives noticed the mistakes of their colleagues in the field. While I am sure some progress has been made with regards to the LAPD’s conduct and racial biases, it certainly isn’t enough for them to begin shifting more authority from federal oversight to their own internal monitors, as Cherkasky recommends.

Even though I’ve learned to deal with getting pulled over for no apparent reason by blowing sunshine all up inside law enforcement and sharing my experiences in commentaries at times I get literally sick in the stomach. It’s obvious to me that any “progress” the LAPD has made can be attributed to the appointment of this court mandated monitor, without which no one would hold them to their word to improve their brand of justice. They certainly aren’t in the habit of holding themselves to it.

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