How to Talk Down a Cop - Guest Post

Coming in to work on the turnpike, approaching the tollbooth a car was right up on my bumper. I gave a tap on the brakes, nothing. I gave another one, didn't back off. And then another tap, and the blue light comes on on the car's rear view mirror. Oh shit. I pull over and a woman gets out, approaches my window.

I say calmly, “you know you were tailgating me pretty bad?”

She says loud and angry, “YOU KNOW I’M GONNA GIVE YOU A TICKET PRETTY BIG?!!”

I say, OK. She yells at me to get out of the “vehicle.”

After calling in my info she calls me over to her passenger side window and continues yelling, telling me I have road rage, even suggests she's going to take me in to jail.

I say calmly, “I do not have road rage, I was merely trying to indicate to you to back off. You were creating an unsafe situation.”

She yells.

I say, “You are talking in anger. You may have road rage, and I don't appreciate being yelled at like this.”

She yells back, “THIS IS HOW I TALK. I'M FIVE FEET TALL, I HAVE TO TALK LIKE THIS!”

I say, “You are really angry. I'm on your side.”

“OH, I'M ANGRY??? I'M AN ANGRY BLACK WOMAN, IS THAT IT? HUH? IS THAT IT?”

“No. You are angry. Don't bring race in to this. Or gender. That's insulting to me.”

“THAT'S INSULTING TO YOU?”

“Yes, it is.”

Then, somehow she starts calming down, I tell her I'm tired of bad drivers on the phone who tailgate, and she lets me go without a ticket, and I even make it to work on time. Of course if this was LA....