A few days ago in Cincinnati, a fatal shooting over the weekend of Timothy Thomas, 19, by a white officer sparked protests, a federal investigation, calls for accountability, and so far 3 nights of rioting.
Thomas was killed running from the officer trying to arrest him for failing to appear in court for misdemeanor charges and some tickets... Roach, 27, the officer, said through his union that he feared for his life during the encounter�
and over college summers I used to ride ATV�s with my friend Rob. We would leave his house, go down his dead end street, through the woods behind his house for a few miles until we reached route 395 north. From there we�d ride down the highway�s grass embankment� against traffic� until we came to a bridge. At that bridge we had to ride down the breakdown lane� against traffic� until we passed the bridge and then it was a short hop until we reached the next wooded path that lead to the Douglas State Forrest. We did most of this at night.
Yeah, smartness.
One August day Rob and I were heading out to do the usual, we were about to enter the woods and a guy on a motorcycle came streaking past us real fast and disappeared behind an upscale type of a trailer park� as we reached the point where we first reached the highway, a state trooper jumped out in front of us with his gun drawn screaming at us to stop.
We stopped.
It�s a scary thing to look at a gun pointed at you.
Rob took off his helmet and the trooper grabbed it and threw it 50 feet down the highway. I took mine off when I saw this and placed it in the bushes.
The trooper had us lay down on the grass embankment hand cuffed while he ran our licensees.
Then he had us stand and started questioning us about our �friend�
�what friend, we don�t know what your talking about�
�don�t lie to me, I know you guys all know each other�
�we don�t know what your talking about�
�DO NOT LIE TO ME!�
�we don�t know what your talking about!�
�we can stay here all night, I HAVE TIME��
and we didn�t know. We had no clue what the guy was talking about.
It seems the guy on the motorcycle we saw earlier ran from the trooper when he tried to stop him and pretty much ran the trooper down. This seemed to piss the state trooper off just a little.
That trooper searched through all of our stuff� he even found a single fire cracker I kept in my pack to use as a signal if I ever needed it� he didn�t believe me what it was for until I said, �no I don�t hope to attract people with the flash� they can hear it from far away though��
Eventually he realized we either didn�t know what he was talking about or we weren�t going to tell who the motorcycle guy was, so he had out 4 wheeler�s impounded and gave us some fine for driving within 50 feet of a federal highway.
Then made us walk home the 6 miles through the woods back to robs house. He wouldn�t let the flat bed driver give us a ride. He insisted we walk.
We didn�t get in much trouble from our parents� we were over 18 and basically they just laughed at us for being so dumb. They weren�t happy with how the trooper treated us, but even I understood how mad and probably a little frightened he probably was. How pissed off would I have been if some guy tried to run me down?
What does make me wonder is if I made a wrong move. Pulled out something too quickly while the trooper had his gun on me. What could have happened? Is that how these things happen or are more police than I realize trigger happy? There is so much I suspect but don�t really know.
