We were parked in a McDonald’s parking lot late one night (maybe midnight?). I can’t remember where we’d been, but in that moment we were just eating our McDonald’s, enjoying some in-person, one-on-one time that’s so rare in long distance relationships.
We were surprised when we saw a police pull into the parking lot with his lights on, get out of his car, and walk up to the driver’s side of our car, where my husband was sitting in the driver’s seat.
When the police first walked up to the car, he couldn’t see me because he was standing and the roof of the car was in the way. He seemed tense and asked a lot of questions, but we noticed he immediately became more friendly and dismissed his concerns upon seeing me.
I like to think I can protect my African American husband, but I’m not there all the time, and for this reason I’ll always worry.
Note: I’m not anti-cop and I believe this man was doing his job keeping our town safe; I respect the police (and their families) for putting their lives at risk daily and serving our communities. As a law-abiding white female, I’ve only ever had positive experiences with the police. That being said, I think changes need to be made to the system. (Shoutout to @hasanminhaj’s Patriot Act episode titled, “The Broken Policing System” for shedding a light on this issue.)
