[Peace-discuss] interaction with Champaign police / driver did all the wrong things

[Karen Medina]

Peace-discuss,

I read David Green's experience with the wild car and the police not
even feigning interest.

I had an interesting experience this morning on my way to work the
AWARE table at the Farmer's Market.

Windsor and S. First St., Champaign (I was going to pick up tee-shirts
at Stuart Levy's house).

The event would have been a great scenario for the movies on what not
to do when during a police interaction.

A car wanting to turn right whizzed by on the right of a line of
vehicles stopped at the traffic light. The car used the bicycle lane
as if it were a right turn lane (which it is not wide enough to do).
The car turned right without stopping. Just as the car made it to the
curve, the traffic light turned green and the line began to move. The
first vehicle in the line was also turning right, but it was a fire
truck tanker and had not seen or heard the car pulling along side it,
nor had the fast moving car noticed that the light had changed and
that the fire truck was going to turn right too. The fire truck and
the car clipped each other. The car's back bumper fell to the ground.
The car did stop briefly.

That was stupid driving, but the next part was absolutely the wrong
thing to do.

Rather than remain stopped where traffic could still get around it,
the car driver drove down the road and turned left into the drive for
the apartments. It turned around in the parking lot and stopped by the
dumpster. Then the people in the car got out and were walking around
rearanging stuff in the car and visiting the dumpster. The police
arrived very quickly. There were three Champaign police cars within a
quarter mile of that corner, watching traffic. None of them were close
enough to see event at the corner, but were close enough to come
almost immediately.

The police did let the fire truck people that the car driver was
driving on a suspended license. This was wrong of them to do.

There were 4 officers talking to the car driver.

I watched them handcuff the driver of the car.

One policeman took my statement, but kept trying to put words in my
mouth. I was the car immediately behind the fire truck in the line of
the waiting cars. I had the best view of the event, and could see that
the fire truck and the car were going to collide before they did.
Neither of the drivers involved even saw the other vehicle before they
collided.

It was an interesting experience.

-karen medina