And now I'm reminded of something else. This was in 2004 when I attended college in this small town in Ohio called Marietta. My sophmore year I was broke AF and needed to grab some food. I was living in a frat house (I wasn't in the frat though) and it was within walking distance of a supermarket so I went there and grabbed a packet of ramen noodles and swiped a $1.25 packet of ready made kool-aid and put it in my pocket. I got to the cash register paid for the ramen noodles, but before I could leave the store, I was stopped by two older white guys who told me to come upstairs to the office in the grocery store, which I did (looking back, I should of just bolted).They told me to empty out my pockets and I put the packet of Kool-Aid on the table in the office. Then (this was pretty illegal/out of their jurisdiction because they weren't cops) they frisked me and asked if I had any weapons or drugs on me and I said no. Then they called the cops and told me to wait in the office. Minutes later, the cops arrive and told me I was under arrest. I wasn't cuffed, but I was put in the back of their SUV. I go to the station, they take my mugshot pic, grab my fingerprints, and then I waited at the front desk for 30 minutes. After that, they gave me a court summons for a couple of days after the fact and I left the station.
So I go to court. I'm literally the only black person there waiting for trial. The person before me was a 40 something white male who got caught with crystal meth, some other drugs in his car and was under the influence of alcohol and he only got a fine. I got caught with a packet of Kool-Aid from grocery store and after everything was said and done was give 3 months probation and 250 hours of community service. That was because the court and the judge charged it as theft under $500 dollars.
This happened at a bad time because it was spring and school was going to be out in a couple of weeks for summer and there was no way I could stay on campus after school was out and I already withdrew from the school cause I didn't like it, so I bounced from there I left for Pittsburgh never to return to that town again. I had a warrant out for me in Marietta, Ohio, but I got pulled over in 2007 and 2009 driving there coming back from Detroit to Pittsburgh, and the cops didn't pull it up, so I guess it was just thrown out.
In retrospect, how fukked up is that?
