The eCrozier

Watching the video is excruciating. With each passing moment, one gets a sense of how the scenario is going to play out, but that didn’t make it any easier for me to watch. It was so painful to watch because I was at once appalled by how the person behaved, but also aware on some deep level of my own being, that I might have just as easily behaved in a somewhat similar way (on one of my less than good days).

I’m referring to a police dash-cam video of a traffic stop in New Jersey this past Easter Sunday. Two police officers stopped a car with four young adult passengers. They pulled the car over because they saw that the car had tinted front windows, which are outlawed in New Jersey (the car also had an obscured Nevada license tag). When the officers informed the driver of the violation and asked to see the car’s registration and proof of insurance, they discovered the registration had expired and there was no proof of insurance. Under New Jersey law, the officers followed procedure and called for the car to be impounded until a valid registration and proof of insurance could be produced. The officers informed the driver and occupants of this and suggested they call for someone to come pick them up.

That’s when one of the car’s occupants called her mother, Ms. Caren Turner. Ms. Turner arrived on the scene a few minutes later and immediately tried to take control of the situation. She tells the police officers she’s a “Port Authority commissioner” and a “friend of the mayor” (Ms. Turner was the chairwoman of the Port Authority’s “Ethics Committee” – oops – she recently resigned). And this is where the video gets excruciating. She keeps trying to interject her status and privilege, while the police officers continue to insist the situation isn’t about her. Rather, it’s about the driver and his car. The officers politely tell the woman she’s welcome to speak to the driver about the situation. This just seems to make her crazier since the police officers aren’t bowing to and acknowledging her status and privilege. You can watch the video for yourself here.

Watching the video, and I don’t like to admit this, gave rise to my schadenfreude. We humans really do enjoy watching someone being taken down a notch who’s acting, as my daddy used to say, “too big for their britches.” But watching the video also recalled for me times when I have (more subtly, mind you) used my status and privilege to help out my own children. I can honestly say I never crossed the line, as Ms. Turner did, and behaved obnoxiously or rudely with a person in authority. But just showing up in a clerical collar does make a statement without saying anything, doesn’t it?

I don’t know whether Ms. Turner, upon further reflection, regrets her behavior (or simply regrets it was videotaped). I hope she’s able to use this embarrassing moment to mature as a person. I also hope people like me who have taken a little too much delight in her downfall, will pause a moment and consider our own past actions before passing judgment.

+Scott