Mundane aspects of existence can be galling. I’m lucky - I’m a white male born in the USA in the mid-1950s. I saw a person in an unmarked car with cop plates pull quickly the wrong way on a one-way street.

The driver exited the vehicle - sorry if I start to write like a person who authors a probable cause affidavit, but I see a lot of those in my job - wore shorts and a t-shirt. That person walked to the opposite side of the vehicle.

The person who exited the passenger side wore shorts and a t-shirt. Neither person was in uniform. The driver had pulled in quickly, without sirens or lights and without anyone showing up as backup.

The pair proceeded around the corner of the building and headed east-bound on Broad Ripple Avenue, a part of the City of Indianapolis known for restaurants and establishments that serve food and spirits.

I was seated with friends a short distance away. It was difficult to miss the arrival of the vehicle. We speculated about whether the driver would try to exit onto Broad Ripple. Then someone from a different establishment pulled a barricade across the street.

The barricade was behind the vehicle. After about 30 minutes the driver appeared with the passenger. Another individual followed them. As they got into the vehicle, the other individual moved the barricade.

I have photographs that I’ll post tomorrow of the car and the plates. (I’m an 8-track kind of guy in the 21st century.) If the driver is a law enforcement officer and that person was not on official business, what the driver did was wrong.

I walked off the distance between where the car had been parked and parking spaces - plural - in the nearest parking lot. The spaces were 70 yards away. If people are on a date, that is not an unreasonable distance to walk from a vehicle to a place for food.

I’m a lawyer. I’m white. I’ve lived a very privileged existence. I never would interpose myself in a situation like that and risk getting shot. I only can imagine the fear people from backgrounds not so privileged have faced each day of life.

If the driver is identified - I’ll post photos tomorrow - and is not a law enforcement officer, then the person should not have a vehicle with cop plates. If the person is an officer - please show the logs to indicate whether this was time “on the job.”

And please spare me the “undercover” thing - it was obviously an unmarked car, plus the plates give it away.
I’m Mark Small, GOP precinct committee person in Marion County, Indiana. I believe in equal protection of the law. I approve of this blog. Hell, I wrote it.