that time is on their side. In the Russ case, the lawyers for the
other side were saying that this was a fast-breaking situation.
But it was only fast-breaking because the cops let it become
one. He was stopped. He wasn’t going anywhere.”
What police training does, at its best, is teach officers how
to keep themselves out of this kind of trouble; to avoid the risk
of momentary autism. In a traffic stop, for instance, the officer
is trained to park behind the car. If it’s at night, he shines his
brights directly into the car. He walks toward the car on the
driver’s side, then stops and stands just behind the driver,
shining his flashlight over the shoulder onto his or her lap. I’ve
had this happen to me, and I always feel a bit like I’m being
disrespected. Why can’t the officer stand and talk to me face-to-
face, like a normal human being? The reason is that it would be
virtually impossible for me to pull a gun on the officer if he’s
standing behind me. First of all, the officer is shining his
flashlight on my lap, so he can see where my hands are and
whether I’m going for a gun. And even if I get my hands on the
gun, I have to twist almost entirely around in my seat, lean out
the window, and fire around the door pillar at the officer (and
remember, I’m blinded by his brights) — and all this in his full
view. The police procedure, in other words, is for my benefit: it