Qasim Basir

At 21 a cop approached me while in my car in a store parking lot. When asked for my license I questioned if this was even considered a stop. He got aggressive af, hand on gun and all, so I complied. Found out my license was suspended for parking tix, so I was arrested, car towed

Also at 21, trying to recover from the financial burden of that arrest, $500 bail, broke college student, still had to drive to work, I was stopped again, for nothing again (he actually wouldn't tell me), he found out my license was still suspended, I was arrested again.

It'd take another 4 yrs of cops & courts & fines to get from under all that and finally get my license back. I don't even remember all of it, but it was a hell of a time that added to trauma that was yet to be healed. Gonna fast forward over the next few years bc there's a lot...

I don't remember. Also I moved to NY, where I didn't drive. Was therapeutic for me. A refuge from the trauma of DWB, something still not recognized by many as real, even tho so many of us have it. But after NY I moved to LA, where even after a couple films it didn't stop. NYE '18

My wife was driving us home from a party and we got a flat on the 10. While waiting for AAA, both on our phones, I get a knock at my window, startled me so I turned to a bright flashlight in my face. I cracked the door and the cop grabbed his gun. Get back in your car! YOU CAME..

TO MY CAR. Turns out it was 2 cop cars. 4 cops. Wife had to talk them down. They said "I don't see a flat". U wanna go on the 10 to see? It's the drivers side. Ended up making us drive on the flat to the nearest gas station. Possibly ruining the rim too. My ultimate Karen moment

My friend & I rented 2 rooms in an airbnb, met the couple who owned it the night we checked in, the next morning I went to the kitchen which was a shared space. The wife was there. She turned to me and AAAHHHH!! Dropped her plate and screamed. The woman I MET last night! Her GUT

REACTION from seeing me. I just stood there. I knew what she was going thru. I knew from a life of people like her, who feared people like me. I knew I had to be calm. That if a neighbor, her husband or a cop had come shooting, I knew who's side they'd be on. Cuz in that moment..