“Then stop telling us how to do our jobs.”
She turned her head toward him.
“Your job doesn't give you permission to hurt someone who is cooperating.”
The younger officer stepped closer.
“Still giving orders?”
He raised the Taser again.
The woman's breathing changed. She had learned long ago how to recognize the difference between a person attempting to control a situation and someone whose anger was about to turn dangerous. The younger officer was no longer trying to obtain identification or establish why she had been driving along the highway. He wanted her frightened, humiliated, and desperate enough to stop questioning him.
“You've made your point,” she said quietly. “Put it away.”
He smiled.
“Oh, sweetheart. I'm just getting started.”
Behind the patrol cars, a young woman standing beside a silver sedan held up her phone and recorded. Her hands were trembling so badly that she had to brace her elbows against her chest. She had watched the officers force the Black driver out of her SUV, heard them refuse to explain the traffic stop, and seen the younger officer draw his Taser even though the woman had repeatedly said she was cooperating.
The witness wanted to intervene, but she was terrified that the officers might turn their attention toward her.
Instead, she kept recording.
The younger officer glanced toward the witness and shouted, “Put that phone away!”
The woman beside the sedan shook her head.
“I'm standing on the shoulder. I'm not interfering.”
The officer took one step in her direction.
The Black woman spoke immediately.
“Don't threaten her. She's done nothing wrong.”
The officer turned back.
His expression twisted.
“You just can't shut that mouth, can you?”
He moved closer, raised his left hand, and seized the woman's chin, forcing her face toward him. Her black sunglasses shifted slightly, and a strand of sleek hair came loose from the tightly styled bun at the back of her head. For the first time, the older officer looked uncomfortable, but he did not release her shoulder.
The woman became very still.
“Take your hand off my face.”
The younger officer laughed.
“Or what?”
Her voice dropped.
“I'm warning you to stop.”
He interpreted the warning as another challenge to his authority.