Another Reason to Love Bodycam: Idiots in Cars Getting Arrested

WARNING:  I have no sympathy for this person and am not feeling kind about it.  I say this as someone who is permanently disabled by an anxiety disorder.

Bodycam footage is one of my favorite things for so many reasons.  It lets everybody see what the police are doing in real life, which is the best thing of all.  I truly believe that our progress in racial justice in recent years has all happened because of the videos that now exist of everything.

But bodycam also allows people to see what's actually happening in America, not in the curated, heavily edited copaganda form of old.  Here we can see what police work is really like, for better or for worse.   And this cop did an amazing job.

Granted, we only get the videos that someone has done a Freedom of Information Act request on and then publicly posted.  But in general I find them chock-a-block with information, a true learning experience about America.  I can see the level of training and professionalism that exists in different agencies, what kind of calls they're running, and what kind of mutual aid they get from other agencies.  These are very much like running paramedic calls.

I realize that I'm probably a bad person, but the above video made me belly laugh.  That lady is an obnoxious, immature knucklehead.  She's very much in need of the kind of time out that the criminal justice system can provide.  Her own mother kicked her out.  And the police did us all a great favor by arresting her that day.  But here are a few of the highlights of this video that I found remarkable:

• This began with a very minor incident, someone who didn't turn from a turn-only lane.  Should be no big --  if you're reasonably sane or cooperative as a white woman in America under normal circumstances.
• When he asks her to roll her window down all the way, she rolls it down just a tiny crack.  We can see smoke pouring out.  Her reply:  "I don't have to if I'm in my own car."  LOL!!!
• I have learned from watching bodycam videos that people who are going to talk themselves into getting arrested when they would otherwise not have had a problem, have a few mantras in common, things you'll hear over and over again:

1. "I don't have to!" (they do)
2. "I know my rights!"  (they don't)
3. "I didn't do nothing!" (they did)
4. "This is my house/car" (nobody cares)

• This crackpot's concept is that she doesn't have to roll the window all the way down because (a) it's her car and (b) the cop didn't say "please."  She's at the emotional maturity level where she believes the police are some other kids in her kindergarten class who have to use the magic word with her. 
• Even I can see the smoke coming out the window, clear in the video, much less in person.  And it's not smell-o-vision.
• She doesn't have her driver's license. She says it's in her car.  But what she says here doesn't really make sense.  I truly don't understand people who get behind the wheel and don't have their license readily available.   But these videos are full of them.
• "Do you have any marijuana, guns, drugs, anything like that?"  [Long pause] [Eyes shift around] LOL!!!  Oh my God, this broad!  I literally belly laughed both times I watched this.
• Admits she has a gun.   "Do you have a CCW permit?"  Has never heard of that.  The hits just keep on coming with this woman.  I'm going to stop calling her names now because my grandma wouldn't approve.  Her life is its own punishment.
• Seriously this woman has never heard of a concealed carry permit and doesn't understand the concept when asked by the police about the gun she's concealing.  Later in the video she disputes that she's concealing it because she admitted to having it when asked.  The officer had to explain to her that it was inside her purse, inside the car, and that he couldn't clearly see it.  Remember how she didn't want to even roll those tinted windows down? 
• This cop is so patient with this woman throughout the encounter.  I'm not even going to go blow-by-blow through the rest of the video because really I do want to strangle her the more I watch this.  I want to bludgeon her.  The police officer coaches her breathing while arresting her.  His department doesn't issue him a binky in case of this kind of emergency.
• As soon as she admits to having a gun, her African-American boyfriend, who apparently lives on Earth 1, says -- without even being asked -- "I'm putting my hands on the dashboard" and does so.  See?  I wonder why that is.  I bet he knows what "CCW" means.  He, unlike his girlfriend, immediately understands that not cooperating with the police in this situation could be very much life-or-death, especially for him.  This woman is extremely dangerous for him to hang around with.  Maybe he can buy her a monogrammed clue for Christmas, because she does not have a single one in her entire inventory.
• She is found to be carrying a gun for which she does not have a permit.  There is a round in the chamber! SHE HAS A GUN WITH A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER.
• Why did she buy it?  "I just thought it would be cool to have."  That's the first reason she gave, and the one that I believe.  She says her mother kicked her out for buying it, which I think is a sign that she should have heeded about the direction of her life.  She later says a bunch of blah blah about someone threatened her, she has anxieties, and she's also a survivor of gun violence.  I fart in her general direction.
• Most astonishingly, she claims that she wants to be a security guard!  I cannot think of anyone less qualified to be a security guard except Jeremy DeWitte or maybe Ethan Crumbley.  Really, someone rolling around with a round in the chamber, who does not understand the concept of "CCW," who has a panic attack when talking to the police, merciful baby Jesus should never even think about being a security guard.
• Overall the police did us all a big favor getting this person and her gun off the road.  It was a much-needed intervention in her life.  Hopefully this incident will prevent her from ever being hired as a security guard.  And luckily her boyfriend didn't get shot because of her bad driving.