A Young Mother Encounters Racial Profiling in Cobb

A 24 year old mother in Cobb County, Rubi now knows that she should avoid driving at all costs, and only goes out for emergencies or to take her 6 month old child to the doctor. “No one is safe,” she says. Driving home alone from her mother’s house one day, Rubi was followed by a patrol car into Cobb County around four in the afternoon on Highway 285. The police car pulled her over and an officer told her she was being stopped for an expired tag and registration. However, Rubi feels she was targeted for having dark skin and a Latina appearance, as the officer had been following her for “a very long time.” Rubi was subsequently arrested for an expired tag and driving without a license. She had difficulty communicating with the officers and could not understand their instructions. The police searched her car without seeking her consent in fact, she was already in the police car by the time the officers began to search her vehicle. The handcuffs placed on her were too tight, leaving bruises on her wrists by the time they got to the station. When she tried to talk to the officers, they would not answer her complaints or any questions about what was happening to her. Instead, on the way to the station the two officers who arrested her were laughing and carrying on a conversation while she cried in the backseat. Even in jail, Rubi was not offered an interpreter by the officers. She was detained for three days at the jail before she was told she could contact her consulate.

Source: Terror and Isolation in Cobb - How Unchecked Police Power Under 287(g) Has Torn Families Apart and Threatened Public Safety by ACLU of Georgia (October 2009)