It Was A Good Day

Like most summer days we'd Meetup at around one o'clock in the afternoon and hang out all over Brooklyn and Queens. Most of the time, we just drove around looking for anything to get into, meet girls, ride our bicycles to the movies and the mall or just walk around the city.  
   
Marvin, a Jamaican, is around six feet tall, very slim and dark. This was his first year in America and his first year in high school. Everyone could not wait for the summer to start. Especially myself. I had big plans to DJ and a local Lounge and I was very excited.    
   
We never really had any trouble with the police, sometimes though police officers would approached us and ask for our names and destination and normally we would comply by giving them wrong names and addresses. I've known several people who had run ins with cops and it was not something that I nor my friends would have liked to experience. I would often tell them what they were doing was illegal. and would ask what probable cause they had for stopping us and also it was illegal to detain us without arresting us for a crime. And since we have not committed any crimes we would just walk away from the officers after speaking repetitively "are we free to go, did we commit a crimes, are you going to detain us, and what probable cause did you have for stopping us." The cops would say "looks like we got a smarty pants, they ain't got no bright futures, and this one ain't gonna be no lawyer, he'll probably will end up as someone's bitch in prison or dead. I would ignore their stupidity for the most part.        
        
My homeboys giphy and Lamby's mom had rented them a Chevy Corsica for the entire summer. Our ride was set, we could travel anywhere inside or outside of the five boroughs. No more footing it, and riding bicycle handlebars in the sweltering New York city heat, and no more public transportation for two months. Man, we were happy and excited we were going to go lots of places, pick up chicks, and go to parties in style. Just the thought about traveling anywhere we decided to go with no reservations felt awesomely good. Giphy was the only one who had a valid license cuz he was over 18, while Lamby had a learner's permit but would drive us anyway. Some of our favorite destination was Coney Island, Freeport Mall, Kings Plaza Mall, Green acres Mall, Down Town Brooklyn, Bay Ridge, Fort Greene, and City Island.        
       
My twin brother, my homies from down the block, my homies Skull Man, Giphy and Lamby were inseparable almost every summer. Marvin who was new to America had not as yet developed the street smarts to deal with police officers or should I say police interaction.        
       
On an Infamous hot and humid midday, a day that has long stayed fresh in my memory, a day that I will never forget, a day that I felt I had, we had escaped from the fiery grasp of a medieval dragon. What I meant to say was a two man or two headed medieval fiery dragon beast. We were traveling on Flatbush Avenue five of us in the vehicle. Two of my friends that just finished smoking a spliff while Marvin seated in the back in the middle seat was sipping on a Guinness bottle. Everyone had finished drinking before we got into the vehicle except for Marvin he was slow to drink his Guinness claiming it was a bit bitter and he did not care too much for the taste. Which was kind of suspect to me since a few weeks ago I had purchased a six pack of Guinness and he chugged two of them down rather quickly. As the vehicle cruise down Flatbush Avenue we heard a siren in the rear, we all looked back saying to ourselves, fuck man it's the police. What the fuck did you do Giphy did you run a red light, did you fail to signal? "No star mi nah run no pussyclaat red light and mi damn well always use my turn signals when changing lanes. Then why the bumboclaat the Beast Bwoy dem deh pon we tail iah?        
       
The police signal us to turn into an alleyway. Actually it was more like a very narrow Street which led to a Sears parking lot at the End of the Street. The police officers turn off the sirens exited the vehicle and I can see from looking in the rearview mirror that they where caucasians and had their hands on their 38's. The female officer commanded us to open the windows and put our hands in the air. I am one to always obey the command of police officers when pulled over in a vehicle because I have read and heard of too many horror stories of young black men getting shot and killed. All the while my eyes are constant on the inside rearview mirror. In a low voice I said to everyone be calm and raise your hands, if you have anything in your hands do not lift it just drop it on the floor. Do not let them see you raise your hands with anything in them. Marvin was shaking, he was very scared and was sweating. He had never been riding in a vehicle that was pulled over by the police. I could hear the panic in his voice as he said "yo twin what am I going to do with this beer bottle? If they see this beer bottle they're going to arrest me."    
   
I told Marvin to breathe deeply and calm down and whatever you do do not lift your hands with the dark colored bottle in it. Marvin replied "then what am I going to do, I can't let them see me with this beer bottle. Marvin I said, just dropped the bloodclaat bottle on the floor, my eyes staring straight ahead looking into the rear view mirror at Marvin, yet he did not comply. I started screaming, Marvin whatever you do do not fucking raise your hand. I was screaming at the top of my lungs because I felt that this situation was exactly like the ones I've read in newspapers and magazines, seen in movies and heard people talkin about. I remember when my sister took my twin and I along with my nephews to see the movie "Cornbread Earl & Me" when I was a young boy living in Grenada. At some point Marvin shoulder raised and I believe the police officers or one of them had seen a dark object in his hand and they both reached for their guns, pulling them out and pointed them at us. At this point I turn my head slowly towards them with my hand still raised and I started screaming at the police officers please don't shoot, he has a beer bottle in his hand and he scared, he does not want to get shot and neither do any of us. He's just afraid to drop the beer bottle because it will spill in the rental car. Again I yelled out please do not shoot he has a beer bottle. My attention turned to Marvin once more and I said Marvin if you don't fucking drop that beer bottle I swear to goodness I'm going to turn around and I'm going to box the shit out of you.    
   
Finally he did as I asked and  the police officers asked us to exit the vehicles the vehicle, to which we did as we were told. They did not give us any reason as to why they stopped us, only some bullshit excuse saying that we looked like a group of people in a vehicle that had just committed a burglary. Marvin got a ticket for underage drinking and they left to let us be on our merry way.  
 
To be continued 🤗