Two Florida cops get schooled after pulling over first Black woman state attorney
Two Orlando police officers had no idea what they were in for when they pulled over a driver on June 19. A brief clip of footage from a body camera from one of the officers has been made public and revealed that the driver was none other than Aramis Ayala, the first and only Black woman state attorney in Florida.
The video has gone viral essentially because no one has any idea why Ayala was pulled over that day, including the officers themselves. After seeing a mark on Ayala’s identification showing that she was a government employee, the officer on the driver’s side of her car asked which agency she worked for.
“I’m the state attorney,” she said in response.
From that point on, the exchange was practically a scene from the Three Stooges as the officer stumbled over himself to produce a justified reason as to why Ayala was stopped, besides just because. She was actually on her way home from teaching a class at Florida A&M University’s law school, according to CNN.
He started off by saying that he pulled her over because he ran her license plate and nothing came up. You read that right, she got stopped because she didn’t do anything and they found that suspicious.
“That’s how we figure out if cars are stolen and that sort of thing,” he said, then stating that her tinted windows were the problem.
“Also, the windows are really dark, I don’t have a tint measure but that’s another reason for the stop,” he adds.
As an agent of the law, Ayala has since come out and said that the stop was technically legal, but she does feel the entire situation can be turned into a learning experience.
“To be clear, I violated no laws. The license plate, while confidential was and remains properly registered. The tint was in no way a violation of Florida law,” she said.
“Although the traffic stop appears to be consistent with Florida law (my) goal is to have a constructive and mutually respectful relationship between law enforcement and the community,” she said. “I look forward to sitting down to have an open dialogue with the Chief of Orlando Police Department regarding how this incident impacts that goal.”
Ayala did ask the officers for their information after she wasn’t given a citation and plans to follow up.
Photo Courtesy: YouTube