Cocaine, fatherhood and “I am God” tinted windows
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“UNCRITICAL THINKING: After a sheriff’s deputy pulled over Reginald Cotton in Tampa, Fla., he got out and ran, an incident report says. Officers chased him down, and had to Taser him to subdue and arrest him. Investigators searched his car and found that when he ran, he left his two young children behind. They also found a bottle of crack cocaine hidden under the seat. Cotton was charged with two counts of child neglect, plus possession of cocaine with intent to sell, all felonies. They didn’t bother charging him with what led to the traffic stop: the deputy simply wanted to warn him that the tinting on his windshield was excessive. (Tampa Tribune) …So was his paranoia.”
There are several aspects to the story of interest to the addiction-aware. One is that Randy may be right about the paranoia, because it can be caused by cocaine addiction, which could take form in a tinted windshield because the addict has something to hide. He may be using while driving, or hitting his kids, or multi-tasking by simultaneously using, driving, hitting the kids and using a cell phone. He wouldn’t want others, particularly cops, to easily see him.
On the other hand, tinting may emanate from the addict’s god-like sense of self: “I am God; therefore, I get to see you and you don’t get to see me.” The biggest mistake I ever made in research in which I occasionally test my hypotheses about the likelihood of addiction in other drivers occurred when a car with tinted windows cut me off. I managed to get up next to it at a stop light and rolled down my window. When the passenger side window came down, I realized I had made a big mistake–there were two very obvious thugs in the car. I unintentionally provided additional evidence that tinted windows indicate there may be an addict at the wheel.
Aside from the fact that addicts engage in dangerous activities without consideration to children, even their own, the most interesting point in the story is that the tinting should have itself suggested to the deputy that there may be danger lurking behind the windshield. If Cotton hadn’t run, the deputy might have never discovered the cocaine in a car with children. All of this suggests that law enforcers should be very thorough in dealing with anyone with tinted windows–and the rest of us should leave them plenty of room, especially during this holiday season
(Story and tagline from “This is True,” copyright 2007 by Randy Cassingham, used with permission.)