Ali Kilinc vs.

City of Roswell
This is my official statement of the occurrences on the night of 12/2/2010:

I remembered being followed by a cop car for a long time, at least 2 or 3 miles. I was not
going fast, and I wasn’t breaking any laws. As soon as the cop car’s jurisdiction ended in Fulton County,
he turned on his lights. In fact, I was already on the bridge inside Gwinnett County when he turned on
his lights. He pulled me over in Gwinnett County. Before he approached my car, he yelled at me and told
me to put both of my hands on the steering wheel. The first thing the officer asked me was, “why were
you weaving in and out of traffic?” I replied with, “I’m sorry?” He stated again, “I saw you weaving in and
out of traffic and I have a witness. You shouldn’t deny anything and cooperate.” At this point, his witness
knocked on the passenger side window, and I immediately started feeling intimidated and discriminated
against. He asked for my license, and asked me to step out of the vehicle and step on an oil spot in front
of his car and not to move. I waited in that spot for a few minutes until he came and started accusing me
of various things.

The first thing he asked me was, “have you been drinking tonight?” I replied with a
prompt, “No.” I tried to explain to the officer that I don’t drink, and that I’m Muslim, but that seemed to
aggravate him. He asked me if he could search my car, and I reserved my right and replied with, “No.”
He asked the same question again, and I gave the same answer. Then he asked, “Why don’t you want
me to search your car?” I replied with, “You don’t have a right to search my car.” The officer then
proceeded to claim that I was weaving in and out of traffic. I was trying to explain to the officer that I
had done no such thing, and I wasn’t even sure what he was talking about. I didn’t even understand
what the officer was trying to charge me with. He asked where I lived, where I was coming from, and
where I was going. I told him that I owned and operated the new computer store on Alpharetta Street.
He then said, “you know, we have witnesses, it’s your word against ours, are you really sure you wanna
stick with that story?” I did not reply to the statement and accepted it as a discriminatory threat. I
overheard one of the other officers saying to the other, “what are we gonna do, he keeps saying the
same thing!” The officer that made the remark about me sticking to my story came and asked me,
“Which do you want: reckless driving, or failure to maintain lane?” in a condescending voice. Almost on
the brink of tears, I replied with, “Neither! I didn’t do either one…”

Realizing that I was not going to admit to something I did not do, the officers
surrounded me, and the officer who seemed to be in charge began a violent series of drug use
accusations. These accusations began with the very harsh allegation of, “How much have you been
smoking tonight?” I replied with, “I don’t smoke.” He asked again, “When was the last time you smoked
marijuana?” I replied with, “I don’t smoke.” While the officer was accusing me of drug use, one of the
other officers was closely peering into my car with his flashlight, looking through all the windows. The
officer drilling me with unnecessary questions then asked me, “You’ve never smoked anything in your
life?” At this point, I felt very threatened, I started shivering, I didn’t feel safe, I felt violated, and I began
to have an anxiety attack. I couldn’t even open my mouth. I’d been a good boy, I’d very committed a
felony in my life, I’d never drank an ounce of alcohol in my life, I’d never touched a drug in my life, and
here I was trying to accuse this racist police officer that I didn’t use drugs since it was against my religion
be he seemed to become more and more upset when I mentioned this. I finally was able to open my
mouth after about a minute to reply with, “No, I don’t smoke.” Then the officer told me to look up and
close my eyes, he flashed his flashlight back and forth against my eyes, I wasn’t sure what he was doing,
but it only lasted for about half a minute seconds. The officer then asked, “Do you have any marijuana in
your car?” I pled the fifth. He asked if I had any weapons I car or on my body, I pled the fifth. After I pled
the fifth, one of the other officers came up to me, told me that I was not under arrest, told me to
interlock my hands behind my body, he then raised my locked hands in an uncomfortable position
immobilizing me (I assume that was the point), and told me that he was going to search my body for
weapons. I then told the officer that I had a tiny boy scout’s knife on my waist, and that there were no
other weapons. He then continued to grope me in inappropriate places and violate my dignity further. I
then told the officer who seemed to be running the operation, “I feel violated…” He asked, “Now why do
you feel violated?” in a tone as if I was a child. I replied with, “You’re asking me all these questions and
touching me and…” He interrupted me by saying, “I can ask whatever I want and whatever I want,” I
interrupted him by saying, “I don’t have to answer…”

Then it was quiet for a bit, and the officer told me to sit on the bumper. The headlight
immediately started burning my upper thigh so I asked to sit on the ground, but I was denied this luxury.
Another officer came by and asked the other officer confining me to the headlight, “So, just failure to
maintain lane? No reckless?” The officer in charge replied with, “Yeah, but add my name to it too” as if
he would be a benefactor from the whole debacle or something. There was silence for a few minutes
and the officer came with the citation. All of the officers surrounded me once again, and I was handed
the citation to sign, I was shivering with such freight that I could barely sign. I paused, gathered myself,
and signed it. The officer leading the pack then gave me a little speech about driving safely and wouldn’t
let me leave unless I was obedient to him. He kept on telling me not to drive like a maniac, and things of
that sort, pausing frequently to ask me, “Right? Right!?” I was nodding to all of his remarks, but he
insisted, so I replied with, “Yes.” He thanked me for cooperating. I wished him happy holidays and went
to my car. I drove home safely, cruise control set to five miles under the speed limit.

--Ali Kilinc