I’m talking about the following that was newsworthy in SA:

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article264343.ece
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100114042631178C167105

Pics here : http://gallery.iol.co.za/v/iolnews/Woman+busted+for+drunk+driving+13_01_2010/ST+DrinkDriving428.jpg.html

This has been uppermost on my mind since I heard about it. It also spawned a lot of extremist comments. This is why I linked to two different versions of the same event. The first article is more out of the woman’s view and the second more about the cops’ view.

 It mentions that she said she can’t remember what happened. Anyone on anti-depressants can witness to the difficulty of getting a doctor to prescribe anti-depressants. They have to exhaust all other alternatives and sometimes they even need a psychologist’s report before they will do so. You are warned very clearly about the effect alcohol has on you.  And then drinking wine in the middle of the day while still having to drive somewhere (whether it’s one glass or more) is extremely silly.

Also, the details of how she was dragged out of her car were quite clear for her, but she doesn’t remember trying to drive over someone? Or getting lost? Getting lost on a highway is also quite an achievement, you can only get lost by missing your off-turn. This isn’t in the middle of the suburbs where robots and stop signs and pedestrians confuse you. No, this is on a relative straight road with clearly marked exits.

I HATE people who drive with cellphones against their ears! Especially women! Now, before you women jump at me for insulting the fairer sex, it’s the way we communicate. Men can answer a phone and say “Yes. It’s him talking. Yes. Yes. No. Okay I will phone you at the office.  Great. Bye” We women are hard-wired in the brain to communicate more intelligently. We need to know how the other person feels. We need to share emotions. And the thought of women sharing feelings whilst driving erratically in front of me scares me. This is a generalization, but I feel no one should be driving with a mobile clenched between the shoulder and head, nevermind with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding the phone.

Now, I’m not completely against this woman. The metro might also be to blame for being a bit heavy handed. I would however probably do the same if I was almost run over. The metro police do tend to jump in front of cars without taking into consideration reaction speed and the speed with which you need to slow down to avoid hitting them. I’ve once before had to brake with screaming tires to stop in time…and I was going 60km/h at that time.

Metro police isn’t something you want your kid to grow up to be. Police maybe, but never traffic police. People despise traffic controllers, they fear them. We don’t fear police because most of us do not rob or kill people. But on a daily basis for most of us, we bend, break and disobey the traffic rules. We fear those people on their bikes next to the road with the flashing lights. Most people believe that traffic officers are people that couldn’t get a job at the tax offices. But no matter how much I dislike them, I do not believe they would pull out their guns and shoot at a moving vehicle for fun.

The next part I need to quote:” This incident has embarrassed and humiliated me. I am well known in my community and at work and always took an active part in my sons' school lives. I co-ordinated the school's fundraising drive for five years in a row, just because I wanted to”

Does this excuse her from such behaviour? Does her good heartedness mean she can break the road rules? We live in a society where the predominant culture says that whoever is the strongest may do just what he likes (Please correct me on this if I’m wrong). But this isn’t her culture, yet she thinks that excuses her from acting like this.

She also doesn’t deny nor confirm whether she was indeed doing what the metro police said she did, which leaves that element of uncertainty. Did she indeed do it? I'm asssuming she at least drove while talking on the phone.

But now, her good heartedness of organising the fundraiser comes up in the newspaper. Is that really without any gain then? Why do a good deed you will not be praised for then mention that fact to a newspaper in regards to a situation which started with her breaking the road rules by driving with a cellphone? Also, I would have preferred her name being mentioned in the newspaper because of her charity, not because of this situation.

People are getting in an uproar about this, mentioning racism from both sides. I believe this has nothing to do with the fact that she is white, and the officers black. This has nothing to do with the fact that she drove a car and not a taxi. This has to do with the fact that the road rules were (apparently) broken and enforced (apparently brutally) by the people we employ and pay to do so.

I am avidly waiting for the whole story to come out, so we can stop speculating and make an educated decision on who was wrong and who was right. But either way, people trying to hurt people (by either trying to drive over them or by hitting them until there’s blood everywhere) isn’t right.

Why can't we just get along?