Theida Salazar is a lawyer living in Atlanta. His story is the 12th installment in our series "Black and Blue: personal stories from the intersection of police and public." Salazar was interviewed by staff writer Ernie Suggs. His comments have been edited for space and clarity.
It was 2000 and I was living in Cobb. This happened right around the Home Depot headquarters in the Vinings area. I was actually stopped one night and handcuffed to my steering wheel because I was told that I broke into the Eckerd’s Drugstore.
I was like, “No I didn’t.”
I did park my car and they just assumed that because I left my car there, I was somehow connected with it. I had to beg the police officer not to put me in handcuffs in his car. I did not have a good feeling about that, so I was willing to do whatever it took to keep me out of that car. That is when he came up with the idea to handcuff me to the steering wheel.
Luckily the person that was actually the suspect was arrested. I was only handcuffed for about three minutes.
It was just the whole humiliation of it. Just being lowered and put into that situation. It just let me know that if it happened to me, it could happen to someone else.
Two years later, in 2002, still in Cobb — around the Smyrna/Vinings area — I was out jogging. Just jogging on foot. And when you come to an intersection you want to stay in motion, not just stop. And there was a Caucasian woman who was also jogging. So the police pulled up on the corner, got out of the car and asked her if I was bothering her.
She is in jogging attire. I am in jogging attire. Shirt. Shorts. Tennis shoes. Running. Sweating.
It was really humiliating and even she was appalled that they would stop and ask if I was doing something to her or threatening her just by standing at the intersection jogging.
Police response
Sgt. Dana Pierce, a spokesman for the Cobb County Police Department, said the department has no record of Salazar being stopped and detained by police in 2000.
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