Sounds Like You Skipped A Vital Part Of Lessons To Me

Kelly Ghaisar never thought to teach her son, Bijan, to fear the police. She didn’t see the need.

I never thought that Bijan, a young man of colour, would need to know what to do if he encountered the police. We taught him they were there to protect him, not that he would ever have to protect himself from them.”

Pity you didn't teeach him that when the police pull you over, you stop. I mean, there are even instructional videos on this stuff.

After the accident, Bijan didn’t stop – Kelly doesn’t know why – and the passenger inside the Uber called 911 to report the incident and said that Bijan had fled the scene. The 911 dispatcher put out a call identifying his vehicle and he was spotted by Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya, two DC park police (a federal law enforcement agency) officers, who started a pursuit. They were joined by a police car from Fairfax county, Virginia, which recorded what followed. The park police officers pulled Bijan’s car over, got out of their vehicle and approached him, their guns raised and pointing into his car.

I guess Bijan didn't watch much Chris Rock, because he immediatel floored it! 

In the video footage of the encounter, which Fairfax county police released a few months after Bijan’s death, you can see Bijan’s Jeep driving away and then stopping a second time and Amaya running to the vehicle with his gun drawn, banging it against the window. Bijan drives off again and there is a short chase before he pulls over again and the park police stop in front of his Jeep.

And this being the US, the police promptly fired into the car. I'm sure they wouldn't have done that sort of thing in your ancestral homeland of Iran, eh?

In the seven and a half years since Bijan’s death, Kelly and her family have relentlessly fought the US government for accountability. She says that at every turn it has been denied. “When you are fighting the federal government and they close ranks, there is nowhere to go,” she says. “The park police are federal police. The FBI is a federal department. The courts are there to protect the federal government. There is no way to get justice if the justice department is against you.”

I really doubt Iran's justice system is much better.  I note she's not so disappointed in America that she's chosen to return.