Chapter 19 - Page 275 - Louisiana Law

   The officer was putting handcuffs on Rhasha.

   "Girls," Jim said, "everything will be all right, you'll see."

   One of the officers grabbed Shanha and pulled her to the side. Rhasha and Shanha were both crying. Shanha clutched her teddy bear.

   "I know everything will be okay." Rhasha sniffled. "They think they're tough, wearing those badges, but they don't know God will protect you."

   All the officers began to laugh. The arresting officer laughed the loudest. "With this black girl," he said, "I thought you were a pimp. Now I'm wondering if you're a preacher. It doesn't matter, though," he added. "Where you're going, you're going to need all the God you can get."

   "What do you mean, where I'm going?" Jim yelled. "What are you doing to us?"

   The officer slapped Jim callously on the back. "Partner," he said, mocking Jim's Texan accent, "I'm arresting you for transporting an illegal substance into the great state of Louisiana."

   "That's crazy," Jim replied, "I don't have any drugs, and you know it."

   All the cops laughed again. "If I say you have drugs," the officer said, "then you have drugs. See how petrified my dog is? He could smell drugs all the way back to my car." The three assisting officers snickered.

   Jim couldn't believe what was happening. Rhasha and Shanha had stopped crying and were looking at the sky, waiting for God to turn the four cops into donkeys.

   "Does the great state of Louisiana arrest a man for transporting drugs without even searching his truck?" Jim asked, trying to reason with the officer.

   "Oh, so you want us to search your truck?" the officer sneered. He looked at one of the assisting officers and pointed to the Freightliner. "Mark, get in the truck and get that four pounds of marijuana out of this driver's glove box."

   Jim knew this wasn't right. "What about a search warrant?"