Bullied and Intimidated by Medford PD at traffic stop.

I want to preface this by saying that I'm a 45 year old father and law-abiding resident of Medford. I think I've had one speeding ticket in the last 10 years, and a squeaky-clean driving record otherwise.

The first thing I noticed were the lights behind me as I was about to make a left from Mystic Ave onto Hancock St in South Medford. The car behind me (with the lights) was a green, older model Crown Victoria. I looked at my speed, 40mph. "Not so fast for Mystic Ave", I thought. My first thought was that it was a fireman on the way to an emergency, but I was soon to be proven wrong. I made my left and he was still behind me. I pulled over, and he pulled over behind me. I was confused, and maybe a little scared as to who this was pulling me over. After all, this did not look like a Medford PD vehicle.

Through my rearview, I see an older gentleman in plain clothes (jeans and a fleece) storming towards my car, visibly angry. My windows were already open as he gets to my window and just looks down at me angrily, not saying a word. I'm thinking "Who is this guy?" I thought he was about to hit me, as I said "You need to identify yourself". He leans over, gets in my face, reaches to his belt and pulls out his badge and sticks it in my face. He screams "Here is my %$%# identification. License and registration you %$%#%". As I was looking for my registration, he continued to verbally abuse me and I decided at that point to record a video of the encounter. . I informed him I was doing this first before grabbing my license, and he pulled out his phone to told me he was going to take a video as well. I found this a little odd, but was not threatened by his phone. It was clear to me at this point that I somehow upset this guy on the road, and he was obviously having a road rage moment.

Once the video started, the officer identified himself fully for the first time. Sgt Jimmy Graub (sp?) of Medford PD. As I was searching for my registration, the officer was holding his phone right next to my face and his other hand was behind his back on his side arm (see picture). Seeing this out of my periphery gave me the shakes. I explained to him, while handing him my info, that he frightened me quite a bit and I meant no disrespect. I mentioned a similar incident in Medford last year where a plain clothes police officer scared and threatened a driver and that I had cause to be scared and ask for ID. He continued to verbally abuse me, saying that my attitude was bad and it was "how" I asked for identification. He told me he stopped me for speeding (53mph by his speedometer) and passing on the right. It's possible I passed a slow car in the left lane on mystic ave (maybe that's what set him off) but I do not believe I was going anywhere near 50mph. So now I feel like I am dealing with a road-raging detective who is making up stuff to justify his traffic stop. I continue to cooperate while getting verbally abused, and then 2 cruisers show up. One of the officers in the cruiser asks if I know why I was pulled over. I wanted to say, "Yes because your coworker over there has an anger issue". But I know better and said "Yes, he explained it to me".

After a few minutes of waiting, both officers return to my car. The verbal abuse starts again: "If you appealed this to the court you would lose just because of your attitude". I explain again how scared I was. He again complains about my attitude and says I must not be originally from this city (sounded very discriminatory to me, and I've lived in the area for 18 years). He says "I haven't given a ticket in 30 years and I'm not going to start today, but I remember faces and if I see your face again..." I yes him to death, and finally got on my way after 20 mins of abuse.

While I'm unsure if any of my civil rights were violated, I find the entire encounter despicable. I was happy that I chose to video tape the encounter, but would've preferred a ticket that I could appeal. I've already been in touch with the Mayor's office about the encounter and they are handling the matter. They informed me that the officer was in fact a detective. I know that incidents like this have happened before in Medford, and it seems there may be a more systemic issue with officers with anger problems. In the meantime, if you get pulled over by anyone, start recording immediately. I have a feeling if I recorded the beginning of this encounter, the officer would be fighting for his job. Let's be diligent citizens and not let the police abuse us. For me, I'm getting a dash cam installed this weekend in case this detective "Sees my face" again.

I think the worst thing about this encounter is that such a minor infraction could set off a police detective to pull over a resident of this town and bully him for 20 minutes. This does not seem like appropriate use of my tax dollars.