“The cops…doing what’s best for america!”

I started today with the thought that great things were coming my way today. We had acceptance from ABC and CBS to come and cover this 500 mile run. Again we started a little late, which meant I had to push myself really hard to run more and walk less.

We took the walking route outlined by google maps, which again took me through some of the most depressed suburbs of Philadelphia. I am so grateful for the reception I have had in these poor and evidently dangerous parts of town (there was a triple shooting today in wilmington where I ran through yesterday) and have felt so very blessed and oddly enough…safe.

Once I made it through and onto highway 13, I thought we were home clear to run straight on to Philadelphia. Boy was I wrong. After a few miles, Sannie pulled up along side me and said he had to go take a little pit stop. In order to keep moving ahead since I was a bit behind schedule, I just kept on running.

Finally, Sannie came back and I was able to fill up my water pack and get a little salt. Just a few minutes later, we heard sirens off in the distance and before we knew it they pulled up…right where we were. Not one…but two!

As I hopped out to hand out my cards and tell them about the run 4 the rescue, more cops showed up and it was obvious that this was unlike any police encounter I’ve had thus far. The first cops weren’t quite sure what to do and deferred to the police that were still on their way. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by ten police cars and at least that many police. As it turns out, I was about 3 miles away from state correctional facility and the cops had received about 9 calls about a guy running away in shackles.

They were acting all high and mighty and trying to intimidate me that they should just lock me up for disorderly conduct and impound the car. They were quite upset that we had all raised this ruckus “just because I wanted to act like an idiot!” Finally the head honcho came and finally gave me the ultimatum to “take the chains off right that instant or they would put some of their own on me!”

I couldn’t believe what was happening. A guy tries to do something great to help end the second most profitable illegal activity in the world and the COPS are there threating to make an arrest. The other thing I couldn’t believe is that with ten cops, not one had any kind of clear understanding about human trafficking - until we said sex work and then they cite a recent arrest covered by the news media in Virginia or something. No wonder modern day slavery is blossoming across america…even many of the cops and border guards don’t know what to look for!