The tape spooled off of the old five inch reel, and I listened in disbelief to its contents. In some courtroom, decades ago, a 50-something black woman stands before a judge, charged with brandishing a knife on a bus, and tells her story.
It’s a troubling tale from the start, with her tale of a man who was “pullin’ his privates” in the sparsely populated bus, and how he followed her for a bit after the both got off the bus. Traumatized, when she got on another bus, hours later, she was caught walking up and down the aisles, brandishing the knife, unable to explain quite why to the satisfaction of the judge, but indicating that she worried the man might get on this bus, too.
Oh, the questions – why was this recorded? When? How did it end up, unlabeled, in one of the batches of tapes that I picked up somewhere?
Unknown - He Was Pullin' His Privates... (MP3)
Incidentally, I’ve labeled this track as being by “Unknown” (despite the fact that the woman in question identifies herself), so as not to broadcast her name via the labeling of the track here, where it could end up found in a search. The recording lasts about ten minutes, with no indication of why it was recorded. After she is fined, the recording is turned off, and there is about two more minutes of tape, containing the remnants of two other, unrelated recordings, which I’ve also included:
Wow. Just wow.
Posted by: stu | March 05, 2012 at 08:57 PM
A "choice morsel" indeed! There's more fresh data on here about gender, race, class, crime, public transportation, accents, attitudes, and the justice system than 10 typical sociology dissertations.
Posted by: fatherflot | March 08, 2012 at 07:21 PM
The person doing the questioning sounds a lot like Judge Wapner from "The People's Court."
Posted by: J. Theakston | April 15, 2012 at 12:48 PM
You couldn't make that up. What a document!
Posted by: db | May 10, 2012 at 07:57 AM