A once-puzzling police stop made sense only after the informant revelation.

Evidence

That evening Ra’ed had asked her for a ride to an apartment where a friend of his was staying. He wanted to drop something off, and she waited in the car with her sister. A few minutes later, he was back, and as he sank into his seat, a New York Police Department van, light flashing cherry red, pulled up quickly behind them. The police ordered them out and kept each of them separately on various sides of the car, asking them how they knew one another and taking their identification. For twenty minutes they couldn’t talk to one another until the police finally returned their IDs and told them to leave. They got back into the car and drove away. “That was weird,” Lina said, the other two nodding. Now that episode didn’t seem so strange. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 667