Shortly after 3 A.M. on March 11, Officer Joseph Simonik of Nashville's Metro police department observed a car near the intersection of Charlotte Pike and Hillwood traveling 85 miles per hour in a 40 mile-per-hour zone.
The driver was slow to respond to Simonik's flashing lights. But the officer finally managed to flag her down. She had been speeding, 25-year-old Anupama Rangappa explained to him, while "laughing uncontrollably," because her passenger was pregnant. Only the passenger did not appear pregnant to Simonik.
Officer Simonik next administered a sobriety test. Whereupon Rangappa "became uncooperative and somewhat belligerent."
Specifically, Rangappa said, "I am on the Gore 2000 campaign, and I'm going to call the United States district attorney right now." Officer Simonik "perceived what she had to say as a threat of intimidation," according to the police report of the incident. And as if further to prove that he was not familiar with the standard style and expectations of Goreworld, Simonik then promptly arrested the young woman.
Gore campaign communications director Kathleen Begala confirmed to the Nashville Tennessean that Rangappa is a salaried employee in the candidate's scheduling office. Rangappa's attorney confirms that Rangappa knows what any Gorehead caught in such a legal pickle is supposed to do: She is now out of the country, he says, and unavailable for comment.
For the circle to be complete, there remains only one thing left to happen before Rangappa's scheduled April 6 appearance in Davidson County General Sessions Court. Any day now, THE SCRAPBOOK expects, attorney general Janet Reno will order the Department of Justice to launch a civil rights investigation of the Nashville police department.