One hot summer afternoon in 1998, 37-year-old Sgt. 1st class Rossano Gerald and his young son drove across the Oklahoma border into "the twilight zone." A highly decorated veteran of Desert Storm, career soldier, and a black man of Panamanian descent, SFC Gerald was unable to travel more than 30 minutes without twice being stopped by two different patrol cars.

On the second stop, troopers placed both father and son in a closed car with a police dog for two and a half hours. The air conditioning was off and fans spewed hot air. They were warned the dog would attack if an escape was attempted. Halfway through the ordeal, the Oklahoma troopers shut off the patrol car's video evidence camera. Rossano and Gregory Gerald were victims of a discriminatory practice called racial profiling.

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