Driving While Not White
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5 Responses to “Driving While Not White”
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February 5th, 2003 at 11:02 am
The sensitivity to the follow up each individual by police
February 12th, 2003 at 3:09 pm
As an African American we have historically been subjugated by the police departments across the states. This issue has been around for as long as we have been in this country. Black males have been vilified in all media outlets and it is deemed acceptable to suspect them of something even if they are abiding by the law. Whether walking running or driving they are subject to unprovoked harrassment by the police. Quite often the race of the officer is irrelevent, we have learned to fear even our own.
February 19th, 2003 at 4:26 pm
Hmmm. If a group is caught committing more than half of the crimes in a given area despite constituting 25% of the population it stands to reason they will be pulled over more than 25% of the time. It doesn’t help if the windshield is cracked and the registration expired on the car. Police contacts are based on police experience of who is creating problems and who is not. One would expect more males to be pulled over than females despite any percentage in the population. Males commit lots more crimes and lots more of the violent crimes. It’s a guy thing. The difference in criminality between certain groups is of the same magnitude as male/female difference. Yes certain ethnics in certain cities commit LOTS more crimes.
There is no reason for police car stops to ever match city demographics because crime doesn’t follow the demographics. Nor does intelligence.
We pay cops to control free range parolees. They all know how to recognize each other. Let them play together.
Now having said that some kind of probable cause is still required for a traffic stop.
It’s not a problem if most criminals are really dumb and broadcast probable cause for stops. - The expired reg, the cracked windshield, the bad/intoxicated driving. Or just being Young and Dumb - loud radio, littering, etc.
All this will create disparate racial statistics for car stops because intelligence and criminality and not evenly distributed by race (at least for the moment) and some races tend to have younger avg age in a given city.
There is nothing racist is saying what your eyes can see. In a city with a 85% female headed household rate by one race and a 20% or less rate by another race you won’t have similar police contact numbers for the two races over time - fatherless boys no matter what race have big problems with socialization and criminality. They will generate disparate numbers.
So to answer the point, it is of little concern that the pullover/search rates are disparate. They are never supposed to match. I pay taxes to have the police keep order. I expect their attentions to follow well extablished demographic trends that are tied to criminality. In that the races are never equal. You can’t have Equality where you have Freedom, the two conflict. We have chosen Freedom in the USA. We can still change and have less freedom and more equality. Other countries are moving that direction.
April 29th, 2003 at 7:45 am
and we as a country are moving in the other direction. More rights/freedom for whites and less and less freedom for other races. If you are ok with that then so be it. But I think as a society we are GOING IN A wrong direction.
February 26th, 2004 at 8:32 pm
Believe me, if you are an African American, African, West Indian, etc., male of the black race, then you had better be careful! I don’t agree with the cracked window, expired reg, etc. Caucasions have the same cracked window, expired reg. Police do not have the time, whether because of quota or laziness to check each and every suspicious person that they come across. But they do have time to pull over and search a suspicious looking Black person. To them a suspicious looking Black person could be in a “hot ride”, without the cracked window, exp. reg, exp. tag, etc. They assume that “we” do not have the money to buy that car legally, and so they assume that it must be stolen! But this is seldomly assumed when you are Caucasion. Yes, Caucasions do have more oppurtunity to afford that nice car, but some of “us” are fortunate to have that nice ride also. So please, do not rationalize this fact. Racial profiling is rampant in our colorful lives. I am an educated black woman who loves all of my black men. I urge them to use street smarts as well as get a good education to survive in this crazy, racist society.