No, African-Americans are not “predisposed” to criminal activity. But it’s a simple fact that in the USA African-American men are far more likely to have been previously caught up in the criminal justice system. To claim otherwise would be to deny the ongoing discrimination they face. And in the face of traffic stops that is literally “discrimination”: if you’re a police officer, is it worth the effort to stop someone for a trivial moving violation? For a little old white lady driving to church on Sunday, probably not. For an African-American male in his 20s driving through a section of the city with an elevated rate of crime, hitting the “jackpot” of an i.d. check revealing an outstanding warrant is a better bet. Police are judged by their arrest statistics, and they’re going to pursue leads with a better chance of improving those. It’s unfair to African-Americans but it’s also the result of a morally blind automatic process.
Then I apologize for failing to properly interpret your posting history.
Racial profiling to boost arrest statistics by selective traffic stops is neither; moral, blind, or automatic.
It’s also, pretty certainly, unconstitutional.
I’m confused, the first result of your linked search is that such stops were ruled constitutional.
My first link, NYPD’s Infamous Stop-and-Frisk Policy Found Unconstitutional.
That’s a different issue, motor vehicle stops are always for some clear infraction even if its a trivial traffic or vehicle code violation.
Hence,
And if you selectively enforce those laws as a pretext to fishing for ‘wants and warrants’ how long before the courts are forced to strike down those laws because they’re being selectively enforced?
Yet another glowingly ignorant view of policing in the US. There’s a whole host of reasons given by an officer pulling someone over that don’t involve the driver breaking the law in any fashion.
Including driving at the speed limit and impeding traffic on a 30 mph local road. Waiting too long at a stop sign and impeding traffic.
These are two I’ve been stopped for after I moved into two formerly lily white towns, one in Georgia and the other in New England.
Reminds me of the airport security agents who told judges that the following were suspicious and deserving of further investigation:
- Leaving the plane first,
- Leaving the plane last,
- Leaving the plane in the middle of the crowd
Police in Groves Texas (Port Arthur) write a traffic ticket on a woman who was “walking on the wrong side of the street”. In a residential neighborhood (i.e., not on a thoroughfare).
Her husband (who was not cited) recorded the encounter. All the expected elements are present here.
The shooting Saturday in Pocatello outraged the boy’s family and neighbors as well as viewers online who questioned why the officers opened fire within about 12 seconds of exiting their patrol cars while making no apparent effort to de-escalate the situation or use less lethal weapons.
Yesterday the LAPD were pursuing three men who fled the scene of a hit-and-run when one of them ran onto the property of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, whose wife Jillian was armed to defend herself from the dangerous criminals as per her Constitutional right.
The cops shot her instead and are now charging her with attempted murder.
I hope they didn’t destroy her sweater!
Is it really controversial when the police shoot back?
This feels more like a stupid gun news story than a cops are trigger happy story.
Shooting back? Is there any reason to believe she shot at the police?
If only the article posted had said something about that,
Police officers were directed to the back of a residence in the 5300 block of Waldo Place, the street where Lauren lives and where one of the suspects was seen running. There, officers saw Lauren standing in the backyard of her neighboring property with a handgun drawn, police said.
Police said she pointed the gun at officers, and they exchanged gunfire. Lauren was wounded and fled inside her home.
Pointing a firearm at the fucking POLICE tends to get a reaction.
Say it ain’t so!
“Police officers said” means nothing. What does the camera show?