I was driving the other day and heard a news story, something about racial profiling. So over the next half hour or so, I tried to figure out the race of the driver of the car ahead of me. In almost every case it was impossible, just a silhouette of a head, sometimes obscured by the headrest.
So a cop is driving around, and every time he sees a driver up ahead do something dangerous, illegal or stupid, he hits the siren and pulls them over. Then someone screams “racism” when the statistics show that the cop had pulled over a larger number of blacks than whites.
My question: how can it be “racial profiling” when the cop doesn’t know the race of the driver until after he’s decided to pull them over?
who says that the position of the police officer is behind the other car? My experience has been that they’re sitting by the side of the road and looking at oncoming traffic.
Nevertheless, it’s a good question to ask. Even looking at approaching vehicles, I think it’s questionable whether a cop operating radar is aware, or can identify, the driver’s race most of the time. At night with cars moving at highway speed, I’d say it’s essentially impossible.
I have no doubt that many cops over the years have stopped non-white motorists just (or mainly) because they weren’t white, particularly in slower-traffic city settings. But I seriously question whether some folks would even acknowledge the possibility that in some areas, some crimes or violations actually are committed by higher percentages of non-whites. It might be a tough thing to sort out objectively.
You do realize that the highway isn’t the only place police officers pull people over, right? In urban situations, it is commonplace to follow a car for a block or two while making a determination of whether or not to make a stop (often, the tags will be run during this interval). Sizing up an individual’s race, gender, and approximate age while stopped behind them at a traffic light is not an insurmountable task.
It’s just not that difficult to determine the race of a driver. Very often on the highway, right before I get pulled over, the officer drives up next to my car, glances inside my car–checking out passengers, etc–and then pulls me over.
Other times I have been the definite victim of racial profiling (more than once), so I can speak from experience. Once while driving through a neighborhood, a police car passed by me going in the opposite direction. While passing me, the cops got a good look at me – they then proceeded to make a U-turn & pulled me over. My only offense was having a different colored skin than the residents of this neighborhood!
Unlike the OP, I have absolutely no trouble determining the skin color of drivers I pass on the road. I can also see the race of drivers in cars next to me & ones that pass by me when I’m stopped at an intersection. Not being able to tell the race of a driver of the car directly in front of you is a bad argument against racial profiling.