Posted on 02/20/2022 2:09:17 PM PST by dennisw
Seattle drops bike helmet law because cops unfairly targeted people of color and homeless people: Black cyclists were four times as likely to be stopped as whites The King County Board of Health voted Thursday to repeal its decades-old mandatory helmet rule Data showed the rule was rarely enforced, but enforced disproportionately
Since 2017, Seattle police had given 117 helmet citations, more than 40 percent of which went to people who were homeless Since 2019, 60 percent of citations went to people who were homeless Central Seattle Greenways found that black cyclists were almost four times as likely to receive a citation for violating the helmet rule as white cyclists
Seattle is the largest city in the country to enforce a bike helmet requirement
King County Councilmember Joe McDermott said there are other ways of encouraging helmet use that do not rely on law enforcement, including educational campaigns and free helmet distribution The King County Council recently budgeted more than $200,000 to buy helmets and expand education programs The repeal affects most of King County, including Seattle However, 17 cities in the county, have their own laws mandating helmet use
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Since blacks are more likely to murder blacks, perhaps the laws against murder should be erased in the name of equity?!
<< Black cyclists were four times as likely to be stopped as whites >>
I’m guessing they were also far more likely not to wear one.
Ridiculous racial angle aside, I’ve never been a fan of helmet laws.
“black cyclists were almost four times as likely to receive a citation for violating the helmet rule as white cyclists”
This is unconscionable. Whites are going to have to step up and shoulder their fair share of crimes.
Black cyclists were four times as likely to be . . . carrying controlled substances to their customers. There. That fixes that problem.
“...black cyclists were almost four times as likely to receive a citation for violating the helmet rule as white cyclists...”
Are they saying that black cyclists without helmets get tickets and white cyclists without helmets don’t???
Or are they saying that four times MORE black cyclist ride without helmets than do white cyclists???
It couldn’t have anything to do with being smart enough to wear a helmet.
I call BS, I see minority yutes riding mini bikes, dirt bikes, quad runners, gators, etc down major streets with out license plates. Lights, insurance all the frigging time. Right in front of cops who refuse to stop.
It was not enforced disproportionately. It was enforced against the OFFENDERS, who are mostly highly privileged members of preferred minority groups.
North Philly!...
“Black cyclists were four times as likely to...”
Rape
murder
assault
Fail English
Fail Math
Live in single parent home
Be fast/jump high
Be an aspiring rapper/stick up boy
Complain about race
Etc...
Mandated vaccines, a violation of personal autonomy, are meant to protect the general public from the high cost of ventilators.
If they can willy nilly get rid of helmet laws why not vaccine mandates as well?
But that assumes that our dear leaders are not hypocritical totalitarians.
Exactly, the police should have more important things to do and people should have a choice regarding helmets for safety.
They mean blacks are four times less likely to get off their bikes and wait until the cop passes to avoid being stopped. Something other ethnicities seem to have a better grasp of, if you flagrantly break the law in front of a cop, he might actually do something.
Despite what affirmative-action government bureaucrat racists say, traffic laws are not enforced disproportionately, they are broken disproportionately.
https://anncoulter.com/2014/09/03/speed-kills-racial-profiling-study/
Maybe the reason black cyclists were cited four times as much as whites for not wearing a helmet is because they were four times as likely not to wear a helmet. Maybe white cyclists (who tend to be middle-class and up) - are more safety conscious than young, macho blacks.
Socialists continue to pander to their base -- black criminals.
I’m not against helmet-wearing. I’m against laws that mandate them. Glad you were wearing one.
The heartburn is probably directed at the Whren stop, aka a “pretextual stop”. SCOTUS said, in 1996, that a “detention is a detention”, and if an officer decides to stop, say, a bicyclist for a traffic violation, and, say again, in a subsequent “pat down” search pursuant to Terry V. Ohio contraband (dope, gun, illegal knife) is found, that’s admissable.
Back in the day, when cops were encouraged to be pro-active, but subject to certain legal procedural requirements, they might choose to check out a dude on a bike at zero dark thirty. They might further notice “hmm...no helmet. I’d best warn this citizen of the traffic laws here in the fine state of Washington”. Lots of mooks got the message not to bother the neighborhood in that fashion.
Sometimes people don’t like the idea of the “pretextual stop”, and there are good Libertarian arguments against it. We’re about to see Seattle put into place an experiment to test that hypothesis that we’d be better of, as a society, letting drug dealers carry on their business uninterrupted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.