Posted on 11/27/2014 2:21:28 PM PST by Kaslin
Black anger that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was not charged for killing Michael Brown stems partly from the fact that blacks in America often face much worse treatment from cops than whites do. Only rarely do whites get an unpleasant taste of what minorities have to swallow.
A few years ago, when my middle child was in college, he had a summer job in New Mexico. Returning home to Illinois, he drove into Oklahoma, where he was pulled over by a highway patrolman.
He said my son was going 57 mph in a 55 zone, asked him to get into his cruiser and questioned him about where he was coming from and where he was going. Then the trooper said he'd like to search the car.
My son was reluctant, but eventually decided he had no choice but to agree. The officer thoroughly inspected the vehicle, which he damaged in the process, and found nothing.
With that, young Chapman was allowed to go -- without a speeding ticket. But 20 minutes later, another trooper followed him for several miles and pulled him over for an "improper lane change."
My son recounted his previous encounter to the officer, who made a call to confirm it and then explained why he was worthy of so much law enforcement attention: He was a young adult male in a car with an out-of-state license plate and a college decal, driving solo on a major drug trafficking route (an interstate highway) -- as if those factors proved anything.
What the trooper didn't mention is that from a distance, because of his dark hair and complexion, my son might be taken for Hispanic. In any event, he let him leave -- again, with no citation.
If you want to know why many black residents of Ferguson, Mo., distrusted cops even before Brown's shooting, you can assume that practices like this play a role. In 2013, 86 percent of all the traffic stops there involved African-Americans, and they were twice as likely to be subjected to vehicle searches as whites who were stopped.
The Ferguson police search blacks more often even though they are far less likely to be found with contraband than whites. These disparities are typical of vehicle "consent searches" in other jurisdictions.
The searches are known by that term because they may not be conducted without the agreement of the motorist. (If the cop has "probable cause" that he'll find evidence of a crime, he can search without asking.) But it's a joke. Few drivers are willing to say no.
Why would anyone -- particularly someone with illegal cargo -- cheerfully agree to have his car ransacked? Because he figures it would be worse to antagonize an armed cop, who might ticket him, arrest him, plant incriminating evidence or even shoot him. In Illinois, about 90 percent of search requests are granted.
Some states and cities have recognized that these requests are inherently coercive and unfairly target minorities. So they have restricted such searches, requiring "reasonable suspicion" of a crime and written consent from the driver. But those limits may be a false comfort.
The Illinois State Police says its officers request permission only when they have reasonable suspicion. But Harvey Grossman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, says what the term encompasses is so elastic that "it's no impediment at all."
It's also a lousy guide. Consent searches in Illinois yield contraband in 18 percent of searches. In Missouri, the hit rate is just 24 percent.
A lot of innocent people are delayed, inconvenienced and even humiliated because a cop had some flimsy and usually mistaken basis -- or because the officer's racial biases, conscious or unconscious, set off false alarms. What looks to cops like aggressive law enforcement often looks to victims like harassment and vandalism.
Police are not very good at overcoming those prejudices even when they're revealed. Illinois has been collecting and publishing racial data on traffic stops and searches since 2004, and disparities persist.
It's clear that the only way to protect motorists from being pressured into unwanted, racially skewed searches is to forbid the misnamed consent searches entirely. If cops have clear grounds to think a crime has been committed, they can search anyway. If they don't, they should mind their own business.
Why do so many blacks and Hispanics see the cops as enemies? Because in situations like these, they are.
Author seems to mistakenly believe that support for Officer Wilson is indicative of blind support for police action in general, which could not be further from the truth. There are bad apples, I’ve experienced it myself as have quite a few. If I thought for one second that Wilson’s actions were questionable, I’d be a little more understanding and supportive. It has nothing to do with his race or the race of Michael Brown. It has everything to do with the law and the behavior of the two individuals in question under that law. Brown violated the law, attempted to wrest a gun away from a police officer that he’d attacked. He was shot as a result, and died. Brown was responsible for his actions and he’s responsible for his fate. He’s responsible, not Wilson, not “the system,” not white people. Had he behaved differently, obeyed the law and not attacked a police officer, he would be alive today.
I am white, and I have been pulled over for some weird reasons too. On a particularly cold day in St. Louis a cop pulled me over and asked me a bunch of questions about where I had been and where I was going and why was I in the area.
When I got home that night, they were on the lookout for a robbery suspect driving a white car similar to mine and a driver wearing a black hat with a brim. I had on a similar hat, because my heater wasn't working very well, and I felt like I was freezing.
Another time I had to drive home using one of those odd sized emergency spare tires, so I was driving about 45 mph in a 55 mph zone. The cop wanted to know why I was driving so slow. I explained, we chatted, and he said take it easy on the way home. There were some bars along that stretch, and I think he wanted to see if I was DUI.
I've also had encounters with jerks. Sometimes I'd like to pepper them with insults, but that's not prudent. To help me to be polite, I try to remember, he might be having a bad day.
For example: He might have insomnia and only got an hour of sleep, his wife might have served him with divorce papers, he and his ex wife might have had a knock down drag out fight, a drunk might have puked on his shoes, some thug might have tried to shoot him earlier that night.
I don't see what the big deal is with getting pulled over.
How funny, I was just thinking of when my oldest daughter got a ticket for going 57 in a 55 mile zone. It wasn’t the slightest bit icy - it was a well known speed trap that helps pay the city’s bills(neighboring town).
She should have stayed alert to where she was and what the speedometer said.
>>How about a series of articles (will take that much) on what racially biased criminality looks like.
The numbers to start with would be murders of blacks, by blacks. Because over 90% are in this category, at per capita rates around 7X to 8X those of murders by whites.
Murder is hard to ignore because it leaves a body behind, and we take it seriously. When you have such huge disparities in the rates, you have to think the criminal behavior manifests itself in other areas as well, and that this isn’t an artifact of biased policing.
I was born and raised in Germany and when I went to school a policeman came every so often to our classroom to talk, you know how to safely cross the street. First look left, then right, then left again. And he always said: remember the police is your friend and helper. I found this to be true many times. The father of one of my schoolmates was a police man and he might have been the one who came to our school. Our town only had a population of 3000 people
Huh? Are you for real? You mean when there is an accident, or a robbery they shouldn’t be allowed to respond?
The important point is; Don’t give the police any reason to search you, your vehicle or your house
That is certainly ridiculous, unless there is a strict speed limit. In our town and county you can go five miles over the speed limit without being stopped. It might even be ten miles, but more than that you are stopped.
Blacks kill cops at a rate 4-5 times that of their percentage of general population
Hispanics.... not so much....bout like “woods” do
Most lethal cop killers.....ask any cop
Military looking white guys in pickups or SUV with para style decals
Usually better armed....better aim and more motivated by ideology
How many numbers are you averaging?
It is ridiculous. But it’s also well known, and the area where they park and watch is as well.
Anyone who wants can make sure to avoid a ticket by making sure they obey the law.
I went through a spate when taking my kid to and from school during daylight of getting stopped frequently. My experience was not unique. It seemed cops were targeting women, especially with young children in the car, because stopping people like us was safe and easy. Low hanging fruit. No resistance, just pay the ticket, Ma’am. Much easier than fighting real crime.
One afternoon I only drove through the nearby town [which I had taken to calling “The People’s Republic of ...” because of their speed traps, aggressive enforcement and Mayor’s Court], because I had stopped on the way home from school to buy rabbit food. Usually I used other routes. It had been a stressful day, I was tired, it was a 25 mph speed trap [a later mayor changed it to a more reasonably 35], I knew it was a speed trap, and I was not pushing it. The large donut muncher who pulled me over had the audacity of accusing me of going 45! Why not, the higher over the limit, the more money — certainly a stressed out mother with a kid in the car would just roll over and pay the fine.
I let him have a piece of my mind. I said, officer, I remember (and I do) when police officers would assist mothers with children, protect them, look out for them, and certainly not harass them by giving them tickets — because it was not possible I had been going 45, and therefore he was just trying to take advantage of me for money.
He blurted out — well you don’t pay taxes in town [giving the game away that it was indeed revenue enhancement.]
I said when my husband worked at XYZ (well known business in town whose owner was a known police benefactor) we paid income taxes in town!
My daughter was afraid I had crossed the line with my back-talk.
I could not sign the ticket admitting I had been going 45, which would have been a lie. So I had to go to the arraignment. Since my daughter had no where else to go, she went with me. Plead not guilty, the cop was not there, and I thought that would be the end of it. No, I had to come back for the trial. Again I put on my best business suit, with Army retirement pin, and asked my daughter to take notes which I could not do standing before the bar.
As it turns out, donut muncher did not appear to testify, so I was let off.
One can only hope he was chasing real criminals. Like Lulu in the Stephanie Plumm bounty hunter series, he could have sat on the perps to subdue them. HA!
Maybe my words got through to him — after all he had a mother.
He did not draw a weapon on me.
If they do the crime, they pay the fine. Fortunately, not that many out of town people come through. It’s on a state highway tiny town - blink and you miss it. And the state road is just a link between a Podunk town and another Small town, with the blink town in between.
Well I didn’t get pulled over there very much, but I did get a few for “peddle to the metal” when I was commuting 75 miles to St. Louis and 75 miles home.
I have to admit every single one of the Highway Patrol guys were polite, and I was always polite too. I did have one or two that I thought were in error, and I said your going to have to show me the radar gun. They knocked it down to the range that was in line with what I knew I was doing.
I had a lawyer in St. Louis and another in the area that I used. They would go to court, so I wouldn’t have to. A deal was struck for something like excessive noise, so the points didn’t go on my license.
The one time I did go to night court, a teenage delivery boy backed out and hooked the bumper on my car, and pulled it out of the parking space, and damaged my car a little.
So a cop came in and announced what had happened and described the car, so I had to leave the court room for a while. When I got back and my case came up, the Judge asked for a plea.
I said not guilty your honor, but if it’s all the same to you I’d like to settle this now, and save everyone some time and money. The judge said, fine and pointed to the Asst. Prosecutor and said see him when the court is dismissed. So we worked it out. I paid court costs, and went on a 1 year probation. At the end of one year with no tickets, the charges were dropped. Gone from the record.
Highway Patrol are in my experience also, almost always professional. I even gave my feedback to the donut muncher in a non-threatening way. As a citizen, I thought I had a right to express myself to a civil servant.
I agree with getting a lawyer if necessary.
If everyone who got an unjust ticket went to court, maybe towns would let their law enforcement officers be just that and stop the charade of “revenue enhancement” in the name of public safety.
Think of the young highway patrolman, who got his professional training, and now has to meet quotas. How humiliating! Not what he or she joined up for in most cases.
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