Yup.
I’m not the only one who has faced treatment because we were younger drivers that seemed to happen for no reason whatsoever.
Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate the police and the hard work they do to keep us safe.
But profiling us and making stops that don’t contributing to reducing crime lowers the police’s image in people’s eyes and it diverts resources from tackling real crime.
If there is a valid reason for a traffic stop, sure. Just don’t pull people over because they fit a profile or they’re driving a little too fast or a little too slow.
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.