Racial profiling with regards to driving laws enforcement

[TNT]

As a white female snowbird, I seem to be able to ride with quite impunity down in S.FL so I must say, I LOVE driving here!!!

I typically find myself coasting along doing 90 in 55 zones, and I'm certainly not the only one. I do get to my destinations faster than all my friends and I practise the space in front of me strategy to some extent because it allows me to speed up safely in my own slow lane before switching into openings into other lanes without impeding other drivers.

However I've noticed my black friends road behaviour is very different from my white friends, even when they're sitting in my passenger seat. I've noticed police officers will harrass them much more for the littlest things. Maybe black folks here are so -how to say- "in tune" about the racial profiling that they all seem to drive 5 mph under the speed limit.

So my two most common comments on slow clueless drivers are cellphone talkers and black folk. I'm willing to bet if I was black I'd be slowing down too cuz the cops here can be real AS*H*LES. Well, not to me of course... But I feel for you

[bossmann]

I'm absolutely speechless. Do people really believe this rubbish? Do people honestly believe that police officers let non-minority drivers pass, in the hope that minority drivers will? It would seem to me they would just want to get their quota out of the way as quickly as possible, minorities or not, why risk falling short on ticket productivity by letting some pass by in the hopes others will pass by? This just seems like an all to convenient stirring of the racial pot.

[SkyDude]

Bossmann, I belive you might be a lil bit sarcastic there.

I do rememeber way back a few decades ago when black people used to get stopped on the NJ Turnpike they would often get cuffed or chained to the guard rail back then while being interrogated for their "papers". This was after the radical types shot a trooper back then, but it went on for several years.

Used to wonder why they would pay a toll to get chained to the guardrail.

[bossmann]

I suppose the next question to be asked is how you knew it was only for a traffic infraction that they were pulled over in the first place, because if it were for a crime why wouldn't they be handcuffed? As we ride by police/troopers on the road with drivers pulled over, I suppose we can only assume that it was for a traffic violation, but since we are not aware of the reason, why do we assume a traffic infraction? In any case however, a law was broken. I have been pulled over and ticketed before, and it was for "MY" actions, "I" broke the law, so I wouldn't imagine blaming the police officer/trooper for carrying out his/her sworn oath by detaining/ticketing me. I am a firm believer in taking responsibility for my own actions. their number 1 priority is to get home to their families at the end of their shift, God Bless them and their families.

And no, I am not a trooper/police officer.

[SkyDude]

Actually you are the one assuming any law was broken. I support law enforcement and all that but we are all too conditioned to having cops. etc enforcing laws. To me that is not any of there business being on any road, unless they ate called for something. Who even came up with this ridiculous concept of cops being an the roads and extracting money from people??? Unneeded

[bossmann]

Well, yes, we are conditioned to having police enforce laws, since that is one of their sworn duties, and God bless them for doing that. We must remember we have no constitutional right to drive vehicles on public roads, it is a privilege granted to us that can be revoked. Thus, we must abide by the rules that guide that privilege, and when we don't, someone must ensure we are held responsible for failing to follow the laws. And aside from tolls, no money is being extracted from us unless our actions constitute such a fine. Obey all laws and ordinances and you won't have any money "extracted" from you.
I am all for freedoms (conservative/libertarian) but we have no absolute right to the road that the state has constructed and maintains.
As I get older and drive more safely/civilly I find I don't get pulled over/stopped as I did as a young buck who drove carelessly/selfishly. Maybe I'm just obeying those laws now.