The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black

[AthenaAwakened]

Here in North Carolina’s third-largest city, officers pulled over African-American drivers for traffic violations at a rate far out of proportion with their share of the local driving population. They used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.

Officers were more likely to stop black drivers for no discernible reason. And they were more likely to use force if the driver was black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.

The routine nature of the stops belies their importance.

As the public’s most common encounter with law enforcement, they largely shape perceptions of the police. Indeed, complaints about traffic-law enforcement are at the root of many accusations that some police departments engage in racial profiling. Since Ferguson erupted in protests in August last year, three of the deaths of African-Americans that have roiled the nation occurred after drivers were pulled over for minor traffic infractions: a broken brake light, a missing front license plate and failure to signal a lane change.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?_r=0

 

[scombrid]

I'm sure the folks that are busy in the South Carolina school thread will be along presently to tell us this is a race baiting bullshit myth, that blacks deserve to get pulled more often because they are just guilty as hell.

The thing I don't get is what kind of blinders people must have. I grew up in Elizabeth City, NC and then southern Virginia. I know for a fact that us white people received different treatment. There's no "white guilt" or anything else on my part. It just is the way it was and likely still is to some degree. Elizabeth City is like a little Greensboro.

In Rockledge/Cocoa Florida we still do. Rufus can hardly roll through my neighborhood looking for scrap metal on trash day without getting pulled over and searched. Meanwhile the drunk housewives that start hitting the sauce mid afternoon are a menace to us working folks that are out exercising on the river road after work and they never get pulled.

Edit: We really do have a guy that I call Rufus in a beat-up truck that grabs scrap metal and he is finally enough of a regular in the neighborhood that Rockledge PD leaves him alone.

Also, I did not know that my partner had failed to pick up her registration last year. She drove for 9 months on an expired tag and never got pulled. Such is life for a pretty white girl in a non-descript Honda with university vanity plates.

 

[ZiprHead]

Loren to say blacks violate more in 3... 2...

 

[scombrid]

National surveys show that blacks and whites use marijuana at virtually the same rate, but black residents here are charged with the sole offense of possession of minor amounts of marijuana five times as often as white residents are.

This jumped out at me.

Apologists will just tell us that is because the blacks are lying on the surveys.

But seriously, how can anyone not see that being 5X more likely to be searched in a traffic stop despite being 0.8 to 1X as likely to have contraband is something that is going to breed resentment and distrust?

I say "breed" but "continue" is probably a better word given the Elizabeth City that I knew.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Here in North Carolina’s third-largest city, officers pulled over African-American drivers for traffic violations at a rate far out of proportion with their share of the local driving population. They used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.

Officers were more likely to stop black drivers for no discernible reason. And they were more likely to use force if the driver was black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.

The routine nature of the stops belies their importance.

As the public’s most common encounter with law enforcement, they largely shape perceptions of the police. Indeed, complaints about traffic-law enforcement are at the root of many accusations that some police departments engage in racial profiling. Since Ferguson erupted in protests in August last year, three of the deaths of African-Americans that have roiled the nation occurred after drivers were pulled over for minor traffic infractions: a broken brake light, a missing front license plate and failure to signal a lane change.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?_r=0

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses--even when the cops don't know the race of the person involved. (For example, because a plate reader squawked about the car.)

 

[Loren Pechtel]

National surveys show that blacks and whites use marijuana at virtually the same rate, but black residents here are charged with the sole offense of possession of minor amounts of marijuana five times as often as white residents are.

This jumped out at me.

Apologists will just tell us that is because the blacks are lying on the surveys.

But seriously, how can anyone not see that being 5X more likely to be searched in a traffic stop despite being 0.8 to 1X as likely to have contraband is something that is going to breed resentment and distrust?

I say "breed" but "continue" is probably a better word given the Elizabeth City that I knew.

Blacks are more likely to be arrested at a stop--and you always get searched when you're arrested.

 

[ksen]

Loren to say blacks violate more in 3... 2...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?_r=0

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses--even when the cops don't know the race of the person involved. (For example, because a plate reader squawked about the car.)

winner! winner! chicken dinner!

 

[ZiprHead]

Tasty!

 

[Rhea]

Seriously. What on earth does society _do_ about the Lorens of the country? I know I have some in my community. They are like little pools of poison. Or radioactive waste just leaking their destructive juice into a community. Bad bad bad for society.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?_r=0

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses--even when the cops don't know the race of the person involved. (For example, because a plate reader squawked about the car.)

Please explain in detail why the following is not problematic to you:

Officers were more likely to stop black drivers for no discernible reason.

Your response that there was a traffic violation disproportion is contradicted by there being "no discernible reason."

They used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.

In this other statistic, even if the original reason for pulling over black drivers was because as you assert more traffic violations, it would not absolve police officers from using that as cover to search vehicles.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?_r=0

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

I assume nothing. The numbers speak for themselves.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses--even when the cops don't know the race of the person involved. (For example, because a plate reader squawked about the car.)

Proof?

Loren, care to explain

• [Police] used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.
• Officers were more likely to stop black drivers for no discernible reason.
• [Police] were more likely to use force if the driver was black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.

 

[ksen]

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

I assume nothing. The numbers speak for themselves.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses--even when the cops don't know the race of the person involved. (For example, because a plate reader squawked about the car.)

Proof?

Loren, care to explain

• [Police] used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.
• Officers were more likely to stop black drivers for no discernible reason.
• [Police] were more likely to use force if the driver was black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.

Obviously those black drivers should have chosen to be born white instead. Just another example of their poor decision making culture.

 

[Rhea]

They didn't pull up their white by the bootstraps.

 

[Terrell]

Police should have to justify their stops as well as their searches on a case by case basis. They should not be allowed to take race or gender into account in such things, as such things are accidents of birth. People should be judged by their actions as individuals rather than their demographic.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?_r=0

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses--even when the cops don't know the race of the person involved.

So are you going to use numbers and prove it isn't discrimination and blacks are just worse drivers?

 

[Nice Squirrel]

I love the circular arrest logic, Black people are more likely to be searched because they get arrested and they are searched as part of the arrest so to find things to arrest them for.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I love the circular arrest logic, Black people are more likely to be searched because they get arrested and they are searched as part of the arrest so to find things to arrest them for.

Dizzying, but correct.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?_r=0

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses-

Of course they do. They drive in the wrong neighborhood, drive a fancier car than they should, and listen to R&B (or once listened to it). Cops need to prevent these criminals from committing violent crimes and put them behind bars

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Once again you assume the numbers prove discrimination.

Reality: Blacks commit more traffic offenses-

Of course they do. They drive in the wrong neighborhood, drive a fancier car than they should, and listen to R&B (or once listened to it). Cops need to prevent these criminals from committing violent crimes and put them behind bars

Hmm, they can dance and dominate professional sports, but they can't drive to save their lives. Must explain why there are so few black race car drivers.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Of course they do. They drive in the wrong neighborhood, drive a fancier car than they should, and listen to R&B (or once listened to it). Cops need to prevent these criminals from committing violent crimes and put them behind bars

Hmm, they can dance and dominate professional sports, but they can't drive to save their lives. Must explain why there are so few black race car drivers.

Well to be fair, those race cars might have been stolen or bought with drug money. Better to civil forfeit them and have the owners prove they were not used in a crime.