Why are black people profiled and arrested in greater numbers than white people?

[JonnyVito]

I am going to make a few points. First if cops are pulling people over solely because they are black then they should be fired for racism. Now if you have a high crime area and someone makes a minor offense like failing to use a turn signal and you pull them over to make sure everything is up to par then I don't think it is racism but I do think it is the problem with cops. They use traffic stops to look for hardcore criminals when they should be out in front of the 7/11 stopping the armed robbery.

This racism stuff goes both ways though so someone could pull someone over for being black in an all white area and not necessarily be racist. Same goes for a white guy getting pulled over in an all black area because they are white. I have been in a predominantly black area of town and been pulled over. The cop didn't say this but the assumption was I was there to buy drugs or I bought drugs. So was the white cop racist? No. Was he wrong for even pulling me over? Yes

this is where I think the difference is in the two and I still think the cops are wrong in both cases. So what if I was buying drugs then catch me buying the drugs not for being in an area that I didn't fit into.

Anyways I am just kinda spit balling this as I am really busy at work and don't have the time to really put all my thoughts on this issue here at this time. Hope it makes sense I have a bad time making my thoughts make sense when I am rushed.

 

[JonnyVito]

One thing I hate about cops and just grinds my gears is them posting up in a well lit area or nice part of town to catch speeders. I fell like they are failing my hard earned tax dollars. Go out and patrol and if you catch a speeder great but while you are patrolling you might stop a crime.

Also the Southern Baptist are being profiled because I was up really early this Sunday and ran up to OKC for a few things and I left my house at 9 and saw more cops out then I do on a Friday night. All posted up looking for speeders. So the Sunday morning Church group must be terrible speeders... You heathens.

 

[imprimis]

When I was on the Dallas County Grand Jury, we heard over 2,000 cases in a 3-month period. One theme that wove its way through many of those cases was policemen stopping and arresting murderers, robbers, rapists, drug dealers, felons in possession of firearms and a host of other serious offenders by virtue of stopping people for missing license plates, burned out tail lights, improper signaling and other minor traffic violations. We (6 blacks, 5 whites and 1 Hispanic) indicted a bunch of them, too.

Another prominent theme we identified early into our term was that criminals are really stupid and are their worst enemies. We heard numerous cases where people did stupid stuff which elevated their minor offenses to felonies. One I recall was a man on parole who was stopped for jay-walking over a train track (that is an offense) while carrying a concealed Glock in his belt.

 

[hollywood]

Wyoming

What part of I LOOKED at the police report did you not understand? The ONLY witness reports documented in the police report it where from the three boys involved. So either the police didn't interview any other witnesses or didn't bother to document them if they did. (As I mentioned earlier). The Police report was released to me along with the charging documents presented to the Juvenile Court,which were basically just a rehash of what was in the police report. Please pray tell me what other "official" documents should I have looked at?

File a lawsuit? Are you freaking kidding me? Do you have ANY clue as to the cost, time and effort involved in doing that? (I was working for a law firm in SoCal at the time and there was no way I could take the case.) I can tell by your comment you have never been involved in a lawsuit, or have any clue as to what is required to prove a case against police successfully. Short of someone being shot or physically injured and it being caught on video, it's a virtual impossibility to convince a jury that there was any kind of misconduct by police.

 

[wyomingosualum]

There is no statue of limitations on civil rights violations. What's the filing fee in US District Court? Minimal. I mean, if we all know what the problem is here, I don't see what you're hesitant about. Slam dunk.

Want me to post a list of judgments against police departments for misconduct?

And good for you for taking the time to get the reports. I missed that and you didn't say that the last time you brought up the incident.

Other documentation? I'd get the dispatch recordings and the in car audio/video recordings.

And I'd find customers who were there at the time. If they paid with a debit or credit card or check I would find them. Don't dismiss me because I don't have a law degree.

Of course, that was all 12 years ago, so maybe it is too late now. It wasn't too late at one time, but it probably is now...which begs the question "Why bring it up in the first place?"

 

[hollywood]

Wyoming,

I'm going to say this one more time, you don't have a clue as to what it takes to bring a winning lawsuit in a case like this - the amount of time, money, effort, etc. Bottom line, since he was a juvenile and there was no jail time (juvie hall) imposed as punishment, the best course of action was to simply let it go, knowing that his records would be sealed in a few years and that it would not come back to haunt him as an adult.

The point of bringing it up in the first place? Was to point to a reason why statistics regarding the race of "criminals" can be skewed by certain profiling or assumptions on the part of LE. The mere fact that the police only checked him for weapons, cuffed him, etc. BEFORE even asking questions, while not taking any steps to check either white kid for weapons or cuffing them indicates that there were certain presumptions being made. And I certainly don't think that to infer that there was a racial element at play is out of line. (Whether that happened on the part of the caller who reported it, the dispatcher who sent the squad car or the police who arrived on the scene and immediately cuffed him.) Then to add insult to injury, even after being told directly by the other two kids involved that he was neither the aggressor and only acted in self defense, the police officers and DA still chose to hold him and him alone responsible.

 

[wyomingosualum]

I'm going to say this one more time, you don't have a clue as to what it takes to bring a winning lawsuit in a case like this - the amount of time, money, effort, etc. Bottom line, since he was a juvenile and there was no jail time (juvie hall) imposed as punishment, the best course of action was to simply let it go, knowing that his records would be sealed in a few years and that it would not come back to haunt him as an adult.

So, in other words, racism isn't worth fighting. It's easier to just bitch about 12 years later. Got it.

And don't assume I'm clueless about civil process. If I decide to file a civil suit, I'll use the discovery process and depositions to make my opponent's life miserable. And I'd do most of it myself.

Here's my bottom line: I get tired of the left blaming racism for whatever problems society faces, whether it's provable or not. It's actually become fashionable to blame racism instead of take responsibility for one's own actions. That's not to say that racism no longer exists. It does. But it's become far too easy to just fling out the racism accusation when no real burden of proof is required, just do it because *wink* *wink* we all know what's up with that.