@poetsheart Not the 80s, but yes, a long time ago. That was the most egregious incident but, as little as a year ago, I went to the ATM at my bank. The branch was closed but it was still light out. My son stayed in the car as I hopped out. I made the withdrawal and walked toward the car, keys in hand. My son opened the car door and the car alarm went off for a second or two since I quickly clicked it off. I got in the car, started the engine and started to back out-- to find a police car blocking my way. I rolled down the window and the police officer asked me if I was okay. I said yes and he asked who the young man was and I said my son. He let us go. Obviously, he was wondering if I was some sort of victim because I had a young, black male in the car.
Another incident, this time in New York, same son. Son had a music lesson with a professor at a school where he was applying. This was in a NYC suburb, one of the more expensive ones. We got there early and waited in the car, 15-30 minutes. When the time arrived, we got out of the car and walked toward the house. We were stopped by police because a neighbor had called police, saying we were suspicious. Mind you, my son was carrying his instruments and music. I had to show id, wait while he ran my drivers license and car plates and when I threatened to report the incident as racial profiling, he said he would say I turned without signaling, a total lie.
This stuff never, ever happens to me alone. I am a short, middle-aged white woman with a college education.
Some random thoughts: I think the “is this your car?” Question was really just the lead into the question about the missing front plates. I’m not reading more into that.
Cincinnati FB friends conducted an informal poll on their pages about counting cars without front plates in a 1 mile distance just driving home from work. Many many reports of more than 15 cars spotted by those reporting. This is not an unusual thing in cincy.
Maybe one way to address this is to have pretext infractions (no front plate, one brake light out, failure to use signal for lane change, etc.) be secondary infractions. By that I mean people can’t be pulled over for this BS (as is the case with no seatbelt) but if there is a larger issue (no turn signal resulting in an accident) then that would be grounds for a ticket.
For clarification, “Is this your car?” was simply a one liner. It was in the context of Dubose’s stop, but rather questions black people are asked when driving an expensive car.
I am so glad that this accident didnt go unnoticed and that the “cop” got indicted.
I wonder what some wacky psychos will say to defend this crazy “police” officer. They, like always, will say “oh this black guys must have done something aggressive”.
How horrifying! Who knows how many of similar events has happened that went hidden…these days I pray to god for additional protection: Please help me not meet these crazy monsters.
Regardless of your race or gender, put the front plate on (if required), fix all non-working lights, keep registration current, and otherwise ensure that your car does not have any obvious equipment violations. And drive in a way that does not attract attention.
@ucbalumnus It isn’t slightly imperfect driving or slightly imperfect cars which is leading to all of these deaths. It is racial profiling which is leading to all of these deaths. Sure, we should all be perfect all of the time, but the onus for fixing this isn’t on the motorist who forgot to signal a lane change. It’s on the trigger-happy cop.
I just hope we don’t have more riots over this stuff. Protests are fine by me, just as long as they don’y get violent or destructive. The rioting really doesn’t help anyone, it just makes the rioters (the majority of which were usually African American) look stupid and dangerous - which, ironically, was the stereotype that they tried to dispel.
Riots are not random. You might want to look at the patterns of where they do and don’t happen.
Riots happen when citizens believe that cops who kill without justification will not be held accountable (Ferguson, Baltimore). Riots do NOT happen where the authorities look at the evidence and draw the obvious conclusions (North Charleston, Cincinnati).
I am not saying that there is not racial profiling, since there obviously is. However, there is also plenty of non-racial profiling, as well as profiling not purely based on race but where race in combination with something else may trigger a profiling encounter.
When it comes to avoiding attracting unfavorable attention from police, a black person is generally at a disadvantageous situation that cannot be changed easily by the individual involved. However, other things that can attract unfavorable attention from the police, regardless of what your race is, can be avoided, such as your vehicle attracting attention for what was called in this case a chicken turd stop. Black people may want to be particularly careful about avoiding such attention, since stops by the police are more likely to be dangerous (as this case is an apparent example of).
Note that the terrorist McVeigh was arrested because he was driving a car without a license plate that attracted a police officer’s attention. From such examples, police presumably see some value in making vehicle code stops in terms of the possibility of making a much bigger arrest.
We have found local cops manufacture reasons to pull you over. A big one is " you were swerving". Your car can be in perfect shape.
Cops are weary of traffic stops. They are in danger during routine stops. Just for self preservation people need to do everything in their power to keep that cop from getting any more worried.
Not co operating at that time is not a smart move for anyone.
In regards to post # 104- I was talking to a police officer acquaintance in our community once several years ago. Can’t remember how the topic came up but he said cops unofficially have what they call the 3 block rule. Meaning if they want to stop someone they will follow that person and within 3 blocks almost everyone will do something they can use as an excuse to pull them over or will have some minor violation like a non working taillight. Think about how nervous you get when you see a police car behind you and wonder if you did something wrong and then get flustered and are more likely to make a small mistake like not use a turn signal. From what I have read about the Sandra Bland incident that sounds like what happened to her. The cop did a U turn to follow her and she probably pulled over to let him pass and failed to use her turn signal. Very scary, power corrupts and cops have the power.
You want your cops to be observant and use their instincts, yet, at the same time, there isn’t too much that is admirable about peoples instincts in general.
I wonder how you reconcile this when you train your peace officers?
This man died only because of someone else’s hate and rage. I feel as if police officers need to be taken in for evals, to see if they are cut out for the job. They are supposed to help us and abide by the law. However, we cannot blame every single police officer based on what certain ones have done. But, I feel that people now have a right to be terrified of law enforcement, as, like I said, we don’t know if a family member or a friend will return home at night. It sure is beginning to feel like the 1960s. That’s just scary.
He did not have his license on him. Not that everyone should aspire to be just like me (hehe), but I cannot remember the last time I drove without my license on my person. However...
The cop should (or at least could) have calmly walked back to his car and radioed in to confirm whether the driver did actually have a valid license. If the answer came back in the affirmative, it's a simple ticket or warning: "Dude, put the front plate on and carry your license when you drive. Have a nice day." And if the person did not in fact have a valid license, maybe then you make the arrest, or whatever action Ohio law mandates.
But he kept asking the rhetorical question, over and over -- clearly the guy wan't carrying his license, so the cop asking this repeatedly only served to frighten the driver and amp up the cop/raise his ire.
...so when the guy started his car back up, he was likely doing so to get the hell out of there out of fear; and the cop, who had single-handedly escalated the emotion of the situation, believed the man was leaving to hide some assumed awful crime.
In sum, had the cop walked back to his car and called in to check on the license, the entire thing would likely have been de-escalated. Instead he saw fit to escalate, and look what happened.
Undoubtedly at trial the defense will attempt to vilify the victim, bringing up his 60-arrest record (can that be right?)… and they will attempt to portray the act of starting the car as “resisting”. I hope the prosecution runs the tape at least several times and tries to impress upon the jury the insistence of the cop to escalate feelings of hostility in himself and fear in the driver.
It isn’t just black people that get stopped for silly reasons. My mom and I (both white) were stopped on the highway late one night, for a non-working license plate illuminator light. Now, I think the real reason that we were stopped is that it was late and they were checking to see if we were sober.
Clearly the officer wasn’t smart enough or well trained to be trusted with a gun in this sort of situation. Sad.
It’s also telling that 2 other officers backed up his demonstrably false story of being dragged by the car and in fear of his life.
There will be some changes made to the UC police force. Some colleges don’t even have their own force, but rely on the local police. The downside to that is a longer response time and officers not necessarily knowing the ins and outs of campus buildings.
Also, I hate when people can’t spell Cincinnati correctly.
