<p>Poor people have ID’s because poverty programs require ID’s as step one. That goes for poor white people, too.</p>
<p>But they don’t have to be PHOTO IDs or drivers’ licenses.</p>
<p>From the Massachusetts SNAP website:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“Massresources.org”>Massresources.org;
<p>My healthcare ID card doesn’t have a photo on it. Neither does my birth certificate. And not all poor people are receiving SNAP or other benefits.</p>
<p>Marie . . . the DMV in my area is convenient to people of means. The non-upscale people had to travel from some distance to get there. I have time, money and transportation and yet the office is located in a place that makes none of those things a barrier. If it was in a location that was less convenient to me it could be a significant barrier. </p>
<p>I also have a laptop and internet access at home to enter most of the information online so the line is shorter when I do have to go into the DOL and DMV. In fact I was able to renew mine online because I had not changes address or other pertinent information. Again, simple given my particular circumstances.</p>
<p>I’m sure we can slice and dice the population and find someone who has difficulty getting an ID and I think you give all minorities and poor people way too little credit for the smarts they use every day to meet their daily needs and in my town the DMV is in the part of town where the police are on high alert so maybe that brings it all back to ferguson. </p>
<p>marie, for the bazillionth time, IDs (and/or the documentation required to obtain them) COST MONEY. Which poor people don’t have. Also, as saintfan says, they don’t have computers and internet service at home to even figure out what they need to do. Keep in mind that in states that are trying to disenfranchise people, there has, in many cases, been a concerted effort to confuse them or to defund communication efforts that would educate them on what they might need to do. This has happened in my state.</p>
<p>You are right about one thing–that poor people have to use their smarts every day to meet their daily needs. Unfortunately, having to ALL OF A SUDDEN clear an obstacle to voting–a constitutional right they may have enjoyed for decades without an ID–could be too much for a lot of them.</p>
<p>I never said minorities and poor people. Others may have but I did not. I opened this whole can of worms just by saying that my particular cushy experience is not necessarily the experience of everyone everywhere all the time. Therefore, I try not to extrapolate too much using my own experience because, while I can’t imagine completely what others go through, I know enough to recognize that I live in a utopian bubble.</p>
<p>OK . . . bring this back around from legal vehicle operation to officers of the law. When I was in HS my sister and I shared a 1962 VW. If you’ve driven one you will know that all the heat blows out on the soles of your feet so your tennis shoe rubber will be melted but your windshield will still be frozen on the inside. My mom used to keep a little baggie of the powdered cleaner Bon Ami in the glove box to wipe the windshield with when we filled up with gas. Well, one night my sis and I were about a half a mile from home when we were pulled over. We had a tail light out. So I reach over to get the registration out of the glove box and out falls the baggie of white powder. Oops! The officer requests it and we (being trusting and naive suburban white girls who believed the police to be our sworn protectors) handed it over and laughed. We told him what it was and he sniffed and probably tasted it then gave it back, warned us to change our tail light out and sent us on our way home. We thought it was the funniest thing!</p>
<p>That encounter may have unfolded very differently. </p>
<p>My best friend and I got caught stealing a stop sign the summer before college. She wanted it for her dorm room at Cornell. It was about 2 in the morning and we were stoned. She had gotten a whole set of bike tools to take with her to college, so we had the tools needed to unscrew the sign. When the cop showed up we had already taken down one sign and were working on another. He asked us what we thought we were doing so we told him. He said, “if you’re old enough to be in college, you’re old enough to be arrested.”</p>
<p>He didn’t arrest us but drove us each home and went to the door with us and made us ring the doorbell. My sister answered our bell and said, “I knew one day you’d be brought home by the police.” </p>
<p>I don’t recall getting into any trouble at all with my parents so they must of laughed it off. </p>
<p>I have recently been asked at 3 different health care provider offices to show my picture ID. This, even though I am an established patient and have not had an insurance policy change in over 5 years. I asked why showing ID is now common place…the reason…health care insurance fraud.</p>
<p>As a stupid 18 year old white girl, I once found myself walking alone late at night in the U district in Seattle. A cop pulled up, asked me if I was okay, and gave me a lift back to my dorm. Didn’t ask what I was doing, didn’t ask for my ID, didn’t search me. I had no idea until recently how lucky I was that I wasn’t a stupid 18 year old black boy instead. </p>
<p>This is the Ferguson thread. </p>
<p>“I have recently been asked at 3 different health care provider offices to show my picture ID.”</p>
<p>Wow, I’ve never been asked to show ID. All I am asked is if my insurance has changed since my last visit. </p>
<p>dietz, that may be. But let’s be honest–the voter ID laws are designed to make it harder for SOME people to vote. Otherwise why would Texas, for instance, allow gun permits but not student IDs?</p>
<p>Yep . . . and we are bringing it back around to the idea that people with different backgrounds have different experiences with police officers both in the general terms of friend/neutral/suspect and in terms of what we think might happen to us if we are pulled over and questioned. We have different experiences of how cordial those interactions are, whether we are treated with respect or condescension or hostility. The experience that we bring in to a situation like this will naturally color how we view the the circumstance. The experience that people bring in also colors how the officer and citizen interact. </p>
<p>No-one has told any personal stories about assaulting cops, yet.</p>
<p>Las Ma or I could have drawn one of those corrupt officers who abuse their power for sexual favors. I could have drawn one who was’t willing to believe that my white powder was Bon Ami and decided to do a cavity search. Things like this happen, just usually not to us. If I even suspected some of those types of hostile outcomes I might have reacted differently to being stopped. I may have felt right away that I was at risk instead of chatting with friendly Mr. Officer who wanted to be sure that our tail light was keeping us safe.</p>
<p>Just a minute marie <em>running to get flashlight to hold under my chin</em></p>
<p>“No-one has told any personal stories about assaulting cops, yet.”</p>
<p>True. But my friend and I were definitely very sassy to the cop.We certainly were not afraid of the cop or feared anything would be done to us. </p>
<p>Have you considered that the fact you were women affected both of your interactions with cops positively in those cases?</p>