Driving While Black (or Brown)
Surprise! Racial disparities exist in police encounters with black or brown motorists vs white motorists. A recent report from a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that, when stopped:
- Black drivers are nearly 3 times more likely and Hispanic drivers are over twice as likely to be searched than white drivers.
- Black drivers where over twice as likely and Hispanic drivers about 1.5 times as likely to be arrested as their white counterparts.
- Black drivers were over 3 times as likely and Hispanic drivers were nearly twice as likely as white drivers to be the subject of threat or force by an officer.
The bureau says that this does not indicate racial profiling but, one has to question a couple of things. The first is why, when much fewer drivers are black and Hispanic, is everyone being stopped at the same rate? With white drivers being in so much greater a number, why aren’t they stopped more? The second is why is the arrest rate of these minority driver at a rate of 2 times or more the white driver?
Unfortunately, the bureau is trying to ignore the obvious — minorities are policed differently in this country. Until we address how we are policed, these reports will only continue to show what we already know.
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Unfornately,race will continue to be an issue until humans realize we both live and die.So sad in life that we waste valuable time on skin color.God made us different for a reason.Until the blind eye of hatered is open,we will never see the beauty of the picture!
April 30th, 2007 at 4:47 pmThe study is probably right, but do African Americans really need ANOTHER reason to pull the race card? I’m multiethnic, with the majority being black, and I’m tired of ignorant people (of any race) using that as much as they can. It’s bad enough that black people say nigger - it’s even worse that they’re hypocritical enough to say that their brothers of a different skin color are barred from using the word - sometimes with a threat of violence. Let’s stop our “holier than thou” attitude until we can claim not to be racist. I’m not saying it’s right, but everyone’s guilty of it. If you want to be policed the same as everyone else, why not set the example?
April 30th, 2007 at 5:53 pmyep, we hispanic get pulled over for nothing, and police always try to get give us a ticket once they pulled us over if there is no reason, they find it. my ex, she is white, one time she ran a red light, police pulled her over and she didn’t even got a ticket! if it were me, then I would even take a chance to go jail I’m sure
September 27th, 2008 at 9:28 pm