That's not very polite,
Elder - thank goodness the filter spared my delicate sensibiities.
As to your last, I thought that was a stock opening question. I've certainly been asked it 100% of the times I've been stopped whether in a car or on a bike ...
... and I wasn't driving any fancy-pants-too-much-money-smorgs-mobiles (I've spent less than £1000 total on all the cars I've ever owned).
I can't walk in your shoes, that's for sure but are you certain that you're not letting a popular stereotype sink a little too deeply into your psyche? You're a clever chap but that doesn't mean you can't have a mental blind-spot. I know I certainly have a few that make me less than reasonable on some issues
.
Well, hardly. I know a few things about experiments, and his is not valid, as it doesn't test all the conditions for a stop-in fact, all it might really prove is that his eyesight isn't that great. I'd suggest that he rent a higher end vehicle for a month, spend two weeks driving it around normally, and two weeks driving it around with blackface theatrical makeup on, and see how much or how little he gets pulled over, but that wouldn't necessarily validate anything either. One everyone can try, though, is to drive through their town, at the speed limit-20-45 mph, and look at the drivers in the opposing lane, and see if they can determine their race under those conditions. Or across an intersection-or at the cross-street lights at an intersection, or when they drive through an intersection. Under most conditions, save the darkest and illegal tint on the driver's side window, one will find that they can easily determine the "race" of the driver. Under some conditions, you might find that you can as easily determine it at highway speeds for vehicles in the opposing lanes, as well as for vehicles traveling in the same direction-sometimes even from behind.
Now, I'll add that I mean no offense to any law-enforcement personnel. I'll point out
this post, and add a few things.
Archangel M said:
Hmmm.."I drive fast a LOT".."but the reason I get pulled over is my skin color"...
Right.
Well, when I get pulled over for driving fast-which is pretty rare for the last 15 years or so-the getting pulled over, not the driving fast-I
know it. The cop knows it. Generally, I'm pretty good at getting out of those-either talking the cop out of it or getting the speed he puts on the ticket reduced, and/or getting out of it in court. Last time I got pulled over for speeding was near Alamosa, CO, about three years ago (late 2005). Nothing but me and sagebrush, and I was going about 95, damn the luck. Officer asked me why I was going so fast (this before he asked for
license, insurance and registration) and I said
I've really gotta pee! He laughed and let me go with a warning when everything checked out....and I'd peed like the proverbial racehorse with both his car doors blocking the view, something I couldn't have done with my car, as it only has two doors.
Bottom line, I may drive fast a lot, but I don't get pulled over for speeding a lot.
Anyway, personal info: when I was in college, I was also in the "used car business," though not in the conventional sense. I bought, sometimes restored and shipped cars to South American countries. Back in the early 80's, I could buy a Trans-Am for about $7,000 and sell it in Venezuela, Columbia or Bolivia for about $25,000. I also did well with a lot of other cars. Occasionally, I'd drive a car around for a while-either because I didn't have enough inventory to ship, or because I just wanted to. I still have a few cars, but I got out of that business just in time for other adventures, like marriage.....:lol:
Now, it's never happened to me in New Mexico-it might have happened once in Denver, I don't know, but in New York and New Jersey, I got pulled over for "driving while black"
alot. Typically, I wasn't driving fast-occasionally maybe a tick over the speed limit "in the flow of traffic", but, more often than not,well within compliance, because, unless I'm driving really fast-which I do when I have the road entirely to myself-that's how I roll. Typically, I had no equipment violations. Now, sometimes, sometimes the cops just wanted to check the car out-as in stop me so they could see it up close: this happened with a TVR, and a few other more exotic cars, and it was okay. Sometimes, though, they really figured the guy in the Bentley/Mercedes/Porsche/Ferrari had to be a drug dealer-not a doctor, or a lawyer, or some sort of pro-athlete (I'm a congenital klutz, so there wasn't a chance of that, but I was tall enough and built enough to think as much). More often than not it was some sort of fishing expedition. There are some who'd say it was just good police work-that, odds are a young black man driving that kind of car is up to something-at the very least, I must have stolen it, and if I didn't steal it, it's ill gotten gains of one sort or another.Call it "racial profiling."
I could offer lots of specific examples: once in a Bentley, once in a Porsche, twice in a Ferrari in one week, but the best one is this: I had a BMW 2002-I actually owned three at the time-and was stopped at a light coming out of my parents neighborhood-my old neighborhood. I drove through the green light as a State Trooper pulled up to the now red light on the cross street I was entering-if you've seen a BMW 2002, you know it has a pretty high greenhouse with lots of visibility into the driver's compartment. He turned around and pulled me over. I was going 30 mph in a 30 mph zone, because, of course, I'd just seen him. The car, while pretty cool, wasn't anything extra special-just a 12 year old BMW in good shape. I had no equipment violations, and, when we'd gone through the
license, insurance, and registration thing, I asked him why he pulled me over, and he said
I just wanted to check you out.
Of course, there could have been some sort of lookout for someone who looked like me-that's happened a few times. Heck, I was gassing up here in New Mexico and had a Pueblo cop ask me if I was a wanted murderer once-luckily, I was wearing my laboratory badge with my photo and name on it, so he could clearly see I wasn't the guy everyone was looking for. I don't think that was the case at that time, though-it was 1983, and the Troopers in the area were known for that at the time, just as the cops on the Jersey Turnpike were known for pulling over black people because it was a drug corridor, and they got quite a few busts that way.
Anyway,I didnt bother asking him
why he wanted to check me out;I just wanted to be on my way. I'm pretty sure that my assumption was right on, though, and it's okay, actually. I was polite, he was mostly polite, and I've been in this skin all my life;it's not like things like that are completely unexpected. Hell, I still get followed through department stores until I whip out the plastic.....:lol:
Back on topic, though-all those cars certainly qualified as "cop magnets." That's why my everyday driver is a Saab....:lol:
