We’ve all been there before.
You’re driving along and you see a pair of flashing blue lights in your rearview mirror. Whether or not you’ve done anything wrong, you get a sinking feeling in your stomach.
You’ve read enough news stories, seen enough headlines, and lived in the American police state long enough to be anxious about any encounter with a cop that takes place on the side of the road.
For better or worse, from the moment you’re pulled over, you’re at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.”
This is what I call “blank check policing,” in which the police get to call all of the shots.
So if you’re nervous about traffic stops, you have every reason to be.
Trying to predict the outcome of any encounter with the police is a bit like playing Russian roulette: most of the time you will emerge relatively unscathed, although decidedly poorer and less secure about your rights, but there’s always the chance that an encounter will turn deadly.
For instance, it was just a year ago, in the early morning hours of Dec. 1, 2016, when Gregory Tucker, a young African-American man, was pulled over by Louisiana police for a broken taillight.
What should have been a routine traffic stop became yet another example of police brutality in America.
More
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
12 comments:
OBAMA USHERED US INTO POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA, where now your guilty and have to prove your innocence... hopefully they do not shoot you when you pull your eyeglasses out to read their trumped up ticket
Umm, the republicans have always been behind the war on drugs which resulted in an erosion of the 4th amendment going all the way back to Nixon! Remember him? His VP was a great GOP member from MD, Spiro Agnew. BTW, he died in Berlin, MD.
Kates dad should book his trip to Mexico right now to meet this animal after he is deported, but before he can sneak back to USA
Yeah...cops wake up everyday and think "who can I kill today?"
The guy who wrote this article is an idiot. Police just want to get through the day safely and go home to their families, just like everybody else. Sure, mistakes are made sometimes, like that realistic gun he was pointing at me was really a BB gun...guess the cops should wait and see if they are shot first before reacting...
I always get nervous when I know I was pulled over for anything other than a moving violation. Because, at that point, they are looking for something other than to give you a ticket.
The classic: license tag light. That rule should be abolished from the police playbook. No one ever got on the most dangerous felon list for a blown tag light.
snowflake triggered ahaha
The tag light ruse is just an excuse to make contact with the driver. The next step is a visual search for any observation of illicit activity, while simultaneously interrogating the driver and passengers. All to get to the ultimate goal of conducting a roadside search of the driver, passengers, and vehicle. But they NEED that reason to stop the vehicle in the first place. Starts with profiling a vehicle and its occupants, then a reason, any reason, to stop the vehicle so that the stop can lead to an arrest, which it always their goal. Public safety, pshaw! The only safety a cop is concerned with is his own.
THREE STRIKES YOUR OUT law was the most aggressive law ever written and has been the cause of over population in prison. Written by BILL CLINTON.
if cops "only want to go home" at the end of their shifts, why do they continuously put themselves in bad situations and make ANY situation WORSE after they arrive? Most of cops behavior come from their overblown egos and adrenalin.
They like to be painted as "only doing their job" and "wanting to go home" to their families but they bring most of the crap on themselves. All the while pretending they are victims.
Body cameras are changing all that and why they turn them off and on depending on the situation. Hopefully, that will change in the near future AND with more people buying dash cams to protect themselves from these road pirates.
why do you apply your opinion as factual circumstances? Take the time and look at this statical data coming out on body cameras since being implemented. Cameras are clearing most all of the cases. BLM wanted cameras now they DONT. Why? Just my opinion but If YOU don't change your paranoid thought pattern before driving YOU WILL find yourself in a bad spot.
902 .001 percent chance of being shot by police. I think you will be ok.
10 percent police do drug stops 5 percent actually produce and yes everything you said is correct and LEGAL. Broken tag light bag of dope on floor and you want the police to ignore it? Yes! Lol
Post a Comment