ABSOLUTELY……………………..law abiding minorities are affected by police racism
I live in small town CT. It is 85% white.
Our cops are notorious for stopping black drivers who cross the town line. Usual excuse…’you have a tail light out. They humiliate the driver, pulled to the side of the road for all to see, call in two additional patrol cars. After running the license plate and drivers license and finding no wants and warrants, they say, your tail light is working now, but wasn’t before. You need to have it checks by a repair facility.
The actual truth: The driver was stopped for DWB. DRIVING WHILE BLACK
A few years ago our town was cited (along with many others} for this racial profiling.
My wife grew up here. She told me there were only three black families in town when she was growing up. I listened to a 55 year old member of one of those families at a recent symposium on out police racism. He is a Yale graduate and a local physician. When he was growing up, police would stop him all the time, asking why he was in the area. His father was followed home by a patrol car one night right into their driveway. The cop pulled a gun and wanted to know what right dad had to be on private property in town. The father replied, I own this house and live here.
Because the requirement to be a police officer are so low, it often attracts gun happy, racist red necks. All you need is to be 18 years old, have a high school diploma or GED, pass the easy entrance exam and then 16 weeks at the state police academy. Many positions go vacant and towns desperately hire any who apply and pass the background checks of no felonies or major misdemeanor convictions.
Untold amounts of money has been paid out by area police departments who have lost race discrimination lawsuits.
BTW>>>Driving While Hispanic is almost as dangerous