We need a 21st Century “Green Book”
You would have to be on your way to Mars not to be aware of the unfortunate circumstances that have befallen African American motorists. The State of Missouri has been collecting traffic information for 15 years. During that period African Americans, (Blacks) have been stopped for alleged traffic violations at a rate of 75% greater than White motorist. Similar statistics exists in municipalities across the nation. There was a time when Police could not pull you without reasonable doubt. Then the current Supreme Court declared open warfare on people of color. Recent decisions by the court allow Police officers to use traffic stops as a reason to seek and destroy violators of all types.
Law enforcement officials often confront situations where they know that illegal activity is almost certainly taking place but lack sufficient resources to investigate every possible perpetrator. In order to increase the number of actual offenders they apprehend, law enforcement officials sometimes use characterizations, or profiles, of typical offenders to narrow the pool of possible perpetrators to those most likely to be violating the law. Historically, police departments and other enforcement agencies have used profiles to identify potential skyjackers, carjackers, illegal aliens, and drug couriers.
Litigants have challenged the use of profiles in all of these areas, but the use of race to select suspects for traffic stops and drug searches has come under particular scrutiny. The invention of the fictitious offense “Driving While Black” captures the popular perception that police officers target African Americans for traffic stops and are more likely to search an African American’s vehicle. This perception, however, is more than mere speculation; empirical research has tended to show that African American drivers are more likely to be stopped and searched than drivers of other races. Moreover, this research suggests that targeting African Americans yields no more drug courier arrests than random searches would.
Police have used this authority to target people of color as suspicious characters who are worthy the designation reasonable cause. The Henry Louis Gates Jr. affair in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the summer of 2009, brought racial profiling back into the spotlight. Gates, a black Harvard professor, was arrested by Sgt. James Crowley, a white police officer, after a neighbor called 911 when she saw two black men try to break into Gates’ own home. Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct during a heated altercation with Crowley, the aftermath of which famously led to the two sharing beers in the garden of the White House with President Obama.
What to do? What to do? All of this activity brings us back to the future. From 1936 to 1966, “The Negro Traveler’s Green Book” was published by New York mailman and travel agent Victor H. Green to provide the traveler of color information that would help them avoid the hardships of discrimination which was wide spread during that era.
If there were a modern-day green book it would include the following information:
- Do not drive after consuming drugs or alcohol (even if the drugs are legal)
- Pay close attention to all traffic signs and signals
- Use all factory installed safety equipment
If you are pulled over, consider the following
- Extinguish all pipes, cigarettes, joints etc.
- Get our all-official documents
- Open drivers’ side window
- Keep hands in full view
- Most of all…… DO NOT RUN!!!
Even if you follow the aforementioned suggestions, you are still in danger of getting pulled over.
Remember…Kill Them Before They Kill You! Kill Them with Kindness!
