For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped

Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by nightski on Saturday March 31, 2018 @02:16PM (#16724391)

Maybe. It's clear to you that you have found a correlation. Have you explored many other causes to see what their impact might be? When you are pulled over, what is commonly the reason/excuse the officers give? How do your driving habits compare to your wife? Do you drive at similar times of day? Are you both really cautious drivers?

When I was a kid I was always told that it was the people in fancy sports cars that got pulled over all the time, so by driving a modest cheap car you were taking yourself off the radar.

But that's the problem with anecdotal experience. It's hard to extrapolate trends without proper science and analysis.

EDIT: I didn't mean to target this only at the parent. The article suffers a lot of the same issues. They base a large part of their argument over a single statistic (amount of people being pulled over vs. race) and then fail to dive any deeper into the data.

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by tyingq on Saturday March 31, 2018 @02:18PM (#16724407)

Sure. I acknowledge it's anecdotal. The sobreity tests, though, when I'm stone cold sober, seemed odd. No reason for pulling me over is ever offered.

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by mikeash on Saturday March 31, 2018 @02:29PM (#16724451)

Maybe you should ask. Police aren’t allowed to stop people at random. They have to at least suspect some sort of violation.

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by tyingq on Saturday March 31, 2018 @08:36PM (#16725995)

Find some documented case where a US police officer was punished, in any way, for pulling someone over arbitrarily. There are too many loopholes. "Crossed center line", "erradic manuevers", "tint seemed dark", "appeared to see open alcohol container", "did not come to a full and complete stop", and so on.

We even have full on Stasi style checkpoints occasionally, where everyone is pulled over.

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by shanev on Saturday March 31, 2018 @02:46PM (#16724528)

Sometimes the violation is driving 5 miles above the speed limit on a highway.

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by Washuu on Saturday March 31, 2018 @03:23PM (#16724707)

"Driving too close to the white line."

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by eric_b on Saturday March 31, 2018 @03:49PM (#16724835)

Or my personal favorite: "Driving erratically"

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by mikeash on Saturday March 31, 2018 @02:47PM (#16724532)

Sure. Selective enforcement is a huge problem. But not giving a reason at all is nuts.

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by whatshisface on Saturday March 31, 2018 @02:33PM (#16724478)

Hot rods and beaters both get pulled over, expensive but slow-looking cars like Lexus minivans go under the radar. That's been the anecdote passed down to me, and it includes both of the cases we're discussing.

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Re:For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped by Gibbon1 on Saturday March 31, 2018 @06:25PM (#16725493)

I owned a tan Ford Aerostar for ten years, never got pulled over once.

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