Comment by policenracism | Hacker News Reader

Comment by policenracism | Hacker News Reader

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I found his point of being a young black male and not having to be pulled over again to be striking.

I am sure that black people are pulled over more times by the police then whites are. What could be the reasoning and the solution(s). Is it because...

- The cops are really racist? - The cops are looking for a suspect that matches those unfairly targeted? In which and unfortunately points to a statistic that black males (those from low income areas & raised without a parental unit(s)) are more prone to crime. In the area I live there are really bad parts of town you do not want to enter due to high crime, gangs, murders, etc and that part of town the majority is black.

Is there a solution because I know I would be pissed just because I am getting pulled over because I resemble a suspect the cops are looking for.

Though maybe the cops are just racist?

I don't know just pondering here as this is a current affair topic one that is being talked about more and more these days.

Yes.

The cops really are that racist - I'm not black - I'm about as white as you can get even (somewhere in my history there is a Norwegian bachelor-farmer :-P) but I've asked my friends of color, how often they felt they had been pulled over because they were a person of color in a place where a person of color perhaps ought not be - and all of them, uniformly answered "Yes, at least once a year, often more"

"I know I would be pissed just because I am getting pulled over because I resemble a suspect the cops are looking for"

The thing is, when white people are looking for a white suspect of a crime, they identify (for example) a heavyset 30-ish white male with short cropped brown hair, wearing a red tshirt and blue jeans. When they are looking for a black suspect, it's "a black male".

This attitude is reflected by your own (probably well-intentioned) statement that people who live in a majority-black neighborhood all resemble each other. Take it from a (white) guy who has lived in some -- they don't.

P.s. Video of LeVar Burton explaining how he talks to his son about what to do when you get pulled over: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/02/2245561/levar-bu.... This is what a bona fide, well-known and family-friendly celebrity has to deal with in ordinary life.

LAPD has a long history of racism. They named their HQ after one of the most notorious racists to ever be a cop, never,ind the longest-running chief of police in LAPD history.

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