Years ago (in the 80s, when I was still in patrol, I had occasion to notice one afternoon that there was an inexplicable backup of northbound traffic from about 23rd St going back to Army St (that’s what we called it then). It was caused by a double-parked sedan in front of a grocery store.
I drove the black and white patrol car down Capp St and down and around the block to come up on the ‘offending’ auto. It took a while - because of the back up. I went to the auto with my tag book in hand, wrote a citation, put it under the windshield wiper and proceeded back to the squad car. A middle-aged individual suddenly appeared, struggling with three full grocery bags -full- yelled at me for giving him a ticket: because he was ‘only gone for a few minutes.’ I told him that I didn’t believe him and that he earned it. His response was, “The only reason you’re doing it is because you’re Prejudiced!” He was Asian and that was the first that I had seen him. Even back then, it seemed that the ‘Get out of Jail Card’ was to play the ‘Race Card.’ I’ve recounted all this to ask whether it may have occurred to anyone to ask -publicly- that perhaps a certain prominent minority group doesn’t feel that it’s incumbent upon them to heed traffic laws? Especially when there’s a dynamic active that is skewed not to take into consideration that that group may actually be intentional scofflaws? They just may be drawing attention to their own selves and the police are being vilified for not looking the other way. The other side of coin would be, ‘well just look at the officer’s record.’ It should speak for itself-or so would malcontents have it so spun.
That is some serious investigative work. Well done. Oberstone needs to exit left.
The commission plays dirty….who then oversees the overseers?
Years ago (in the 80s, when I was still in patrol, I had occasion to notice one afternoon that there was an inexplicable backup of northbound traffic from about 23rd St going back to Army St (that’s what we called it then). It was caused by a double-parked sedan in front of a grocery store.
I drove the black and white patrol car down Capp St and down and around the block to come up on the ‘offending’ auto. It took a while - because of the back up. I went to the auto with my tag book in hand, wrote a citation, put it under the windshield wiper and proceeded back to the squad car. A middle-aged individual suddenly appeared, struggling with three full grocery bags -full- yelled at me for giving him a ticket: because he was ‘only gone for a few minutes.’ I told him that I didn’t believe him and that he earned it. His response was, “The only reason you’re doing it is because you’re Prejudiced!” He was Asian and that was the first that I had seen him. Even back then, it seemed that the ‘Get out of Jail Card’ was to play the ‘Race Card.’ I’ve recounted all this to ask whether it may have occurred to anyone to ask -publicly- that perhaps a certain prominent minority group doesn’t feel that it’s incumbent upon them to heed traffic laws? Especially when there’s a dynamic active that is skewed not to take into consideration that that group may actually be intentional scofflaws? They just may be drawing attention to their own selves and the police are being vilified for not looking the other way. The other side of coin would be, ‘well just look at the officer’s record.’ It should speak for itself-or so would malcontents have it so spun.