The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black

[MADem]

An examination of traffic stops and arrests in Greensboro, N.C., uncovered
wide racial differences in measure after measure of police conduct.

By SHARON LaFRANIERE and ANDREW W. LEHRENOCT. 24, 2015

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Rufus Scales, 26 and black, was driving his younger brother Devin to his hair-cutting class in this genteel, leafy city when they heard the siren’s whoop and saw the blue light in the rearview mirror of their black pickup. Two police officers pulled them over for minor infractions that included expired plates and failing to hang a flag from a load of scrap metal in the pickup’s bed. But what happened next was nothing like a routine traffic stop.

Uncertain whether to get out of the car, Rufus Scales said, he reached to restrain his brother from opening the door. A black officer stunned him with a Taser, he said, and a white officer yanked him from the driver’s seat. Temporarily paralyzed by the shock, he said, he fell face down, and the officer dragged him across the asphalt.

Rufus Scales emerged from the encounter with four traffic tickets; a charge of assaulting an officer, later dismissed; a chipped tooth; and a split upper lip that required five stitches.

That was May 2013. Today, his brother Devin does not leave home without first pocketing a hand-held video camera and a business card with a toll-free number for legal help. Rufus Scales instinctively turns away if a police car approaches.

“Whenever one of them is near, I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t feel safe,” he said.....

This is a RIVETING article...much MUCH more at the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&src=me&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Most%20Emailed&pgtype=article

[gwheezie]

1. This is a terrific article

Well researched and hard to argue against

[MADem]

3. I thought it hit the mark, too. nt

[JRLeft]

2. I've been pulled over countless times.