Profiling

[Dalton]

Originally Posted by Timmy

So, it's happened to you, too!

I happen to be a mountain dulcimer spider farmer so its a daily activity. Gets fun after a while.

Especially when you hurl a scooby doo.

[Ferd]

Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind

are you suggesting that democrats profile? been to N.O. once

no. I am suggesting that you spoke with utter ignorance of the political reality of louisiana.

[AreYouReady?]

Originally Posted by tstew

To be honest, if it were a road block or something it wouldn't be as bad.

I hear you brother. At least a road block would include everybody and nobody is made to feel like they are singled out because of gender or race.

[Ferd]

Originally Posted by AreYouReady?

I hear you brother. At least a road block would include everybody and nobody is made to feel like they are singled out because of gender or race.

yea because then everybody is made to feel like a criminal.

ugh

I fully believe Stew is being profiled. I believe it may be worse in La. than in most places and I do know that La. does road block "DUI Checks"

and it all makes me very mad at my home state that I love.

One of these days they are going to stop me at a DUI check and I will likely go to jail. Cuz when they ask me what I’m doing, I am going to respond

"standing on my head stacking BB's"

When they ask me where I am going I am going to tell them "to see Thor about a hammer"

When they ask me where I am coming from, I am going to tell them "from the part of the world that believes road blocks are an invasion of privacy, a violation the constitution and why in God’s name do they as police officers stand for such injustice".'


And Stew, if a cop gets behind you and starts tailing you. pull over and if he pulls in behind you just very politely tell him you were giving him the road and you had no idea he wanted to talk to you.

I was followed like that once. (I was acting suspicious driving 20 MPH in a 45...55...45..55...45 mph zone. This is just north out of Alexandria in Ball La.

it was late at night, cop gets in behind me and start tailgating me. I don’t do anything. he doesn’t go around me so I pulled over (legally). and when he came up to me, I asked him why he was tailgating me.

he said I was acting suspicious.

I told him his TOWN was suspicious with no less than 6 speed limit changes in a 2 mile stretch. I was really angry and not very polite but I was within the bounds of legal behavior... heehee...

it was an interesting and intense few minutes but he had no leg to stand on and I had broken no law so I didn’t go to jail...


La. has the worst highway/traffic behavior/law/law enforcement etc of any state I can name and it makes me very very mad.

Stew, I am sorry you are being treated that way.

[Jermyn Davidson]

Originally Posted by tstew

Different cops...different reasons. Each more absurd than the last. If I wasn't so frustrated by the time they pull me over, I would laugh at the reasons. I'm usually on I 10 through Texas, Louisiana, Miss, Alabama, and Florida.

On this trip, an officer literally tails me for 15 or 20 miles. That may not seem like a lot, but it is when you are driving it. He literally tails me while people are driving past us. People are looking at me like I'm already on Cops or something. It was getting to the point that I was about to just pull myself over.

Either way, he eventually lights me up and here is the "reason" this time:
He did it because "there are a lot of state troopers up ahead and and they are writing a lot of tickets." He said that while I was properly signaling whenever I changed lanes, in LA I had to make sure that I left my blinker on for the entire lane change (since it takes more than 2 seconds? Is it even possible to not leave it on for a lane change?). The nice officer just wanted to warn me that there were mean troopers ahead who wouldn't take kindly to this....oh, and by the way can I see your driver's license and rental agreement, where are you going, what do you do, and on and on...

I have had times when I was pulled over twice on the same trip.

I have had the same experiences on I-10 as well.

Before I moved to Mobile, AL a few years ago, I would travel between Orlando and Pascagoulah, using I-10.

Traveling through North Florida was always a bad experience. I was pulled over at least once every trip. I promise I am not exaggerating.

I didn't have much experience with the State Troopers in Alabama and Mississippi, but I've had several experiences with local cops in Mobile, AL, Pass Christian, MS, and 1 Trooper experience just west of Pascagoulah, MS.

[tstew]

Well, at least some of the humorous responses here gave me a laugh out of the whole situation. Part of my frustration is that what this boils down too is a profile that is only race. If there were some other discernible things that I was actually doing that would make me fit some sort of profile, I may be able to understand or accept it better. I'm not driving some flashy car, wearing flashy clothes, wearing gold teeth and dreadlocks, acting nervous around the police, trying to avoid the police or any other behavioral thing they can point to. I'm a clean shaven (yeah, I finally got saved), balding, increasingly middle aged man, driving the speed limit in a reasonable car not acting uncomfortable about police presence.

I've been pulled over with my wife sitting next to me and my son in his car seat. By far, the most aggravating time was when we were on a long road trip and one woke my son up far sooner than he would have been waking up otherwise.

[Titus2woman]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

We were stopped one time. The officer said my husband was driving over the white line on the right side of the highway. We knew he wasn't because we would have heard the rumble strips, which are pretty loud.

He was checking to see if we were hauling any illegals. We were on US 59.

Rumble strips??? Are those what we call 'drunk bumps'?

[tstew]

Originally Posted by Titus2woman

It's profiling and it's the south, period. I would be extremely surprised if you got it from Houston to Beaumont in Texas but after you hit the LA border you're sunk. We were in LA on a camping trip when someone knocked on the RV door at 2 am to tell us 'the coons have gone crazy and are killin' people and y'all need to vacate" my very Caucasian husband opened the door and stepped outside to not wake all of us.

I was still half asleep when he came back in and said 'Honey Racoons can kill chickens but not people they aren't big enough'. Me being from California and Don from Texas he translated the southern speak for me to say the fellow meant that there were racial problems in the area and we weren't safe. Since our family contains just about as many races as one can have we felt we'd probably be in trouble no matter which side showed up and packed our stuff up in the middle of the night and left.

They obviously pick their law enforcement folks from the same gene pools. So sorry.

Don't know how much time you spend in Texas but if you can get a CHL it's just about a free pass here with law enforcement. I've been stopped a few times, I hand over my DL and my CHL (which lets them know you've already been run seven ways to Sunday through the FBI) and they hand them back and say 'have a nice day ma'am'.

LOL. I'm not sure that would work for me. They would probably perceive it as a threat, start yelling "gun, gun!", reach for their weapons and escalate to a felony stop.

[Titus2woman]

Originally Posted by Ferd

La. has the worst highway/traffic behavior/law/law enforcement etc of any state I can name and it makes me very very mad.

Nope... one of our police departments (several officers) and even the town mayor was just arrested for making illegal traffic stops... Yours might be bad but probably not the worst.

[AreYouReady?]

Not long ago a local deputy was caught profiling hispanics. He was stopping them and taking their money out of their wallets. Someone finally got brave enough to turn him in. He got a year in prison, a fine and has to pay them back.

I have been visibly aggravated for getting stopped for no reason before. It's hard to contain my annoyance. And, who isn't nervous when those bright blue lights are directly behind your auto? I know it's annoying to get stopped for nothing and get the third degree in a supposedly free country. Are we really as free as we think we are?