At 01:04 PM 3/17/01 -0600, Michael Atherton wrote:
>
>It seems that what people are complaining about here is strict
>enforcement of the laws. If this is done by geographic area and crime
>rate, rather than race, I have no problem with it.
>
My personal experience suggests that it is being done by race. I'm white.
I consider myself a rather cautious driver, but I have tended to
procrastinate or ignore minor repair problems. The car that I got rid of
last July had a cracked windshield and cracked tail light the entire five
years that I owned it. I've also gone several months with a nonfunctioning
headlight. In the 4.5 years that I've lived in this neighborhood, I've
been pulled over once (for the headlight).
Now my immediate block is mostly white, but I basically can't get anywhere
without driving through Central or Phillips. I drive down Chicago Avenue
pretty much every day that I use a car. I know a lot of people are getting
pulled over in traffic stops in the neighborhoods that I drive through and
I know that I'm generally not one of them, in spite of the equipment
problems that I've already described.
And some of these "offenses" seem to be there just to provide opportunities
for harrassment. Maybe some of you don't consider going through a red
light on a bicycle to be a minor offense. But does anyone really claim
that fuzzy dice dangling from the rear view mirror is a serious crime? If
all the people with fuzzy dice were taken off the streets, would that make
anyone's neighborhood safer?
(Note that all the automotive sins I described in this post are in the
past, and that I have since repented and made repairs.)
Rosalind Nelson
Bancroft
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