Profiling...?

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PrepharmKID

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  1. Pre-Pharmacy
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So I was with a friend in his car leaving his parents house about 45 min ago after going to church and having dinner with them. We chatted about school, work politics, etc. So we're leaving his parents house and not more than 200 yards around the corner we get pulled over for having a headlight out, even though he has fog lights on, giving him "3" lights. So he gives them his info and they ask if he knows why he was pulled over. At this point he actually did not know he had a headlight out as he was in an accident about a week ago and it must have knocked it loose or something.

So the cop tells him that's why he pulled him over. After running his info, he comes back and asks me for my info as well. I tell him i dont understand what the problem is, then he proceeds to tell us to step out of the car and pat us down. Very unnecessary! I also want to point out my friend is black, I am white/hispanic. We get out and he tells us he is going to have to search the car. My friend asks why and the cop says he is looking for guns. He asks my friend at least 5 times if there are any weapons inside. I answer and say no of course not, just my school bag, microbiology homework etc. The cop searches the vehicle. The other cop then asks us where we were at. We tell her.

Then she asks my friend how long ago he got his DUI. Mind you, this was from four years ago. He was in an accident and neither he nor the other driver wanted the cops involved so they mutually decided not to pursue it. He went home and was drinking with his roommates. The other driver ended up calling the cops and saying it was a hit and run, so the cops showed up at his place. Since it was within two hours of him driving, they gave him a sobriety test which he failed and he got a hit and run(later dropped) and a DUI. So the DUI was a joke to begin with.

So i ask why they were looking for guns and the cop says that he shows up as a criminal offender in their system and they wanted to look for weapons.

The cop then asked him if the car was his! His license, registration, and proof insurance all matched! What a joke!

Anyway, they gave him a warning for the headlight and sent us home.


Just curious if anyone has had any crap like this happen to them. I cant believe they went on this fishing expedition only to let him and myself on our merry way. I understand police procedure and stuff as I am close friends with several of them, but this thing was a complete farce(think I used that appropriately).
 
haha, i am gonna bet pharmD321 is already typing up a response. LMAO :laugh:
 
It's not like the cop 4 years later knows the cicumstances surrounding the DUI of your friend. He just looked up his record and it said DUI which is prob why he got all frisky with you two. If you are suggesting by your title that this is 'Racial' Profiling then I would have to say you have made a false association. You can always deny them the right to search your car anyway provided they have no probable cause. If the situation were the same and sitting in the front seat were two white kids, or two chinese kids, the same thing would have happened. It seems you might be jumping to a conclusion with your title. Nevertheless, that's in their face for wasting their time and finding nothing. Nobody likes to be hassled so I understand your frustration.

Lesson here: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS report an accident.
 
yea, i agree with calisoca.

the hit and run issue might've been the main factor behind the search.

However, my brother had a weird experience a few years ago...

my brother (hispanic, clean record) was jogging around the neighborhood. a cop cruiser pulls up to him and asks him to stop. The cops ask him "what are you running from?"...and "why are your eyes dilated?" (my brother was jogging at night)..."have you been taking drugs?" my brother tends to freak out easily, so he blurts out something like "dude, im just jogging"...at this point the cop gets out of his cruiser, approaches my brother, he then points to his badge and says "see this? you dont call me 'dude', you call me 'sir' understand boy?" the cop ended up putting my brother in the back seat of his cruiser for a few minutes then let him go.

this incident made me lose a lot of respect for cops. everytime i see one, i think of an ex-high school jock on a power-trip. i know im generalizing and there are many good cops. but an incident like this, i think, would make anyone cautious of a police officer at night in my neighborhood.

calisoca said:
It's not like the cop 4 years later knows the cicumstances surrounding the DUI of your friend. He just looked up his record and it said DUI which is prob why he got all frisky with you two. If you are suggesting by your title that this is 'Racial' Profiling then I would have to say you have made a false association. You can always deny them the right to search your car anyway provided they have no probable cause. If the situation were the same and sitting in the front seat were two white kids, or two chinese kids, the same thing would have happened. It seems you might be jumping to a conclusion with your title. Nevertheless, that's in their face for wasting their time and finding nothing. Nobody likes to be hassled so I understand your frustration.

Lesson here: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS report an accident.
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This happens to kids of all colors. My white little brother pretty much was arrested at the age of 10 for sitting on his skateboard at a school.
 
calisoca said:
It's not like the cop 4 years later knows the cicumstances surrounding the DUI of your friend. He just looked up his record and it said DUI which is prob why he got all frisky with you two. If you are suggesting by your title that this is 'Racial' Profiling then I would have to say you have made a false association. You can always deny them the right to search your car anyway provided they have no probable cause. If the situation were the same and sitting in the front seat were two white kids, or two chinese kids, the same thing would have happened. It seems you might be jumping to a conclusion with your title. Nevertheless, that's in their face for wasting their time and finding nothing. Nobody likes to be hassled so I understand your frustration.

Lesson here: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS report an accident.
Click to expand...

Eh, the cop basically admitted he pulled him over because the car seemed out of place or out of ordinary for that neighborhood. His parents live in a very fancy neighborhood. The search of the vehicle because he had a record was unecessary as well. Technically then, the cops reasoning for both actions would be considered profiling.

Yes, he should have reported the accident. Sucks. The cops were cold while searching the vehicle, we had coats on. Glad they wasted their time!
 
PrepharmKID said:
Eh, the cop basically admitted he pulled him over because the car seemed out of place or out of ordinary for that neighborhood. His parents live in a very fancy neighborhood. The search of the vehicle because he had a record was unecessary as well. Technically then, the cops reasoning for both actions would be considered profiling.

Yes, he should have reported the accident. Sucks. The cops were cold while searching the vehicle, we had coats on. Glad they wasted their time!
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That happened to my brother and one of his friends and we are half vietnamese (half white) but my brother looks white. His friend was also white and they were pulled over, car searched, etc. They had left a metal baseball bat in their trunk from a week prior (baseball practice). Turns out, there were two kids who fit their description who had hit some other kid with a metal baseball bat and drove off in a car matching their car's description. Luckily, the victim knew the kids who attacked him and told the cops that they weren't the culprits. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time...
 
I must say profiling is more of an age problem. It does not matter your race; if you are under 25 and a male, you will more than likely get second looks. It's sad but true.
 
UNMorBUST said:
I must say profiling is more of an age problem. It does not matter your race; if you are under 25 and a male, you will more than likely get second looks. It's sad but true.
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Good quote!!

The cops always follow me in my first car because it was cheap and that was when I was 16. Age always matter to officers because they think that the youngsters are always up to something (street racing and booze). Cops that are racist are rare though but that doesn't mean they dont still exist (I live in Douglas County and it has the highest amount of members in the KKK in the nation so there could be a couple of those kinds here).
 
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PharmD321 said:
Good quote!!

The cops always follow me in my first car because it was cheap and that was when I was 16. Age always matter to officers because they think that the youngsters are always up to something (street racing and booze). Cops that are racist are rare though but that doesn't mean they dont still exist (I live in Douglas County and it has the highest amount of members in the KKK in the nation so there could be a couple of those kinds here).
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Maybe they always followed you because you "were always going 160+ mph in your Audi."
 
I get stopped in the subway for "random" bag checks whenever I wear this thing:

shemagh.jpg
 
^ I'm laughing my balls off right now
 
calisoca said:
^ I'm laughing my balls off right now
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And I thought you didn't have any (literally, not figuratively) since you're a girl. Or have I got your gender mixed up? That's the kind of thing I normally do.
 
medicalcpa said:
And I thought you didn't have any (literally, not figuratively) since you're a girl. Or have I got your gender mixed up? That's the kind of thing I normally do.
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You have.
 
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