Wednesday, November 17, 2021

in a just reaction to the past several years of police brutality coming to be the news headlines on a daily basis, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and the state of Virginia to ban officers from pulling over cars for pretextual traffic stops, like broken brake lights or expired registration tags.

 This makes Philadelphia the largest city government in the U.S. to ban secondary violations.  While some people argue traffic stops for small issues like that can uncover illegal drugs or drivers with a warrant but others say it’s a waste of police resources and the stops have led to minority motorists being unfairly stopped, searched and detained.  With the executive order, drivers won’t skip being punished for these offenses just because they aren’t physically pulled over. Drivers caught with a broken taillight or expired registration will have their license plate run and receive a ticket in the mail. 

Black drivers, who comprise 48% of Philadelphia's population, accounted for 72% of the nearly 310,000 traffic stops by police officers between October 2018 and September 2019, according to data from the Defender Association of Philadelphia. As of this year, Black drivers account for 67% of stops compared to just 12% of White drivers, the data shows.

In September, Ramsey County, Minnesota, announced prosecutors will no longer pursue cases against people who are unfairly targeted and detained during non-public safety stops.  The new policy comes five years after former St. Anthony Police Department officer Jeronimo Yanez fatally shot Philando Castile seven times during a traffic stop in 2016 over a broken tail light, prosecutors said.

"The bill also provides that no law-enforcement officer may lawfully stop, search, or seize any person, place, or thing solely on the basis of the odor of marijuana," the Virginia bill states.

https://www.powernationtv.com/post/philadelphia-has-banned-low-level-traffic-stops

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/03/us/philadelphia-traffic-stop-equality-bill-mayor-approval/index.html

maybe this results in either cops being offered overtime to be assholes, or, more time in training in professional ethics, or maybe they just respond to calls when requested, like firemen, and they won;'t be busy being bullies when dispatch tells them there is a robbery in progress. 

Hell, I know it's impossible, but maybe, they start working on finding stolen cars.

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