A Racial Profiling Two-Fer in the local and statewide media today.
First, Channel 5:
Report: Mo. black drivers stopped more frequently
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Black motorists were more likely than others to be stopped by Missouri police last year.
An annual report released Wednesday by the attorney general found that black drivers were 69 percent more likely than white motorists to be pulled over in 2010.
Police also were more likely to arrest black and Hispanic drivers and search their vehicles. However, searches of the vehicles of white motorists were more likely to turn up contraband. The statistics compare the racial demographics of Missouri’s driving-age population to racial characteristics of motorists in the nearly 1.7 million traffic stops, 112,000 searches and 84,000 arrests last year.
Attorney General Chris Koster says the findings are not conclusive evidence of racial profiling. He says the report can be used to trigger conversation between police and their communities.
I have a theory that might explain what we can conclude from these statistics, but I’m holding back because it might be perceived as politically incorrect. It might also lead my good buddy over at St. Louis is Full of Racists to think that the title of his blog is correct.
Second, from The Maneater, Mizzou’s student paper:
Racial profiling initiative making way to 2012 ballot
A local group called the Missouri Prevent Racial Profiling Initiative is working to get a measure on the November 2012 ballot that would require law enforcement agencies to take steps to prevent racial profiling.
According to the ballot initiative platform, the steps could include providing information about traffic and pedestrian stops to the Missouri Attorney General, implementing a complaint process and requiring corrective action for violators.
Current law already requires an annual report on racial profiling to be given to the Missouri Attorney General. Additionally, law enforcement conducts required classes on a biennial basis to sensitize officers and to prevent any overt or unjustified cases of racial profiling.
“We have a man who comes every two years to hold interactive classes where we are encouraged to ask questions,” Columbia Police Department spokeswoman Latisha Stroer said. “It’s great how he makes it fresh and relevant each time.”
Stroer said it isn’t a large enough issue to warrant a spot on the ballot.
Mary Still, D-Columbia, said she believes racial profiling is still an issue. Still was on the Attorney General Office staff for 12 years and helped to collect information for previous reports and to write the previous law concerning racial profiling.
“I very much feel that this is an issue,” she said. “I think more people just need to be sensitive to the kind of problem it is. Unless you’re a minority, you don’t necessarily see the problems others face.”
But she said she doesn’t think the legislation would pass, pointing out that many don’t see it as an issue.
“Recognize that you may not experience profiling, but it does happen,” she said.
Still said the representatives likely wouldn’t support it because they are not necessarily looking at the problem from the perspective of a minority.
To qualify for the ballot, the initiative required signatures from registered voters equal to 5 percent of the total votes cast in the 2008 governor’s election from six of Missouri’s nine congressional districts. The group collected more than the 90,000 signatures needed to put the measure to a statewide vote. The measure was certified May 16.
Still indicated that if the ballot did go through, a “huge undertaking” would ensue.
“There’s definitely a big uphill battle to get this ballot through,” she said. “Don’t expect it to pass.”
That means that our state has at least 90,000 morons fairly evenly distributed around the state. It does not appear to me that this measure would require anything substantially more than what is already occurring — More semi-useless data trolls that only tell us what we all know anyway. As it is, the data that are already gathered annually changes nobody’s minds or conclusions. More data means more insomnia cures. Only wild card here is the part about “corrective action for violators” — Translation: A trip to sensitivity training, and I bet that Mary Still and/or the University of Missouri have a direct financial incentive therein.
One more thing: Missouri law allows all car windows to be tinted at 100% light blockage, save the driver and passenger side front windows, which can only be tinted at 65%. How can cops tell the race(s) of the driver or any of the passengers? You might say “ghettomobile,” but even that’s not a certain clue any more — You might pull over a tricked out ghetto hooptee and see people inside that look like this.
