patrick.net

Yes: three times, but not by a cop.

Take a walk on the public streets of the Santa Barbara riviera. You know, on sidewalks on public streets which you pay to maintain and use. If you are young and male (even white), and you put in enough miles of exercise in those neighborhoods, you will be approached: "Hi, where are you from? Oh? What are you doing around here?"

It may be something they have agreed to do among themselves, and propagated in HOA meetings. The questions in the three incidents are similar enough that I suspect they were coached, or reading from a script in a newsletter.

I understand how people feel if there have been break-ins or attacks in the neighborhood, but public streets are public.

Personally, I would say I wasn't specifically profiled. I have not been stopped by the cops in at least 8 years. When I was younger, I did some things that I should not have and they let me go with a warning. They could have thrown the full weight of the law on me if they wanted to so I am happy nothing happened. It is also probably a coincidence - but the vast majority of the time that I was stopped happened in Peninsula and I have never even lived there.

Where I felt that I was profiled was in other countries. When visiting costa rica, my last name came up in some database which resulted in greater scrutiny compared to other tourists upon point of entry. One time I was coming back from Mexico and had to take off my shoes while they checked linings for drugs. It seemed like less than 15% of passengers got that treatment. But whatevs!

My husband who is white actually had his car searched when he was parked with a guy sitting in his front seat with him. The cops didn't find anything. Now, my husband had no hard feelings. It was an odd scenario. The cop probably profiled the car as much as anything ( it was a crappy car)

Why were they sharing the seat? Was there something wrong with the passenger seat?

An odd scenario, indeed

Good thing I wasn't profiled.

The lady cop lost her cool, pointed her handgun at me yelling and trembling.

I sometimes wonder if she'd murdered me, if her coworkers who were also on the scene, would've planted a stolen or unregistered gun on me.

i was lucky. It wasn't "my time" that day.

yup I have plenty of times.
If you were a white guy with long hair and you look like a hippie head. You're endanger of being searched every time you're pulled over.

Back when I did carpet and tile, I was always the type that would show up by my own clock. One carpet store owner ribbed me and told me that if I showed up late one more time, he was never going to use my services anymore. I was schedulted to pick up a job from his store. I showed up at his store at a quarter til, (I wanted to be there before he got there at 9am). By 9:30, I was thinking, "Boy I got him now. He'll never have the right to complain about the time I show up ever again". By 9:45 I was thinking, "man oh man, I'm really going to give it to him good."

Then by 10:00, I was thinking, no matter what I want to be here for when he finally does show up. Then around 10:30 three Miami police officers pulled in behind my Van and got out with their guns drawn. I explained the situation to them, they then told me, that the other store owners called because they thought I was casing the place.

It turned out the guy had a heart attack and died the night before.

I once had a cop pull me over, and tell me how glad he was that he finally caught me. He claimed I drove by about an hour before speeding, but made it out of his jurisdiction before crossing the county line, and shooting him the bird. He took me to jail based on a previous traffic violation that he otherwise would not have taken me if he didn't mis identify me as the other person I sure wasn't.

I was once riding my bike and a cop with some skeivy ho pulls up, and the woman gets out of the car, and says... "that's him officer".
She claimed I was riding my bike up and down the street harassing her for sex.

There's only been a few times in my life where I was pulled over, stopped or accosted by the police, where they weren't mistaken for pulling me over.

I'm not criminal or would never contemplate robbing a place or breaking in. I can't count the times, that police have saw me in some dark parking lot or somewhere they suspected I was up to no good. I understood why they stopped to check it out, so it didn't bother me. It seems had I been black then every instance I've outlined I would have claimed it was because I was black.

We don't get that luxury.

errc says

My husband who is white actually had his car searched when he was parked with a guy sitting in his front seat with him. The cops didn't find anything. Now, my husband had no hard feelings. It was an odd scenario. The cop probably profiled the car as much as anything ( it was a crappy car)

Why were they sharing the seat? Was there something wrong with the passenger seat?

An odd scenario, indeed

My husband was' in the drivers and the guy was in the passenger. That's what I meant. But my husband was counseling the man and they were sitting in a nature setting, talking.

The cops were called on my husband mistakenly (next door neighbors) because they thought he was a burglar. Fair enough. But when the police came they didn't believe my husband lived in our house, and he had to go inside to get his driver's license to show to the cop.

Six months later, a similar thing happened to that Harvard professor and he was outraged. You remember the one where Obama had his beer summit.

Only difference is my husband had no problem showing his DL.

MsBennet says

Just wondering if it's ever happened to any of you

Yes, there have been numerous times in my life where I was profiled. Fortunately for me it is not my "normal." I look relatively benign and am almost always in an area where I am not a minority.

MsBennet says

Only difference is my husband had no problem showing his DL.

Another difference that you may want to consider is that for your husband profiling is a once, maybe twice, in a life time experience. For that professor it has been a life time of being profiled.

Hell, I was pick-pocketed once and thought "how quaint" I should be more careful next time (they did only get $20). If I got pick-pocketed a couple times a year it would get old fast and I would probably be pretty pissed off about it.

HydroCabron says

You know, on sidewalks on public streets which you pay to maintain and use. If you are young and male (even white), and you put in enough miles of exercise in those neighborhoods, you will be approached: "Hi, where are you from? Oh? What are you doing around here?"

That's also because Americans don't take walks ;)

MsBennet says

The cops were called on my husband mistakenly (next door neighbors) because they thought he was a burglar. Fair enough. But when the police came they didn't believe my husband lived in our house, and he had to go inside to get his driver's license to show to the cop.

Six months later, a similar thing happened to that Harvard professor and he was outraged. You remember the one where Obama had his beer summit.

Only difference is my husband had no problem showing his DL.

I'm not sure that the situation you describe is actually "profiling"

Profiling to me is looking for a specific data set

Black folk in a "good neighborhood with good schoolsz?
Hippie stoner looking folk near a MJ distribution hot spot
Dark skinned folk driving in a particular area

I was pulled over two weeks ago at 1am, driving home from work. My gal was texting me some foreplay, and the road was pretty empty so I was reading the texts while driving. Cop said he pulled me over for swerving, and asked if I had been drinking

So does looking for "wreckless" drivers late at night, constitute 'profiling'?

leo707 says

Another difference that you may want to consider is that for your husband profiling is a once, maybe twice, in a life time experience. For that professor it has been a life time of being profiled.

Well, AG Holden admits it happened twice in his lifetime. You do not know how many times the professor was profiled.

errc says

I'm not sure that the situation you describe is actually "profiling"

No it is not profiling. I used it to compare with the professor being asked if he lived in his house and his unwillingness to provide ID.

mell says

Cop said he pulled me over for swerving

No, that's not really profiling. It is called being against the law.

I was actually pulled over for suspicion of talking on my cellphone. I was not. The cop misstook a coffee cup for a cellphone. That was not profiling either.

When I lived in Claremont, the cops would park next to bridge and along its borders. If they saw lowered vehicles or shaved heads and white t-shirts, they were getting lit up. They weren't taking any chances of any bad elements trying to mix it up with the college students. PC or not, I consider this a good thing.

White guy here. When I was in my late 20's and driving a beater car, I got pulled over 4x in 3 weeks right after I moved to NJ. Car searched 2 of those times and drunk tested 1 time after getting pulled over for a failed inspection. It was explained to me off the record that it would stop once I got my Jersey tags/license and passed NJ inspection. It did.

Hmm actually no. The few times I was pulled over I was speeding real fast-mostly in my younger days. Once I overtook an unmarked Sherriff's car and got pulled over-how the lawyer got that dismissed in FL-I have no clue. I have to say, all the times I got pulled over the police were very decent and professional.

Of course I never talk back and instead hire a lawyer afterwards. Cop didn't create the laws, just doing his job.

MsBennet says

leo707 says

Another difference that you may want to consider is that for your husband profiling is a once, maybe twice, in a life time experience. For that professor it has been a life time of being profiled.

Well, AG Holden admits it happened twice in his lifetime. You do not know how many times the professor was profiled.

No, but are you suggesting that a black man the age of Henry Louis Gate has only been racially profiled twice in his life? And, they both happen to have been reported in the media?

Klondike says

White guy here. When I was in my late 20's and driving a beater car, I got pulled over 4x in 3 weeks right after I moved to NJ. Car searched 2 of those times and drunk tested 1 time after getting pulled over for a failed inspection. It was explained to me off the record that it would stop once I got my Jersey tags/license and passed NJ inspection. It did.

If some of the locals in Burlington crossed the bridge into Bristol, id wager they wouuld be "profiled"

All the time. People think I have a huge penis because I'm Italian. OK, they are right, but it's not because I'm Italian. Can't we get rid of all these stereotypes?

Cop didn't create the laws, just doing his job.

Just like the nazi soldiers were only following orders, right?

errc says

Cop didn't create the laws, just doing his job.

Just like the nazi soldiers were only following orders, right?

Well in a supposedly democratic country-which is edging ever closer to disctatorship- there are checks and balances. A cop can give me a ticket, but I can hire an atty and have my due process. It still does not have vigilintism. Cops may give tickets for revenue-but you cna still fight it .

CA for example has laws against speed traps and requires that certain steps need to be completed before speed limits are posted.

It is not perfect-but a process is there and a lawyer makes sure your rights are not violated.

That is why the whole checks and balances is very important. The whole idea of secret courts and unlimited govt power with no need for warrants-not good.

errc says

Cop didn't create the laws, just doing his job.

Just like the nazi soldiers were only following orders, right?

Right, and this is why anyone who follows orders is inherently evil.

leo707 says

errc says

Cop didn't create the laws, just doing his job.

Just like the nazi soldiers were only following orders, right?

Right, and this is why anyone who follows orders is inherently evil.

I'm not sure if "anyone who follows orders is inherently evil". However, it sure sounds like a cop out to me. That you give them free pass to sidestep a personal value judgement of their own actions, simply because they are "just doing their job"

Maybe you're right. Maybe it is inherently evil to follow orders

errc says

If some of the locals in Burlington crossed the bridge into Bristol, id wager they wouuld be "profiled"

You know the area I get to enjoy now! :D

Actually, this happened in East Windsor (2x with 1 search = 2 warnings...pulled over both times for hanging in the left lane even though I had to so I could make a left in heavy traffic off of 130 onto Dutch Neck rd. - one of the few intersections without a jug handle), Princeton on Rt1 (pulled over for flicking a cig out the window and searched - this is where the cop gave me the "heads up" as to why the cluster of getting stopped) and Cranberry (made to walk the line after night school - I don't get more sober than that - and given a warning about my inspection like I didn't know what the big red sticker on the windshield that said "failed" meant) in that order.

# of tickets = 0. I am actually grateful for that O_o.

I had just moved from Pittsburgh to East Windsor, yay...........

After 9/11, my brother got stopped for extra searching at every airport. This went on for a couple of years. We're Italian. I suppose his black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin made him seem possibly suspicious. We suggested he dump the all-black wardrobe.

turtledove says

We suggested he dump the all-black wardrobe.

He probably would be searched less often if he dressed like this.

Or this

MsBennet says

The cops were called on my husband mistakenly (next door neighbors) because they thought he was a burglar. Fair enough. But when the police came they didn't believe my husband lived in our house, and he had to go inside to get his driver's license to show to the cop.

This sounds more like an issue with your neighbors. Unless your husband was somewhere on the property where they neighbors couldn't see, and honestly believed that nobody should have been home. Now had all of that been the case. Then really wouldn't you expect a cop going to a burglary to have the homeowner prove they live there? What if it were a home invasion, and you were locked away somewhere in the house, and the invaders told the cops they lived there and sent them on their way?

But had the neighbor had no good reason to call the police then they were the one's being chicken shit.

When I first moved to San Diego, I did not have a car, and so took public transporation a lot. One evening I missed the last bus, and was walking a long way home, maybe around midnight, when a cop stopped me, wanted to know what I was doing, and asked to examine the bag I was carrying. I was around 24, long hair, etc.

A second time that I remember, I was crossing into Texas from Mexico with my pickup, California plates, long hair, and the border cops pulled me over under suspicion of being a drug transporter. They tore my truck apart looking for drugs, and were extremely dissapointed that they did not find any. I was worried that they were going to plant some. I was around 26 at the time. I would not be considered to be a "minority" by our race obssessed US government.

I was watching the Rodney King beating at a San Francisco bar years ago, and the guy next to me was African American. I knew that the LA cops were assholes, and would beat the crap out of anybody if you gave them any lip, or disobeyed them. So I didn't see a race angle to Rodney King getting beaten. But the fellow next to me sure did.

Blurtman says

So I didn't see a race angle to Rodney King getting beaten.

It's criminal behavior either way and those cops deserve to be beaten into handicap status and thrown in prison for the rest of their lives.

Dan8267 says

Blurtman says

So I didn't see a race angle to Rodney King getting beaten.

It's criminal behavior either way and those cops deserve to be beaten into handicap status and thrown in prison for the rest of their lives.

Absolutely. And Eric Holder needs to prosecute drug money laundering bankers, before he gets on his pulpit and lectures about the law.

CaptainShuddup says

This sounds more like an issue with your neighbors.

Actually my husband was knocking on their door super early in the morning to tell them they left their light on in their car. When the cops came he explained what he was doing and said he lived next door, and they asked for ID to prove he actually lived there. It was all a misunderstanding. The neighbors apologized for overreacting. My husband was not insulted is the point. This was after his car was searched several years prior and he was actually handcuffed while they searched.

MsBennet says

This was after his car was searched several years prior and he was actually handcuffed while they searched.

Neighbor
Nieghbor

It's easy to confuse the two.

I can see how they were confused, should the cops keep a "good Nieghbor" list? So they can scratch off the one's they've already harassed?
I can't recall ever a police man coming back to my car and saying...
"I see here you're enrolled in our member rewards program, can I interest you complimentary cucumber mask Mr. Johnson?"

I was profiled by a female cop once because I'm very good looking. It made me feel objectified and I was very hurt with that.