Biking While Black

[redrumloa]

Fort Lauderdale police draw criticism for enforcing city's bike registration law

Since July 2010 citywide, the top location listed in the citations was Sistrunk Boulevard, with 44 citations, according to city records. Of the top 20 locations where the most citations were issued, 14 were in the northwest side of Fort Lauderdale, a predominantly black area. Of 458 bike citations issued across the city during the past three years, 396 citations were issued to bicyclists listed as black.

There are questions about the constitutionality of police enforcement of the bike law, said Barry Butin, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer active in the local chapter of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union. Those who are detained for a bike registration check are usually arrested for something else, making the original stop questionable, Butin said.

"Obviously there is a concern with the Fourth Amendment, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizures," Butin said. "It gives an individual policeman the right to make a stop whenever they want to harass someone, or get information or don't want to follow the rules of procedure and not follow the rules of the constitution."

In his review of the citations, Allen Smith, an investigator with the Public Defender's Office and a former Fort Lauderdale detective, found that a reason for stopping a person on a bike — such as driving with no lights or with defective gear — was mentioned in only 142 of the citations.

In an attempt to call attention to the police practice, Finkelstein recently wrote to Broward State Attorney Michael Satz to end what he called "institutional racism." He called upon Satz to use better judgment when deciding to seek prosecution.

"Consequently, 'biking while black; has been accepted by you, as the chief law enforcement officer of this county, along with "walking while black; and "driving while black,' " Finkelstein wrote to Satz.

"This is not about bike theft, because the cops don't care about your bike," he said. "They just want to keep everyone in check like bullies."

And while this is currently targeting a majority of black people, it can and will be used on all of us.

 

[robert l. bentham]

and as i got ready to leave... i realized i had one more thing to do... thanx to your new posting... and you can quote me on this and hold it against me for all times,"you sir, are a racist"... and "you are icky because of it"... i hope it washes off, and far away from you, and i pray to a god that i don't believe in, that someday you will be struck "kind", at the very least.... just ugh!!

 

[redrumloa]

@RLB
WTF are you talking about? I haven't a clue what point you are trying to make. Are you trying trying to claim I am racist for poiting out an example of police profiling, which I am clearly against?

Can someone kindly translate meth to english?

 

[robert l. bentham]

@RLB
WTF are you talking about? I haven't a clue what point you are trying to make. Are you trying trying to claim I am racist for poiting out an example of police profiling, which I am clearly against?

Can someone kindly translate meth to english?

and as i got ready to leave... i realized i had one more thing to do... thanx to your new posting... and you can quote me on this and hold it against me for all times,"you sir, are a racist"... and "you are icky because of it"... i hope it washes off, and far away from you, and i pray to a god that i don't believe in, that someday you will be struck "kind", at the very least.... just ugh!!

 

[redrumloa]

 

[robert l. bentham]

and as i got ready to leave... i realized i had one more thing to do... thanx to your new posting... and you can quote me on this and hold it against me for all times,"you sir, are a racist"... and "you are icky because of it"... i hope it washes off, and far away from you, and i pray to a god that i don't believe in, that someday you will be struck "kind", at the very least.... just ugh!!

 

[metalman]

@RLB
WTF are you talking about? I haven't a clue what point you are trying to make. Are you trying trying to claim I am racist for poiting out an example of police profiling, which I am clearly against?

Can someone kindly translate meth to english?

you sure it's Meth ??

I thought Robert's pharmaceutical of choice was LSD

the logic of Robert and the coprophagics who liked his post can be summed up as