According to the Justice Department, the most common reason for a citizen to come into contact with the police is being a driver in a traffic stop. On average, one in 10 Americans gets pulled over by police.
Yet as Sandra Bland learned the hard way, the reason for a traffic stop no longer matters. Bland, who was pulled over for allegedly failing to use her turn signal, was arrested after refusing to comply with the police officer's order to extinguish her cigarette and exit her vehicle. Three days later, Bland was found dead in her jail cell.
What Bland didn't understand was that police officers have been given free range to pull anyone over for a variety of reasons, from windows that are too heavily tinted, driving too fast, driving too slow, failing to maintain speed and following too closely to improper lane changes, distracted driving, screeching a car's tires, and leaving a parked car door open for too long.
Motorists can also be stopped by police for driving a certain make of car (Mercedes, Grand Prix and Hummers are among the most ticketed vehicles) and having anything dangling from the rearview mirror (air fresheners, handicap parking permits, troll transponders or rosaries).
Incredibly, a federal appeals court actually ruled unanimously in 2014 that acne scars and driving with a stiff upright posture are reasonable grounds for being pulled over. More recently, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that driving a vehicle that has a couple air fresheners, rosaries and pro-police bumper stickers at 2 MPH over the speed limit is suspicious, meriting a traffic stop.
Unfortunately for drivers, not only have traffic stops become potentially deadly encounters, they have also turned into a profitable form of highway robbery for the police departments involved. As The Washington Post reports, "traffic stops for minor infractions such as speeding or equipment violations are increasingly used as a pretext for officers to seize cash from drivers." Since 2001, police have seized $2.5 billion from people who were not charged with a crime and without a warrant being issued.
If you're starting to feel somewhat overwhelmed, intimidated and fearful for your life and your property, you should be. Never before have "we the people" been so seemingly defenseless in the face of police misconduct, lacking advocates in the courts and in the legislatures.
From the moment those lights start flashing and that siren goes off, we're all in the same boat: we must pull over. However, it's what happens after you've been pulled over that's critical. Survival is the key.
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