odd place for a license check

[la_chupa]

Sunday between football games, my husband and I went to the grocery store. I know, pretty exciting stuff. On the way back we passed by an outdoor Latin festival. Then we immediately got caught in a license check.

It was pretty clear rather quickly that they had no interest in me, a 40ish white woman and her 40ish white husband with reusable grocery bags full of groceries and an Australian Shepherd in the back seat. I even switched the radio over to classical music as we pulled up, mostly to entertain my husband but it painted a picture.

I never end showed them my registration. Hubby was looking for it and tossing through maps, tissues, dog poop bags, road race forms, mapquest directions, receipts, pictures, ooh my cell phone charger I've been looking for that. Before he could scare up my registration we were waved through.

We didn't think about it right away but maybe the fact that I had on classical music reminded us that this park where the Latin festival was going on is also the location of the Summer Pops series that the Symphony puts on. Oddly enough even though bottles and bottles of wine are routinely consumed by the mostly upper-middle class white audience we've never ever not even once been stopped in a license check leaving THAT particular festival.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence. What other explanation could there be. hmmmz

[sazemisery]

1. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Eric J in MN]

2. I never heard of this.

In an American city, the police setup a roadblock and demanded that every driver show a driver's license?

[DainBramaged]

3. I live in a large mixed race apartment complex in a small NJ town

there aren't many new cars and trucks here. Most of us are blue collar. About once every quarter since I moved here in 2008 the local police set up an 'inspection' checkpoint, and everyone coming out of the complex gets to greet the smiling officers and pull out their insurance and get checked for current inspection. And inevitably 4 or 5 cars are pulled into the knights of Columbus parking lot to be impounded for one reason or another.

Blue NJ. I drive a very old car, and they give me the once over even though my inspection is current and check ALL of my lights looking to give out a ticket.


Small town America. Finding ways to make money from the poor. I'm sure if I had on a suit and drove a Mercedes they'd let me go right through.

[ejpoeta]

4. i think it's like trick or treating. why go where there aren't many houses when

if you go into town you can hit paydirt with little effort. I think they go where they know the likelihood is good they will get to give out lots of tickets to get money. just like at the end of the month you can see the increased number of cops sitting waiting to catch speeders.

[DainBramaged]

7. IN NJ failure to produce a valid registration or insurance card

at the officer's request (no more going home to get it out of the envelope and bring it to the station later) gets you a $185 fine for each one you are missing. My roommate got hit with that last year and even though the paperwork was found in his console AFTER the car was towed ($125 including storage), there is no wiggle room in the law. After not having to have pulled out his registration or insurance cards for over five years, it cost $450 in fines including court costs and a loss of a day's work to go pay the fine in court and produce the documents for the judge.


If he had a new car and not an old car I am positive he would have never been stopped and asked. And they never gave him a logical reason for stopping him.

[Uben]

8. Maybe where you live......

....but here in my small Texas town, they will take anybody's money! My nephew is a state trooper, and I know he doesn't care if you are black, white, brown, or purple.....if you break the law....you pay! Heck, he would cite me if he could catch me doing something illegal, because that is what he is paid to do. Checking cars for current inspection is a necessity. Unsafe vehicles put everyone else on the road in peril, and checking inspections decreases air pollution, and allows officers to cite those who do not have insurance. I have been hit twice by uninsured drivers, both hispanic, coincidentally. I have to keep uninsured motorist insurance if I want to be sure my car stays in operable condition.

[DainBramaged]

9. It's called legal entrapment, and not just Hispanic drivers are uninsured

:grr:

[Uben]

11. "not just Hispanics are uninsured"

...which is exactly why I said "coincidentally"!

[imdjh]

31. Entrapment is when the police get you to do something you wouldn't have had they not enticed you.

[imdjh]

17. It's a work around by local government to generate revenue.

AAA has been rating municipalities for decades based on the ratio of traffic fines to general revenues. Those above a certain amount are designated "speed trap". It's about time some other group started figuring out which local governments are working all fines to work around tax limitations placed on them by the people. There is another name for a workaround: dishonesty.

[LibDemAlways]

28. I live in a mostly white suburb of Southern Cal. The only

people stopped around here are those who "don't fit the profile" of the area. This was according to a cop at a parent meeting at the local elementary school. He said those driving older cars are targets. He was very matter of fact about it, like it was perfectly ok and normal.

[Obamanaut]

12. In my area of N. Fla. there are checkpoints from time to time, and

the locations are published ahead of time in the local paper. County and state LEOs are in attendance at these stops.

They check lights, horn, proper license, etc.

The last time I was checked, I was on my motorcycle, and the officer expressed surprise that I had the proper motorcycle endorsement on my license. He said that many riders don't.

They were stopping all vehicles - trucks, motorcycles, old cars, new cars - all of them.

There are people who are not properly licensed, who have expired tags, whose tags are on the wrong vehicle, etc. Keep them off the road. It was only a 5 minute delay, and the officer was courteous and friendly.

[walldude]

23. So you think this is ok?

For the police to stop you for no reason and request "papers please"? Sounds kinda fascist to me. Guess that's why they publish the locations in the paper, otherwise it would be illegal as hell.

[TheMadMonk]

35. As a matter of fact yes. Just as I think it's perfectly ok for a ranger...

...to demand your hunting permit and gun licence if your out in the woods waving a firearm around.

Also, unlike a lot of 'merkins I believe it's perfectly fine for the same sort of checkpoint to be used for breatho checks.

It's one of those special cases where I'll accept the old "if you've done nothing wrong..." argument, because if you have, I damned well want you off the fucking road BEFORE you've killed someone.


On a related subject I also have no problem with signposted speed traps. If you're stupid enough to speed past the sign, then you're stupid enough to qualify for the ensuing "stupid tax".

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. So racial profiling is okay with you

[Obamanaut]

40. The checkpoints I've been through are stopping every single vehicle.

The only profiling being done is you are driving on a public thoroughfare in a motorized vehicle.

[proud2BlibKansan]

43. So racial profiling is okay for drivers on a public thoroughfare?

Is there a time when racial profiling is NOT okay? I am not clear as to why anyone would think it is ever okay. But maybe that's just me. :shrug:

[Obamanaut]

44. There is no racial profiling here. ALL cars are being stopped. ALL

licenses are being checked for currency. I am white, old, bald, and have tattoos. They stop me on my motorcycle right along with the people in the pick up truck as well as the shiny black SUV. There is no profiling - racial, sex, age, nothing.

How hard is that to understand - if everyone is being stopped, the only profiling is DOTH - driving on the highway. Black, Hispanic, White, Asian, Old, Young, Male, Female - ALL are being checked.

[proud2BlibKansan]

45. Are you talking about the OP?

If that isn't racial profiling, what is?

[Obamanaut]

46. I am talking about that little block of posts beginning with 12 and ending with

39 (12, 23, 35, 38, 40, 43, 44, 39)

It starts with a mention of a general check in my area, where everyone is checked. Somewhere in there is the question re profiling. In a check such as I describe everyone is checked - Asian, Black, White, Hispanic, old, young, male, female - no profiling.

They find out of date licenses, suspended licenses, deadbeat parents, etc.

I was having coffee one day at my favorite convenience store. A bus full of migrant workers came in. The supervisor was in a separate pick up truck. The clerk told him that three miles up the road was a road block with LEOs checking licenses. I had just come from there and verified this. The guy speaks perfect, unaccented English. He led his bus full of workers that way, they were stopped, the driver didn't have a license to drive such a bus, and about 10 of the workers were undocumented.

If people want to be stupid, more power to them. No profiling, everyone was being checked.

[Obamanaut]

48. Can you see there was no profiling in the example in post 12? nt

[Obamanaut]

39. yes it is ok with me. The locations and dates are published. If you

in violation of any laws regarding vehicle operation, don't go that way.

I would rather have uninsured or unlicensed drivers found this way and removed from the highways than when they crash into me and there is no way they can be made to for my damage if the accident is determined to be their fault.

I have a registration, current license, insurance. It is what I do for the privilege of driving on public highways. So should other drivers. Operating a motor vehicle is not a right, but a privilege, and with that privilege comes responsibilities.

[la_chupa]

47. it's because driving is a privilege not a "right"

Then if they pull everyone, on paper it looks equitable.

Oh no we're not racial profiling, we just happened to pick today to set up the check point right here. Oh gosh is there a Latin festival going on, I had no idea.

[imdjh]

16. Apparently, it happens in DC all the time. "license check" for your safety, of course.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. In Rolling Meadows, IL (Chicago NW burbs), the cops cordoned off a whole apt complex.

Significant hispanic population there. Last year, I believe. The cops closed off all the parking lot entry /exit points and made everyone enter and exit thru one spot.
a
On edit, to clarify, this wasn't a temp traffic stop. It went on for many days before the complex owners got it stopped.

[tinkerbell41]

27. Arlington Hts il 1996

Same thing except the population was mainly white/with a mix. But, lower middle class. Pulled everyone over, couldn't leave complex trapped.
I always make sure I am up to date with everything, I don't want to even deal with them. I can spot these license checks a 2 miles away. All I need to see are a group of red and blue rotating lights, staggered from each other, making u turns, etc.. and I am gone in the other direction. I swear I must have pulled a u-turn doing 45 on route 83 with my kid in the car. She was like "what is going on??" I hate them, I want to never see them. They will find something to screw with you about. I didn't tell her that. I feel it is completely mind boggling that they do this. Why don't they just block off the side streets and stop people as they are coming off their driveway???
How crazy would that be??

[surrealAmerican]

6. Are they looking for unlicensed drivers?

Welcome to DU.

[dysfunctional press]

10. more like undocumented aliens.

[imdjh]

18. The two are often the same.

[imdjh]

19. The two are often the same.

[Obamanaut]

42. The results are published in our local paper. Often the violators

include deadbeat parents, who are behind on their child support payments. I am in favor of this too.

[la_chupa]

13. thanks for the welcomes y'all

I'm not 100% sure what they were after. My gut reaction is illegals. They may have been fishing for DUI's but if that's all they were after you'd think they'd for after the symphony bunch too.

Could be that the % of lawyers and well connected people at the symphony makes that more of a hassle than its worth

I do know that twice in recent months there have been pretty bad wrecks from someone under the influence going the wrong way on the fancy little loop around the city. Both cases involved an illegal and at least one of the innocent parties in one of the wrecks was also an illegal.

yea so THAT got everyone excited

[Captain Hilts]

29. Daytime, hot weather festivals - that includes football games, generate a lot of drunken driving.

About where in Carolina are you?

[la_chupa]

36. I'm in Charlotte

[tammywammy]

14. I live in a mixed area that's lower middle class

It's mostly white/hispanic and I had never gone through one of these stops until I moved there. They'll have the whole main street blocked on one side and 3 or 4 police officers just looking at licenses & insurance, and then a few more over in a parking lot giving out tickets. The couple of times I've been stopped in one, the people pulled over is also a mix of white/hispanics. They wouldn't let you go by if you didn't show your proof of insurance or driver's license (registration is a sticker on your windshield).

[imdjh]

15. Sounds like you should have been ticketed for car clutter.

[la_chupa]

20. oh gawd my husband is in here

[SoCalDem]

32. Remember when McDonalds was giving away Beanie babies?

There was a bus stop right by the drive thru, so I would cruise thru, get my Happy Meal & Beanie baby & then hand off the food to the homeless guys who got shade at the bust stop cover.. and into the glove compartment the BBs went.. anyhow... months later my son and his girlfriend have our car for a date, and they got stopped.. My son opens the glove compartment and out tumbes about 10 beanie babies.. he and the cop started laughing..and that night he did not get a ticket:)

welcome to DU, btw :hi:

[madmom]

21. They used to do that around here, but haven't seen it in a while. They would

set up outside of our GM facility just at sift change. We have a large Mexican population and quite a few of them work there, or most people drive their beater cars to work and leave the good ones home. Or at least it was that way when people could afford a new car.

[bigwillq]

22. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Gman2]

24. Screw all of you with your pompous bourjois perspectives.

Most of the US lives in a place that having a car is the difference between being able to provide for yourself and not. The focus on the poor is unconscienable. How do you think those without the rent already, pay 450 for a fucking detail? Fuck the trapping police. I got caught in a crooked scheme. Crooked cop/judge team. They changed the law, knowingly. They railroaded me knowingly. I got the crooked fucks to spill their crooked guts in court. Appealed and the AG had their heads. I told the judge, that having a cop, park their bikes, and stand on the same corner, trapping motorists in corrupt practices everyday, will get them killed. The judge needed fifeteen minute recess after my testimony. I was handicapped, and was testifying first, before anyone. Fucking coward. I directly blame that crooked fuck Bush. Rule of law in this country is dead.

[Captain Hilts]

25. There have been huge high-profile problems at some Latin fests in some cities. NYC, for example.

People got very drunk and women were assaulted.

They might be reacting to that kind of thing.

I've seen similar things around football stadiums. They're out to get young men.

I don't think that has happened at many classical music festivals that I'm aware of. People drink wine and beer differently. 75% of all beer is consumed by men under the age of 35, for example.

[ctaylors6]

26. I was going to post similar thing. Annual festival near me gets these checks because of alcohol

Lots of drunk drivers caught

[imdjh]

30. The cops swear they don't single out cars with deadhead stickers

But I don't believe them.

[Jokerman]

33. HA!

Our wedding was at a hotel a couple of miles from the venue the day before The Dead were scheduled to play.

EVERY ONE of our wedding guests who had a dead sticker on their vehicle got searched as well as every other car in the lot that even looked like it could have belonged to a Dead fan.

The cops hassled me when I took pictures of them with the contents of a van spread out on the ground. I'm not usually one to back down from over-zealous officers, but my new wife convinced me that spending our honeymoon in lockup wasn't a good way to start the marriage.

[imdjh]

34. I live in Geezerville Florida. I really do see deadhead stickers on Cadillacs.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. Same thing happened to me in San Diego

On the interstate. They were pulling everyone over but the only ones not allowed to go on were not white.

[ddeclue]

41. DWH = Driving While Hispanic...

:eyes: