The law..... One of my favorite little sayings that tends to shut locals up when they bring up the 'well most of the criminals are minorities' thing... We have one of our own, who will never come back to Decatur again because of the police. He's had some troubles but he's doing well and starting for the Dallas Cowboys these days. We've got another who actually comes back here and puts on free health clinics and a football camp..all for free, but he doesn't hang around here...for fear of the police. You see, it's a regular thing for you to see people of color pulled over for 'tinted windows.' The next white person with tinted windows that I see pulled over will be the first. Whenever I mention this, you can see their eyes roll around before giving it that 'awww ****' look and that's because I am right. Not only that, their wives probably drive an SUV with gaudy rims and blacked out tinted windows....and have never once been stopped. Meanwhile, I'll bet you I've seen one every day since 2000 with a black guy pulled over. I am friends with quite a few of the policemen here who are black and there are some subjects they will not touch. There are problems that need to be addressed. It's not a simple white/black issue. You can respect the law and law enforcement, yet believe that they be held accountable to the same laws that they are there to enforce. Furthermore, the penalties should be stiff when it is found that they've used their position to abuse the power they have. Determining right and wrong is not their job. Protecting the public is their job. In the case in which this subject is about, I don't know many people outside of the white guys here who are saying they side with the law. This guy wiped his johnson with the law and did whatever the hell he wanted. I'm sorry you guys don't see the police state that we live in, but it has clearly failed. More guns, better ammo and more boots on the ground doesn't work. It's ignoring the problem and when you have these increases, you wind up with guys who are the exact opposite of George's son. Some of the guys I know back home who are LAPD are literally terrible human beings. They aren't tough or noble. I side with the law, it applies to the police as well.
I don't know about the rest of you but I'm considering moving to Decatur just to learn what life is like in this police state called America. The very first thing I want to do is find out from the police there how they can tell the race of the people in cars with tinted windows. I sure can't now.
There's not too many soccer moms with spinners on their Mercedes. There's also a difference between a new SUV with tinted windows and a sedan from the 70s or 80s. The police state isn't just here. One of my visits back home to see my California shocked me. I couldn't believe the number of policemen that I saw. You literally could not go more than a mile without seeing a patrol car. It had changed that much between 1998 and 2003. I know I mentioned this to my family members who held a simple 'eh what are you gonna do?' attitude about it. BTW, I am getting married in October and you are welcome to come visit Decatur anytime. You can see things like 11 patrol cars on 6th Ave, which is the main drag through town. Add more cops, yet crime keeps going up. Back when I was married to my son's mother, we had a DUI incident in our neighborhood. It was an 18 year old kid who took out an entire blocks worth of posted signs, ran straight through Walter Jackson's school sign before veering right and crashing into the garage of my neighbor across the alley. When I came out to see what happened, the kid was ramming the house back and forth trying to break the car free. He fled and I followed and a few other local men joined the chase. The kid tried to hide in an alley about a block up. When we spotted him, he made MULTIPLE attempts to run us over before taking off into the night. (it turns out he went home). Here's the thing....The kid's parents are rich, white country club members and they paid for all of the signs, including buying a new school sign dedicated to their recently deceased principal, as well as repairing the house. They paid for it all. That kid didn't get so much as a ticket. I complained because that kid tried to run me over, as well as a few other dads. I know they complained and we were basically told 'the matter was handled and is concluded.' No way a black kid gets away with that, no way. Here, we have NFL players getting pulled over for tinted windows. My son's team will have 3 different pairs of the latest top of the line Nike cleats, just like the pros wear. They were given to the program by one of their former players. They are also given those customized gloves with the logos in the palms. These are black men doing this, who give back to the program and people they love..but they don't visit for long, and they'll tell you, the cops are the reason.
Speaking of the police state.... check points. DUI checkpoints and seat belt check points. The 2 things no one ever gets busted for is DUI or not having a seat belt. The police force gets 'gravy money' (cops words, not mine) for sweet OT. They used to be on specific days, which stretched to periods of days surrounding certain days, which has now stretched to 2 and 3 week periods in which they can conduct these searches. I've been through them. The weirdest thing happened. No one asked about drinking and driving. No one asked if we were all wearing our seatbelts. They wanted to check your license, as well as the IDs of others in the car, your insurance information and then give your car the quick once over... ya know 'just to see.' And for some odd reason, these are never on busy streets, nor are they in the 'white' parts of town. They are almost always in hispanic and black or poor white parts of the town. I'm sure that's a coincidence, and not any kind of shitty tax on the poor.
re: Decatur police state I will be attending Corey's wedding in October and I shall deliver a full report, if I survive...
You don't have much of a chance, Jim. You look shady to me. Keep your eyes straight ahead and make no direct eye contact with anyone you even suspect to be connected with law enforcement. If you rent a car, only a 4 cylinder and nothing in red or high gloss black. No fancy wheels. Bring a "Soccer Mom on Board" magnetic sticker with you. Keep your hands at 10 and 2 and your ID handy. No rap music or hip hop, Gangsta. And you and the Missus have a good time!
To get serious for a moment, the state of New Jersey has announced that the NJSP will begin wearing body cams immediately. My is mainly plain clothes these days bit occasionally works in uniform on the dreaded DUI details that Corey references. He is delighted to have one on... for his own protection. It seems that suspects are hip to the dash cams and mics and will position themselves out of perceived camera view. My kid was on the road for almost nine years and probably had a dozen discrimination charges filed against him by beligerent motorists... all Black... all kicked out or dismissed. He tells me for years now it is the preferred tactic of most AAs who he pulls over for even the most routine offenses. The dashcam and body mic proves almost 100% of these type allegations to be false. There are two sides to every story although I admit this side is not politically correct.
Here is a seat belt check that took place one block over from my home that yielded some good results. This is not unusual either. http://patch.com/new-jersey/howell/...ce & fire&utm_campaign=recirc&utm_content=aol
Here are three uniformed NJ State Troopers taking time out from cracking heads to work on a special security detail through Sunday. That is American Pharoah at nearby in Monmouth Park. He arrived today for The Haskell on Sunday which you can watch on ESPN. https://scontent-lga1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=84f99b2745b4c6a47d7c364a418ae02e&oe=5649FD5F