POLICE STEREOTYPING IS OLD PRACTICE

I remember the good and bad growing up in South Memphis, but I mostly
remember being stereotyped by the police departments of Memphis and
surrounding areas. I remember being pulled over and never being asked for
permission to search my vehicle, and watching it ransacked by individuals
who had sworn to uphold the law. Ninety-nine percent of the time the stops
weren't justified (I sped sometimes).

People who have been the victim of so-called police saturation and
harassment, racially motivated or not, have to ask this whether the officer
in the Eric Berrios case studied psychology. Police have stopped me few
times in my older years, and every time have asked to search my vehicle.
Why, because I seem nervous? When I was younger, I was never asked
permission for a search; now that I am older, I tend to refuse because I
learned at an early age what stereotyping was. When I refuse, police
suggest I have something to hide.

Could Berrios have been nervous about his insurance going up because of the
ticket? Perhaps his wife was pregnant with triplets again. The fact is,
more than $1 million worth of cocaine was taken off the street. The next
time Berrios is caught, it will be a righteous stop.

Don't be mad at Judge Paula Skahan. I know that if some of your
conservative readers had children arrested and charged with the same crime,
their reaction would be to call high-priced lawyers and get their children
off on the same technicality, as Berrios did. If anyone or anything is to
blame, it's the entire legal system.

Marcus Robinson

Memphis