DRIVING WHILE BLACK OR BROWN

This just in: Driving while black is still unsafe at any speed. The
same goes for driving while brown.

The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report Sunday
showing that white, African-American and Hispanic drivers are equally
likely to be pulled over by police for an alleged traffic offense. In
2005, the year covered by the study, black drivers were actually less
likely -- by a tiny margin -- to be stopped by police than drivers
belonging to the other groups. You might be tempted to conclude that
the constitutional imperative of equal protection had finally been
extended to America's streets and highways.

But you would be wrong. The study reports that African-American and
Hispanic drivers who are stopped by police are more than twice as
likely as whites to be subjected to a search. Specifically, police
searched only 3.6 percent of white drivers pulled over in a traffic
stop, while they searched 9.5 percent of African Americans who obeyed
the flashing lights and 8.8 percent of Hispanics.

Compelling Evidence

The report says the "apparent disparities" between racial groups "do
not constitute proof that police treat people differently along
demographic lines," since there could be "countless other factors and
circumstances" that go into the decision of whom to spread-eagle on
the hood. All right, those figures alone might not constitute "proof"
of bias that would persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. They
are pretty compelling, though, especially when you also consider that
black and Hispanic drivers are much more likely to experience "police
use of force" than whites.

And besides, the following paragraph in the report pretty effectively
demolishes that "move along, folks, nothing to see here" disclaimer about bias:

"Police actions taken during a traffic stop were not uniform across
racial and ethnic categories. Black drivers (4.5 percent) were twice
as likely as white drivers (2.1 percent) to be arrested during a
traffic stop, while Hispanic drivers (65 percent) were more likely
than white (56.2 percent) or black (55.8 percent) drivers to receive
a ticket. In addition, whites (9.7 percent) were more likely than
Hispanics (5.9 percent) to receive a written warning, while whites
(18.6 percent) were more likely than blacks (13.7 percent) to be
verbally warned by police."

African Americans have been putting up with "driving while black" for
so long that we've become somewhat cynical. For example, almost
three-quarters of whites and Hispanics who were pulled over for
allegedly running a red light or a stop sign were willing to concede
that they had been caught dead to rights, while nearly half of
African Americans in that situation believed they had committed no infraction.

It's Not Paranoia

About 90 percent of white drivers detained for some sort of vehicle
defect, such as a busted taillight, thought the stop was legitimate,
as opposed to 67 percent of black drivers.

Think that's just paranoia? Then try to reconcile the
counterintuitive fact that while blacks are much more likely than
whites to be arrested in a traffic stop, they are also more likely to
be released with no enforcement action, not even a warning. This
looks to me like powerful evidence that racial profiling is alive and
well. It suggests there was no good reason to stop those people.

Of course, enforcing the nation's laws, capturing criminals, making
law- abiding Americans safer is what we pay police officers to do,
but not selectively. Whites, too, drive around with drugs, illegal
weapons, open containers of alcohol or other contraband in their
cars. The numbers in the report suggest that if white drivers stopped
by police were searched at the same rate as blacks or Hispanics,
police would uncover evidence of tens of thousands of additional
crimes each year, doubtless putting thousands of dangerous people behind bars.

We don't want a society in which everybody is being patted down by
police all the time. We don't want a society in which people have to
stand by the side of the road, fuming, while police arbitrarily
rummage through the stuff in their cars -- shopping bags, children's
toys, McDonald's wrappers -- on the off chance of finding something illegal.

If you're black or brown, though, may I see your license and registration?