California has decided that “traditional enforcement methods have had a well-documented disparate impact on communities of color, and implicit or explicit racial bias in police traffic stops puts drivers of color at risk” therefore, traffic tickets are racist.
To correct this, tickets will come with fines that are adjusted based upon the driver’s income level. How this passes through the equal protection clause, I don’t know.
5 Comments
Tsgt Joe · April 8, 2025 at 9:59 am
Back in the days when I earned my keep, my coworkers of color would comment that the cops of the particular suburb of Detroit I lived in targeted blacks. One day I spent an hour+ sitting by the main drag looking at people driving by. About half were black or mideastern and it appeared most of the folks noticeably speeding were melanin enhanced. Usually the drivers of the bolder, noisier cars were young men of color. One day at work I was relating that I had made a stupid mistake on that very road and had been pulled over. The focus of my story had to do with the fact that there was a guy in the system with the same name and almost identical birthdate who over the years has been a jail escapee, parole violator and had various warrants. This resulted in several police cars quickly arriving. It got sorted out-and I was sent on my way with a warning. One black lady jumped in and said” you didnt get a ticket because you are white”. I reminded her that just a couple days before she had been stopped and had cussed the cop out, called him an uncle tom etc. and that I on the other hand had treated the cop respectfully and acknowledged my error. Maybe being an old grey hair helped too. I do believe that a groups compliance with the law and behavior probably has a very measurable affect on outcomes. I will admit sometimes poverty drives the problem. You are driving an old beater to your minimum wage job and get stopped for a tail light being out, cop finds out you dont have insurance, so you get tickets which you cant pay. The next thing, you have warrants, get arrested, lose your job.
old geezer · April 8, 2025 at 10:04 am
equal protection under the law went under the bus when the law said racism would be cured by racism.
It's just Boris · April 8, 2025 at 10:29 am
Of course, one can also avoid most tickets in the first place by not speeding, not blowing red lights, and generally driving safely.
But that’s probably being all white privilegely and patriarchally racist. Or something.
Jonathan · April 8, 2025 at 2:59 pm
I wonder how they’re going to find out income? Tax information is protected under both state and federal law.
Of course, I assume they’ll either change or ignore state law and ignore federal law as and when convenient. And they are probably focused enough within the state that they haven’t thought of how to handle out of staters.
Aesop · April 10, 2025 at 4:26 am
It won’t last. It’ll be quashed judicially in about 0.2 seconds.
The only thing the courts hate more than educated and employed white people is having
their asinine verdicts overturned on appeal.
So the idiots in Sacramento can claim they tried, and the judges won’t have to keep issuing asinine verdicts as if Reality could be turned on its head.
And nobody will cover it, they’ll just pretend neither the passage nor the overturn ever happened, like ignoring your elderly grandfather’s farts and blaming the bulldog.