Economic Profiling(driving While Poor)

We have heard of racial profiling when in a motor vehicle commonly called driving while black, gender profiling or, driving while female, and age profiling, or driving while teen. It has been said that African- Americans are only 17% of drivers in America but make up 72% of all traffic stops. It is merely racial profiling? I will say that as a victim of racial profiling, it was a tough time for me. Let me explain, I had been driving home one night. I was at the traffic light. There was a car behind me with extremely loud music. I had my left turning signal on when a law enforcement officer was passing through the light. I turned and I noticed that the police had turned in at hotel parking lot. When passing the hotel the police officer began to follow me. I didn’t realize at the time the reason he was following me.  After about two miles the lights came on and I pulled over. He asked for my driver license. After he ran his check everything was clear. The office then asked me if I had any weapons in the car. I told the officer that I didn’t have any weapons but he was more than welcomed to check. He was obviously shocked that I had given him permission to search the car before he asked.  He searched the car and found nothing. He told me that I was free to go. I asked the officer why he pulled me over. He said I had a busted tail light and I should just get it fixed. When I got home I examined the light. There was a tiny hole smaller than a dime. The next day I began to think over everything. I mean all the traffic stops I’ve been in and the ones I’ve seen. At first, I thought this was racial profiling.  But then I started to realize that I had never been pulled over in wealthy neighborhoods, where in the city I was in, African Americans make up a small percentage of residents very small. If police wanted to pull me over for being black that was a perfect spot for that. But it never happened that way. I had always been pulled over in what would seem as the poorest parts of town. In this particular city you would have to go through this part of town to get downtown or to get home, or at least get to the neighborhood I lived in. I then noticed that this was happening to a lot of people. Almost all of them thought it’s was either DWB,DWF,or DWT. No one ever suspected that they were being pulled over for driving while poor. Every luxury car you can think of would break traffic laws. Speeding, running lights, neon lights, no seat belts etc., driven by all races would come through this part of town in front of law enforcement. Nothing happens. Then here comes a rundown 1988 ford truck. It’s driven by a white guy, who looks like he just got off work headed to the store to get a beer and go home for the day. Here comes law enforcement pulling him over saying they have seen this truck in this neighborhood all day. Now here’s a guy who was so tired he hadn’t even taken off his hard hat.  But they begin to harass him. Law enforcement would go so far as to make him call his boss to come to the store to verify that he was at work. About 15 minutes later here comes a truck custom made like it was sent from heaven. This well manicured gentle gets out the truck wearing a shirt that looks like it would take a week’s worth of my pay to buy, explains to the officer what the poor had been saying all along. I realized that the cars I have been driving had been cars that most hard working people would buy. Nothing fancy just a car that would get me from a to b. I truly believe that law enforcement pick on the poor because they feel that the poor knows nothing about the law. And thus meeting quotas of traffic tickets, and arrests, will not get any challenges because of lack of knowledge or representation. Driving While Poor is not against the law. It’s only against the when law enforcement choose to make up reasons to stop and harass the poor.