American site: Traffic checkpoints can be very dangerous for black Americans

Vox says that traffic checkpoints can be very dangerous for black Americans.

In the context of the murder of Tyre Nicholas, who died as a result of a police assault on him at a traffic checkpoint earlier this month, he provided some information that confirms what he went to.

In his

, he said that the researchers sought to understand the discrepancy in who is stopped at traffic points, explaining that, in general, their results indicate that the problem is related to the bias of the officer supervising the traffic point, whether he is conscious or unconscious, and that blacks in general are subject to doubts more than others. others, making them more vulnerable than their white counterparts.

And the site attributed to the University of Arizona law professor Jordan Blair Woods that police officers are taught to view traffic points as dangerous for them, and that police academies regularly show training officers videos about extreme cases of violence against the police during routine traffic stops to confirm that Routine police work can quickly turn into a deadly situation if they do not enforce procedures or hesitate to use force.

High rate of traffic checkpoint fatalities

He pointed out that a study conducted by American politics professor at the University of Michigan, Shea Streeter, in 2019, found that 11% of killings across America in 2015 were at the hands of the police during traffic and pedestrian inspections, and what complicates matters for black individuals is that the data indicates that they are being stopped. More often than white in some areas, by a large margin.

The report also stated that black Americans are often taught at home to consider confrontations with the police, especially at traffic checkpoints, as dangerous, if not fatal, commenting that the death of Americans such as Nicholas, Don Wright, and Sandra Bland, And Richard Brooks, confirms the validity of this education.

The dual purpose of traffic check stops

In many police departments, he said, traffic stops are intended to serve a dual purpose: deterring illegal behavior and as an opportunity for officers to investigate the past or possible crimes of those they stop, as a general enforcement strategy aimed at reducing violent crime or drug trafficking.

And when officers serve these broader goals, which have nothing to do with traffic safety but with everything to do with who looks suspicious, they can expect to be tempted by their anti-black prejudices in citizen stops.

The report also noted that if black drivers are seen as more suspicious, and police are trained to view checkpoints as generally dangerous, this creates a serious problem.

When a black driver is pulled over, the officer, who is more suspicious, is likely to initiate a provocation, causing a backlash that may eventually lead to fatal violence.