Again, Los Angeles Tries to Weed Out Mythical Police Profiling

[Geee]

PJMedia:

Picture, if you will, Officer Dunphy out on patrol somewhere in Los Angeles. At the wheel of my black-and-white Ford Police Interceptor (alas, one of the last) I drive the streets, alert to outward signs of crime, villainy, and disorder. Up ahead, I see traffic slow and then stop for pedestrians crossing in a crosswalk. I do likewise, but am soon horrified to see the pedestrians nearly flattened by a car going in the opposite direction, the driver apparently unaware or uncaring of the calamity he has narrowly avoided.

 

I make a U-turn and — after checking the license number to make sure the car isn’t stolen or otherwise wanted — initiate a traffic stop. Even after all these many years on the job, the traffic stop is for me among the more harrowing experiences. Without the benefit of cover or concealment, I have to approach a driver (and often passengers) about whom I have little or no information and whose hands I cannot see. For anyone with malign intentions toward the police, it’s an ideal setting to carry out an attack. (See this YouTube video for an extreme example of why traffic stops still give me the willies.)

 

But in our present hypothetical, I approach the offending driver without the eruption of gunfire, and I ask to see his driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. And here is where things get sticky. Yes, the encounter thus far has been free of violence, but there is about to be drama.