"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones." Machiavelli
Profiles in CourageBy DIA, Section News
There currently is a case regarding a reported illegal search of a woman pulled over for a reported traffic violation. The woman claims she was profiled and claims the officer told her as much.
I think we'd all be fools to think profiling doesn't happen. It happens to white women in rental cars in the wrong neighborhoods. It happens to plenty of other white people in their own cars driving in the poor, mostly minority neighborhoods in Albany (and every other city in the US). Everyone knows, or should, that suburban kids like to get off 787/90 and swing through the ghetto to pick up some drugs. AND, it happens to black people all the time and everywhere. I do it myself all the time. There are far too many young black men in this city driving $60,000 pimped out Escalades for me to not wonder what they do for a living. They are never wearing ties. I make assumptions. That is the reality. Right or wrong that is how things work. And I don't have a real problem with it because I see no way to change it and because it does allow for criminals to be questioned at times when there was no reason to question them. That said, I really doubt the Shutter woman didn't use her turn signal. She was profiled because of what she looked like and where she was. No big deal. There are reasons I don't drive in certain neighborhoods in this city. That is number two on the list. Some people are criticizing this woman because she lied about who she was going to pick up. While this is of course something to criticize, I'm sure everyone in her situation would've done the same thing. Just as I'm pretty confident the whole stop was based on a lie (e.g. the turn signal). But she still was initially lying which makes it seem like she was trying to cover something up. No argument from me there. Everything else she says has to be viewed in the same light. On the other side of the equation we have Chief Tuffey. He has lied in the past when questioned about illegal conduct that occured in the APD. In this case he refused to refer this case to the Review Board. He has a track record of trying to cover up illegal behavior within the APD. So, as with Shutter, I believe everything else he says has to be viewed in that same light. Now, I don't have a problem with the profiling. What I have a problem with is the violation of civil rights and the accusations of sexual assault. If you pull someone over due to their profile and they check out as not doing anything wrong, you let them move on. It is a numbers game. They haven't committed any crimes and neither have you. You don't violate their rights. If indeed that happened, and the chief is trying to cover that up, we have a serious problem. A crime was committed at that point. And since we agree that based on past performance, both parties can not be taken at their word, we need an independent investigation. This is about basic rights. And while we may not ever know the whole story, as I'm not sure how either side can prove or disprove the sexual assualt claim, phone records should show whether or not the officer took her phone and called someone on it. If that happened, which should be easy to prove, one of the participants in this twisted tale gains some credibility. And the other loses more.
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