Fareeza Mohamed

Do you think we must rethink how we enforce traffic laws in cities and suburbs? Do traffic stops accomplish their task of deterring unsafe driving?

 Read the article in New York Times that highlights how police chiefs, prosecutors, and lawmakers are rethinking the value, and the harm, of minor traffic stops. I don’t think it accomplishes their tasks of determining unsafe driving.

The New York Times highlights how police chiefs, prosecutors, and lawmakers are rethinking the values and the harm of minor traffic stops. The article states that minor stops will not only disproportionately Black drivers but also do little to combat serious crime or improve public safety, and some escalate into avoidable violence, even killing officers or drivers. I would suggest that we rethink who enforces traffic laws in cities and suburbs. 

 I think that if we have traffic laws it will be unsafe “the police union is running an online advertisement warning that discouraging stops could allow guns and killers to remain on the roads”. The article also gives us a great example of how harmful this new law would be, the death in Grand Rapids, Mich., of PatrickLoya, an unarmed 26 – year old black man who was pulled over for a mismatched license plate and, after a brief struggle was shot in the head the videos were released on Wednesday.  There are many other examples that the article provides that show us how the traffic stop doesn’t accomplish its task. Dante Wright a 20 – year – an old black man was pulled over for an expired tag, instead of the police officer drawing a taser she pulled out a gun and shot him. 

In conclusion, the article provides enough evidence to conclude that traffic stops accomplish their task of determining unsafe driving.