PROFILING

IN MY OPINION

I believe that I was profiled the other morning while traveling on Interstate 95, (aka: the drug pipeline) near Daytona. It was about 6:30 am on Tuesday, March the 25th. I was taking my granddaughter to school in Palm Coast, when the blue lights came on behind me. I pulled off the road and got my driver’s license, registration and insurance card ready to show the officer that stopped me. He approached on the passenger side of the car (?) and my granddaughter rolled down the window. He looked in the car at us, saw her school bag and laptop in the rear seat, while another officer approached, looking in thru the rear window. The first officer advised me that I was speeding a little, but he was not worried about that… (umm, okay?) He also told me that I had changed lanes without signaling, which to my surprise is apparently a Florida law and is considered dangerous not to signal. He was very professional and polite. He told me to be careful, never asked to see my driver’s license or papers, and that was it. It was a strange 4 or so minutes.

IN MY OPINION

I think that I met the profile of a drug dealer running pills and whatever other illegal items drug dealers often sneak out of Florida. I was on Interstate 95 in a late model, black sedan, with very dark window tinting, driving fast and changing lanes without a signal. Both of those offenses would have given the officer the right to pull me over. After he approached the car, saw my granddaughter and I and her school bag in the rear seat, calling on his experience and training, he decided I was no threat and let me go. So, like I said, the total thing took about 4 minutes.

I applaud our State and Local Police in their use of whatever is needed (such as profiling) to keep us safe and control traffic and crime.

As a civilized nation we can’t lose focus on what our police, under sometimes severe circumstances, must go through to perform their duty. We shouldn’t let a few bullying incidents that are almost always exploited by the media’s insatiable desire to inflame the public and stereotype our policemen as the bad guys, change our opinion and perspective on our law enforcement, whose true priority it is to serve and protect us.