Racism rears its ugly head

Here's another one of those depressing tales of racism:

 Judge dismisses case, citing racial profiling

Black man stopped because he was driving a car registered to Québécois name: trial

 

A Longueuil municipal court judge has thrown out a $523 ticket stemming from a traffic stop by Longueuil police, slamming the officers for using racial profiling and violating the human rights of the man they stopped because he is black.
    In a broad analysis of racial profiling in society, the judge also explained why it is such an injustice when police do it.
Brossard resident Joël Debellefeuille was stopped on July 10, 2009, by two police officers partly because they thought it was odd that a black man was driving a car registered to a Québécois name, Municipal Court Judge Pierre-Armand Tremblay noted.
While racial stereotyping may linger in everyday exchanges between people, even involuntarily, Tremblay added, it is unacceptable in an institutional setting such as the police.
"At no time should citizens think that the justice system tolerates (police) interception or arbitrary detention of people based on the colour of their skin," Tremblay wrote.


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Judge+dismisses+case+citing+racial+profiling/7311507/story.html#ixzz28AWQYCtJ

How do policemen straddle the line, they see a black man driving a car, maybe a fancy car, they find it is registered under a name that sounds like a "real Quebecois" assumes that this man stole the car.

What if the police had stopped a white female driving a car listed under the name of a East Indian sounding name, would he have stopped the White female? Would the police have noticed?

Do Police pay more attention to people of colour assuming that they commit more crimes than say White folks?

A Black school girl once told the story that whenever she and her White friends entered a retail store, the clerks would watch her more. However her White friends used to shoplift lots of stuff  right under the noses of  these shop clerks without ever being caught. These girls did not need the stuff but they did it just because they could get away with it and they treated their friends to the loot.  This is what happens when we stereotype, practice racism - we all lose.