I can not understand some people, some recent cases in the media, who immediately jump to hostility when pulled over by plod...
GB, as white people, outside of London and getting stopped once in a blue moon then, for you and me, you're quite right. I was last stopped was 15+ years ago on the outskirts of Chester. I suspect it was a 'practice' pull for the benefit of a new recruit. Few questions about where we were from/too (no doubt he'd already done a registration check on the car), probably a sniff for booze - there was none and all sorted. Told us we'd been stopped as we were 'weaving'. C&B I think. The only previous stop before the Chester one was at least 20 years earlier, Feb/March 1982, in Hendon. On that occasion it was a Sealed Beam Unit on my Mini that was showing side only. I was ticked off and given a 'producer'.
OTOH there is undoubtedly a problem with the Met, and possibly other city forces disproportionately stopping black people so that individuals are pulled up over and over again. Understandable if that results in anger and hostility. The Linford Christie trained athlete in the news recently is a case in point as is the Labour MP and one of their own officers.....
When my daughter was at Uni one of her lecturers was black; this subject came up.
He asked a lecture hall of 19/20 year olds to raise their hands if they could drive. I then said OK, leave it up if you've ever been stopped while driving. Pretty much every hand went down. He could list a dozen plus stops.
I'm also slightly dubious that alternative offences are never used. There are certainly accounts from people on demonstrations to suggest such things DO happen.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 22/08/2020 at 15:57
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