Police: Traffic Tickets and Minorities

I’m a tax accountant, a father of three, coach of a Little League basketball team, a member of St. James Church in Redondo Beach and I have never spent one day in jail. I moved to California in September, 1982, from Kansas and have always lived in the South Bay. I am a law-abiding citizen with the utmost respect for the law.

I feel that policemen are under-appreciated and underpaid no matter what the pay is. I do not feel that I would have the courage to risk my life on a daily basis for any amount of money, especially in these times.

During the time I’ve lived here, I’ve been stopped on an average of about once every two years and I felt in most cases it was unwarranted, but I wrote it off as part of the crime scene.

Over the past two years I have been stopped three times.

The first time, I was on the 405 Freeway coming from Orange County about 1 a.m. The officer followed me for about five miles. When I started to exit, he stopped me and gave me a ticket for speeding, even though we were keeping up with traffic and other cars were passing us.

The second time, I was coming from coaching a game. My 12-year-old son and three other team members were in the car. The officer gave me a ticket for going 50 m.p.h. He clocked me going 50, but I was getting ready to make a right-hand turn and I was in front of my home. When he stopped me he made me get out the car. He did not talk to me like I was an individual but like a criminal in front of my son. He asked me how long I had been dating my girlfriend, who was not a minority, and I told him about six months.

At that point he went to her and asked her what she was doing with me and stated he was going to write me a speeding ticket. After the officer left, my son, along with his teammates, who were not minorities, wanted to know why it was not OK for my girlfriend to be with us.

The third time, I made a right turn coming out of Del Amo shopping center. The officer followed me through three red lights, and when I started to turn at Torrance Boulevard he pulled me over. He said that I had run a red light. I was very upset because the officer had stopped with me at all of the red lights, but later I realized the ticket was for running a red light while making a right, which was over three or four blocks back. And the light was yellow when I made the right turn.

The most disappointing part of this story starts when I decided to fight the traffic tickets.

A) First, when officers did not appear in court for other traffic violations, about 90% of the cases that were dismissed were individuals who were not minorities.

B) Out of the 60 cases I had to sit through no one was found “not guilty.”

C) The officers involved in my cases flat-out lied to obtain the conviction.

I have visited other countries around the world and have never been treated the way I’ve been treated in this country. I was born and raised in this country, but the illusion that a good education, hard work and obeying the law is a way to be treated fairly and with respect is a simply a dream. I have some hope because I have the ability to leave this country, which I’m seriously considering, but if you do not have a college education, an above-average income and you are a minority, you simply have no hope.

I will continue to set a good example and be a positive role model, but I want you to know that I have lost a great deal of respect for the men we pay to protect us and our court system.

KEN WASHINGTON Redondo Beach