What Winston said ... although if you've never sped cast the first stone at Sam. Sam broke the law by speeding (something everyone who drives has or will do). He was pulled over and acted 100% appropriately and was treated like he was a violent thug by a cop. Either the cop was just an ass, the cop was on a power trip due to NFL, the cop had a bad day and had a spiked dildo up his ass, or the cop was racist ... it really doesn't matter why the cop acted the way he did it just matters that he is disciplined for it, and I appreciate seeing the maturity out of Sam when he would have been well within his rights to get an attitude.
It was pretty clear to me that Big Sam's size scared the cop, and I'm thinking that the color of Sam's skin was probably a factor in all of this, as well. I've never been involved in a traffic stop (whether I was driving or not) where I or the driver were ordered out of the car; however, the past few years, I've started noticing that black men seem to be the only ones I see out of their cars during traffic stops. I have a friend who has a masters from Rice University, and he has told me that he's been treated badly on traffic stops, and he feels like it's because he is black. He is not a man who throws the race card around, either. But he says he's never NOT been ordered out of his car during a traffic stop. He has also received some weird questions about driving a Lexus--like it's stolen or something.
If I was a cop I would want people I stopped to get out of their car so I could see that they didn't have a gun in their hand. Its too easy to get shot when you approach a car with the driver still in the seat. I don't care if they are black or white or brown or even a little old lady.
If you're going to worry non stop about being shot on a routine traffic stop you're in the wrong line of work. Yes you are in one of the most dangerous jobs there is, but you can't let that get to your head and make you start acting outside of normal procedure.
Regardless. most of the time, when I see someone out of a car during a traffic stop, it is a black male. Coincidence? Probably not.
Thats the thing. Cops might stop hundreds of people every year. Most are just ordinary people who maybe were driving a little too fast or maybe ran a red light. But if you stop enough people sooner or later you will stop that psycho who will kill you. Maybe its just a nutjob. Maybe its somebody with a large amount of drugs who would rather shoot you than take a chance on going to prison. Maybe its some wacko with a dead body in the trunk. Remember in the movie Fargo where the bad guy shot the cop. He had a kidnapped woman in the back seat with a blanket over her head. I'm surprised that it isn't standard procedure to make everybody get out of their cars before appoaching the vehicle.
Making him get out of the car or not is not the point. It is what the cop did after he found Sam was a NFL football player that was wrong. There is no excuse for that.
I agree with that but I was just making a general point not related to this particular cop's actions.
Some cops will order you out of the car on the PA before they even get out of the patrol car. Other cops will tell you to stay in the vehicle if you try to get out. Best to just keep your hands on the wheel and do what they ask. Never go dig for you registration in the glove box until they ask. If they think you are going for a gun they will shoot you and get away with it.
Exactly .... so unless you plan on asking EVERYONE to step out of the car ... then don't do it just because their is a big black NFL player in the car.
