When PC backfires

Washington Times ^ | 3/27/02

[kattracks]

Whatever was the Justice Department thinking? Having successfully compelled New Jersey to set new guidelines intended to eliminate "racial profiling" by state troopers along the Garden State's highways, it then ordered up a study of the speeding habits of New Jersey motorists. Such carelessness. After all, science can be so unpredictable. Guess it never occurred to anyone at Justice that a comprehensive analysis of the facts might actually provide some evidence that New Jersey troopers are not quite the Simon Legrees in squad cars their critics say they are.

[farmfriend]

One reason, the new study tells us, is that blacks exceed the speed limit at a much higher rate than white motorists.

Common place here in Sac as well. Usually black and young. The whites that speed are usually driving something that they feel gives them the right to cut you off. We won't even go into the cell phones.

[GregoryFul]

I would be suspicious of the study results too. Around here (eastern PA), I would say that 99.5% of the highway motorists speed when conditions permit; only slowing down when a clot of breaking cars ahead signal a speed trap or traffic cop pinching the inattentive culprits.

By reputation, speed limits are enforced more strictly in some stretches of NJ highways than others. Logically, if most motorists speed, it follows that the racial profile of those caught speeding should be nearly identical to that of all the motorists (if the speeding detectors were ideal). Perhaps the statistical results reflect a racial difference in learning where the speed traps are in NJ.