Draft Blog-Circulated Petition Against Traffic Stop Police Brutality

To the Civil Rights Division, US Justice Department:

We respectfully request that the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice review events surrounding the epidemic of police brutality against Black drivers and passengers at traffic stops to identify and prosecute cases in which the civil rights of drivers and passengers have been violated.

Law abiding Black professionals including retired police officers and nationally recognized sports figures caring for family members in times of emergency have been taunted, harassed and humiliated. Black and pregnant women rushing to the hospital have been stopped and denied medical care, leading to miscarriages, with the offending police officers asking, "How is that my problem?"

Each of the abused is but one example of the the menace that Black motorists and passengers face throughout the United States, simply for driving while Black.

According to a 2007 US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics press release:

• The most common reason for police contact in 2002 and 2005 was a driver in a traffic stop, accounting for about 40 percent of all contacts.
• Blacks were almost three times as likely as whites to report that excessive force was used against them in contacts with law enforcement, while Latinos reported excessive force twice as often as whites.
• Police searched three times as many Blacks and Hispanic drivers as white drivers.

We urge the US Justice Department to adopt a policy of vigorously investigating complaints of traffic stop police brutality in every state where it occurs.

We urge that Justice Department financial support for state and local police activities be conditioned upon findings that such police organizations vigorously screen, discipline and terminate police officials whose color-aroused and abusive behaviors, and tolerance of such behaviors, make all police activity seem suspect in minority communities.

We further urge that police make an effort to distinguish between law abiding Americans and others, rather than treating all Black Americans as guilty and inherently insusceptible of being proved innocent.

To underscore our determination that law-abiding Black drivers and passengers be perceived and treated as such, we hereby announce our intention to scrupulously observe each and every traffic law intended for the protection of the public, in every case, and we willingly accept as a group -- with patience, prayer and diligent meditation -- any traffic delays that may result from our determination to be perceived and treated as models of perfect traffic law obedience.

We urge all Americans to be patient with us as we demonstrate, through rigorously responsible driving behavior, that our greatest priority when driving, in addition to traffic safety, is that we be treated with the respect and consideration that all human beings deserve, regardless of how long it takes us to get there.

Signed,

1. ____________________

2. ____________________

3. ____________________