San Diego area police harassment (employment, Mexicans, illegal, weapon)

[worldlyman]

Compared to Houston, which is a live and let live city in comparison, San Diego is a police state unto itself.

In 2002, in the DAYTIME, I was driving along Palm Avenue from Imperial Beach. The other side of the 5 is San Diego city limits. The San Diego Police set up cones and basically let white people driving nice cars go and pulled over minorities (Latinos mostly) in less expensive models.

Myself, an American of Filipino descent, I got pulled over to be inspected as we non-whites were routed to the park parking lot there. There was NO probable cause for me to be pulled over. My Florida tags were up to date. There were no defective things on my car. I was not speeding, only going 35 m.p.h.

I was asked for my driver's license, auto insurance and registration. I produced those. And what why were we asked? Oh, that's right, San Diego's Finest NEVER EVEN TOLD ME WHY I WAS AMONG THOSE PULLED OVER.

At least, I've seen a lot of Asian cops in Houston's Police Force. Of those 15 San Diego cops doing that unconstitutional dragnet who could've been assisting real victims in El Cajon Blvd or Golden Hill or Hillcrest, the only non-white was a black dude. For that matter, living in San Diego for 4 years, I've never seen an Asian cop in the police forces of San Diego, Chula Vista or National City. I'm sure there's probably a few but that's interesting to me.

What business did the San Diego Police have to decide who get inspected and did not when there was NO reason to? Daytime? From what I understand now, that kind of check point is basically unconstitutional.

If they're looking for illegal Mexicans (supposedly), that's NOT the job of a professional police force. Leave that to the Border Patrol.

Of course, I was eventually allowed on my way but told to get rid of my Florida plate or "just go home."

San Diego County Sheriff's office set up a sobriety check point (i.e. let us do our public surveillance) on the other side of the 5 on Palm Avenue on a different night in 2002. They actually pulled up their cones and left just as we reached it.

New Year's 2004, the San Diego Police set up checkpoints on 1st Avenue as people tried to leave the Gas Lamp. My wife and I were allowed to pass. At least that particular cop opened up a cone and let us bypass the ruckus.

In 2005, in National City, along Sweetwater...the N.C. cops set up a sobriety check point (i.e. another excuse to poke into people's cars while they drive). They were just in the process so we actually drove through the check point without being stopped.

Anytime, any day and any year: various San Diego police departments always have those scooters driving through PRIVATE parking lots of strip centers scanning the license plates of cars there. It was definitely prominent in National City.

To their credit, I found Chula Vista Police to be the least intrusive. I don't remember them doing those unconstitutional forms of public harassment.

Indeed, it's all about public safety in San Diego...if we believed the real sentiments of Tricky Dickie Murphy and Company.

In Houston, all my years living there, sure you'd read or hear about an announcement when the Harris County Sheriffs would set up a sobriety check points outside the city limits.

I never saw Houston Police do that. That department surely has its own skeletons in the closet but in 2K, they've never done that. The City of Bellaire (a wealthy independent micro-city within Houston), as aggressive as that police force is against the non-Lexus rabble, it didn't set up those routine check points ala National City and such that I recall.

New Years, Super Bowl 2004...you just zipped on your merry way across nocturnal Houston. Surely, the HPD squad cars picked out the real obvious inebriated losers...but they didn't jack with the whole vehicular public.

And one does not notice those police scooters spying on people's cars in parking lots across Houston proper which is a wide municipal sprawl thankfully. (The Meadows, Hedwig Village and such itty bitty places are a different story but still...)

Here in Tampa Bay, specifically Pinellas County...there had been an officer assigned to spy on parking lots to see if out-of-state plates were consistent with Florida employment and he would give them citations after a period.

I wonder why the police spy on people more in San Diego than in Houston. My years of living in both San Diego and Houston...I felt quite freer in H-town.

[Imperial1904]

In all my years living in San Diego, I have never seen an Asian cop also now that you've brought it up. In fact, I have never seen an Asian cop in Denver or even a Black cop in Oregon. Anyway, it sounded like the first part was an illegal immigration thing. Racial profiling is about as normal as a police shooting in San Diego. As a kid, I've been harassed for "looking like a car burglar", a "gangbanger" and have had a cop tell me he would kill me while he had his gun pointed right at me (that's another story).

[schamber]

I've wondered about this as well. Many times when I've been driving back from Anza Borrego on I-8, immigration sets up a roadblock and lets everyone white pass and pulls over everyone who looks foreign, demanding to know if they're citizens. My question is, how are they allowed to ask? I'm the whitest of the white girls, but say I wasn't and that I was, in fact, a citizen. Do I have to carry my passport around with me to avoid questions? One of the principles of the Constitution is that citizens should be allowed to pass from place to place without showing identification. (Papers, please, anyone?) So how, Constitutionally-speaking, are immigration officials or police officers allowed to ask for proof of citizenship when people are traveling within the country?

[Imperial1904]

Well you're really supposed to carry an I.D., it's not a law but just good advice no matter what. If they ask to see your identification, show it and most likely that will be it.

[mewzikguy]

Here's why you were pulled over:
1. Non- whites overwhelmingly when pulled over have one of the following
a. suspended license
b. out of state license that hasn't been changed to Ca.
c. concealed weapon under the seat
d. parole violation
e. stolen vehicle
f. multiple parking violations
I could add more. . . . . you can always go back to Houston.

[Imperial1904]

Originally Posted by mewzikguy

Here's why you were pulled over:
1. Non- whites overwhelmingly when pulled over have one of the following
a. suspended license
b. out of state license that hasn't been changed to Ca.
c. concealed weapon under the seat
d. parole violation
e. stolen vehicle
f. multiple parking violations
I could add more. . . . . you can always go back to Houston.

Houston should be about the same, they have the Mexican and Black population so really, it isn't any better than San Diego. SD has the biggest illegal immigration problem in the nation, even surpassing Tucson now in arrests.

Also, your list is stereotypical. Whites drive without a license, have a concealed weapon, parole violation, it just depends on the population. For instance if the majority of a city is Black, who's more likely to be pulled over? If the majority of the population is Mexican or Asian, same thing.

[norcalguy76]

I am going to be a police officer there so I would assume they were in the right.

[schamber]

Originally Posted by Imperial1904

Well you're really supposed to carry an I.D., it's not a law but just good advice no matter what. If they ask to see your identification, show it and most likely that will be it.

[schamber]

Originally Posted by mewzikguy

Here's why you were pulled over:
1. Non- whites overwhelmingly when pulled over have one of the following
a. suspended license
b. out of state license that hasn't been changed to Ca.
c. concealed weapon under the seat
d. parole violation
e. stolen vehicle
f. multiple parking violations
I could add more. . . . . you can always go back to Houston.

Uh...the police had time to run license plates for parole and parking violations at a roadblock?

[jksouthbay88]

All I got to say is that I am not a fan of the SDPD
and I don't even live in San Diego City!!!