John Oliver Explains Why Traffic Stops Are More Dangerous Than They Have To Be

Screenshot: Last Week Tonight

Hey, did you know that most of America’s police traffic stops are a dangerous menace, a waste of taxpayer money, and don’t really do anything to stop crime? Of course you did, you’re not dumb. A number of traffic stops conducted every day are for “pretextual” crimes like a burnt out taillight bulb or not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, giving police the right to search your vehicle and person if they somehow believe you might be involved in some other kind of crime. Often these kinds of stops are related to how a driver looks, whether they have “dreadlocks” or “wear lots of gold chains.” These frequent profiled traffic stops can lead to financial ruin, undue jail time, and even the driver being murdered by a police officer.

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If there was any aspect of my job that made it more likely that I would complete that task by murdering someone I was paid to “protect and serve” I’m pretty sure I would do everything I could to avoid doing that task. If states want drivers to have their cars up to the standards of the rulebook of the road, they should institute safety and emissions inspections. If they want drivers to know the minutiae of safe driving, they should institute better driver training programs. There are lots of better solutions to someone not using their turn signal than to send a maladjusted guy with a gun up to their window in a high-stress mental tizzy.

Traffic Stops: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

If you’ve paid any amount of attention to the rapid militarization of police, the disproportional number of traffic stops police subject our black and brown neighbors to, and the escalated treatment they receive, you probably won’t learn a lot from this video. If you’ve been living with your head in the sand for twenty years, this might be enlightening. It’s entertaining either way, if something of a bummer, which is 100 percent John Oliver’s brand.

Fewer traffic stops for dumb bullshit means fewer opportunities for brain-rotted power tripping West Point washouts to beat the shit out of black drivers the way they beat the shit out of their wives. It’s well past time to end these “pretextual” stops and racial profiling from America’s police officers.