DWB (Driving While Black) A Police Abuse of Power

I. INTRODUCTION "Let me make this very clear. The Maryland State police has not, does not, nor will it ever condone the use of race-based profiling" in determining which cars to stop on the highway.1 Chief State Trooper Colonel David Mitchell issued this statement in response to a lawsuit filed against the Maryland State Troopers. The suit was filed on behalf of African-American motorists who alleged that these officers had engaged in a practice of …showed first 75 words of 4536 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4536 total…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Equal Protection Clause was designed to prevent discrimination within all the States.83 For a motorist to argue that the police have selectively enforced traffic violations based on his race falls within the Equal Protection Clause "because the discriminatory application of the law amounts to a denial of equal justice."84 The claimant who attempts to establish that his equal protection rights we