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 …

…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