The Congressional Black Caucus is demanding Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg take immediate action to tackle the racial imbalance between White and Black Americans when it comes to traffic stops.
Lawmakers say the Biden administration needs to do something as “too many Black people have been killed by police in the name of traffic safety.”
“On our nation’s roads and highways, Black motorists have experienced disproportionate scrutiny and excessive force under the guise of traffic enforcement,” the CBC wrote in a letter to Mr. Buttigieg. “While driving laws have been enacted at every level of government to safeguard the public, officers selectively enforce these laws to the detriment of Black drivers.”
Black lawmakers say Mr. Buttigieg should undertake an active review of federal grants given to states for traffic enforcement to ensure taxpayer money is not going to “racial profiling.” They also want Mr. Buttigieg to set aside money from President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law to address the racial imbalance.
A 2018 study by the federal government’s Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that African American motorists were more likely to be pulled over for traffic stops than Hispanics or Whites.
Mapping Police Violence, a progressive advocacy group, notes that 1,235 people were killed during traffic stops in 2022 alone. Of that number, 276 were Black, 419 were White, and 175 were Hispanic.
CBC lawmakers say the number of African Americans killed in traffic stops is disproportionate compared to the overall number of Black drivers on the road.
“This disparity is even more alarming when taking into account that Black people are less likely to have access to a vehicle,” the lawmakers wrote. “Driving while Black may not be a real crime codified in law, but it is treated as one throughout the country.”
Addressing the supposed racial imbalance of traffic stops is a top priority for the CBC after the death of Tyre Nichols earlier this year. Mr. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died in January after being beaten by five Black police officers during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennesse.
The officers, who were part of a plainclothes police unit, were subsequently fired and are facing murder, kidnapping, and misconduct charges. The incident sparked protests and demands that Congress overhaul the nation’s police laws, similar to the push for new laws after the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 that resulted in the never-passed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
Mr. Biden has re-upped calls for Congress to overhaul the nation’s policing laws in response to pressure from the CBC and progressive activists.
“What happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often,” Mr. Biden said during his State of the Union address in February. “We have to do better.”
Overhauling police laws is likely a nonstarter for the GOP-controlled House, which has made tackling rising crime a major issue. Last month, the chamber pushed through legislation overturning an effort to weaken the criminal code of the District of Columbia.
Despite the White House initially opposing the move, Mr. Biden opted to sign the legislation rather than force vulnerable Democrats to take a tough vote within the Senate. The move drew a rare rebuke from the CBC, which has bristled at Mr. Biden’s failure to deliver on his promise to enact new policing laws.
