After reading the article by Joseph A. Rios called, “Student Pepper Sprayed in Altercation with Police,” I decided to comment on how common it is for the Fresno Police to create phony excuses to pull people over.

I knew when I walked around the FCC campus to ask students, “Have you ever been pulled over or stopped by the cops for no reason at all?” I wouldn’t have a problem finding testimonials.

The first four people that I asked told me their stories.

I know that the interviews weren’t scientific like statistical reports are. I also know that the jail house is not filled with innocent victims like many may claim. But, these are their stories.

Anthony Cox, a sophomore majoring in business management said “My friends and I were walking down the street and a police officer pulled us over. He searched us and then sat us on the curb. He didn’t find anything on us, so he just rode off and flipped us off as he was leaving.”

Cox stated that he believed that the officer stopped them because one of his friends was wearing a red shirt.

What the cynics would usually do is attempt to discredit everything Cox said, but the fact that one of them was wearing a red shirt gave them a subtle indication that he may have been a gang member.

The fact that a group of people are walking down the street and one happens to be wearing a red shirt does not give the officer probable cause to harass them.

Jabbar Sheppard is a junior majoring in general ed. He and his friend were driving in the Belmont / Maple area looking for a party when they were pulled over. The officer told them that there was something wrong with their lights; he didn’t give the driver a ticket, he just told the driver to “go home and get that fixed.”

Sheppard concluded, “Basically he was just harassing us because it was two African-Americans in the car.”

The cynics would say something to this tune. The officer may have pulled them over because they fit the description of someone who had committed a crime.

Yea, they fit the description alright; the description of driving while being black.

Joe Sweeney is a junior, majoring in business administration. He and his friend hopped in his car and drove to the liquor store to buy a pack of cigarettes. Sweeney said that the officers pulled up and they didn’t do anything until he was headed back home.

The officers flashed their lights indicating, pull over. “He checked my license, told us to get out the car and sit on the ground. When I asked why? He told me to be quiet.” Sweeney said. “He checked the car hoping to find something but we didn’t have anything on us.”

Could it be that the officers pulled the young men over because they looked like bulldog gang members? I have no doubt that the cynics have no problem with officers illegally shaking down a person because that person fit the profile of a gang member. They probably would call it crime prevention.

Darrell Moore, a sophomore majoring in kinesiology was riding in the car with his friend who happens to be driving a 1986 Chevy Celebrity (hot rod) when the police pulled them over. “They pulled us over, took all of our I.D.’s and then told us that the muffler was too loud.”

The problem was that there wasn’t anything wrong with the muffler; it was a stock muffler. The officer also gave them a lecture on how they shouldn’t be racing cars.

The cynic: The officer may have been responding to a call complaining about a race car and that the ’86 Celebrity fit the description.

The problem resides in the fact that when the cynics spend too much time, as they do, defending bad cops, it destroys the credibility of the good cops in cases were there is a wrong.

Many of the cynics call themselves conservatives and don’t want to be called racist for their blind support of police officers. So, I will use the term pathologically to define their blind loyalty.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pathological as, “being such to a degree that is extreme, excessive, or markedly abnormal.” Yes, it is abnormal to seemingly always agree with any police officer when he or she engages in extreme and excessive conduct.

A large number of cynics believe that we shouldn’t feel uncomfortable when an officer violates our fourth amendment rights to protect and serve the community.

I believe that the online lawyer source was right when stated that “search and seizure laws protect citizens from intrusions of privacy without proper authorization. Privacy is established when a person has the expectation of privacy in a given context and that expectation is deemed reasonable to society.” What the cynics consciously or unconsciously do is, lower the bar with their pathological reasoning for harassing all citizens… that means you too.

Lately, I have been hearing quite a few complaints from white people about how they have been receiving similar treatment in places like Clovis and around the Herndon area. Many of them blame it on a quota system that the Fresno Police Department denies exist.

Don’t get me wrong, I honor, love and cherish having the protection of the police. If it weren’t for all the good cops, Fresno would be a dangerous place.