Driving While Black/Brown

"Speeding less than 10 mph over the speed limit", "Failure to comply with regulations", "Driving to fast for the conditions", "equipment violations"... Off the top of my head, those are all bullshit driving charges that you can be ticketed for in the great State of Maryland. If I really thought about it I could probably come up with a half dozen more questionably vague violations.
My friend Brian (Moe Green) and I like to call these charges: "Driving While Black/Brown." (I'm pretty sure we heard that somewhere else, and adopted it as our own, but I'm not sure where.)
Both of us being Insurance Agents we have access to driving records... We've seen thousands upon thousands of records and we began to notice some things; Like, when you pull someone's record and you see tickets for those charges. Well, 75%-80% of the time it's a minority sitting across your desk. (Brian puts the percentage higher than I do.)
We've talked about starting some kind of spreadsheet where we could actually record every time we come across this... Something to show what the bullshit charge was followed by the persons race/age/sex. I don't know what we would do with our little study when we were done with it. Most likely we'd just look at it and say "wow, we were right," and that would be the end of it.
I guess until we actually get around to starting and completing our little study, we have no scientific evidence to show... For now you'll just have to take the word of two guys who have seen A LOT of driving records. Beyond that, all I can offer you two short stories that perfectly illustrate our theory in work.

STORY 1: This involves myself and Brian when we were 17 and 16 respectively. My mom's boss gave her the keys to their beach house for a week, so off we went. My mother, my little sister, myself and Brian. I was 17 and a half at the time but had only been driving for 2 months. (that was due to an insane incident where I stole my own car and went missing for a day, but that's a story for another time!)
Anyway, I had very little driving experience but somehow we convinced my mother that instead of just going in her Minivan, we should be able to take my car as well... (For the record that has to be one of the Top 5 most illogical parental decisions my Mom ever made.)
To make a long story short, we ended up getting pulled over one night because I was speeding about 15 mph over the limit with my headlights turned off, AND I didn't have my Driver's License with me! (even if I did have it with me it was a Provisional License that restricted me from driving past midnight, and it was 1:30 AM).
I thought I was going to jail for sure... I was like 2 seconds away from crying when the cop said "You do actually have a driver's license don't you?"
"Yes," I replied, a little confused by the fact that he was going to just take my word for it.
"Well, you boys turn your headlights on and drive home safely..."
And that was it. Not a written warning, not even a verbal warning... He didn't ask for my name!?!
I often wonder how that would have turned out had we not been a couple of innocent looking white boys.

STORY 2: This took place yesterday in our office parking lot.
Around 3 pm we noticed that there were FOUR cop cars blocking off our parking lot as they interviewed 2 black teenagers.
Both the teenagers had that "I don't understand why we're being pulled over?/What the hell are there 4 Police cars here for anyway?" look about them... Before I could even say the words, Brian beat me to it, "Driving While Black," was his theory.
The questioning went on for another FORTY-FIVE minutes! They searched both teens, and then did a thorough search of the car... They found nothing.
Finally one of the cops came in to let us know what was going on.
"Driving without a license..." He informed us.
Well driving without a license isn't something you get pulled over for, that's something that they discover AFTER they pull you over.
"How did you find out he didn't have a license?" I asked.
"Well," he replied with a southern twang, "he almost got into an accident there on Patrick Street, he wasn't paying attention and almost rear-ended somebody."
Since when is ALMOST having an accident a crime? And if he was able to avoid the accident he must have been paying attention. Right?
I didn't have the balls to question the officer any further. I've had a long history of mouthing off to the Cops when I shouldn't, and it never goes well. So I bit my tongue.
I couldn't however, suppress the cynical look I had on my face. Seeing this, the Cop must have felt compelled to further explain his actions... "I just want to see some ID from him. His girlfriend is supposed to be on her way, she has his License," he explained.
At first when the officer said the kid was driving without a license, I took that to mean he had no License to speak of, but if his girlfriend was bringing it to him then he had simply forgotten to take it with him when he left the house... Just like I did when I was 17 years old at the beach.
It just didn't seem right. They pulled him over for almost having an accident, questioned him and his friend for almost an hour, searched the car, wrote him a $30 ticket for not having his license with him, and that needed 4 police cars?!?!?
As the commotion died down and all the cars left our parking lot, I turned to Brian.
"Do you remember when-" I started to say before he cut me off.
"The beach right?" he asked.
"Exactly," I replied.
"Yeah, I remember..."