Mathew Bianchi took routine traffic stops seriously and handed out tickets regardless of people’s connections within the Police Department. He says he was punished for it.
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The police unions distribute the wallet-sized courtesy cards — sometimes referred to as “get out of jail free” cards — to members, who in turn pass them out to friends and family. Bianchi had been instructed to let card carriers off without a ticket.
By the time he pulled over the Mazda in November 2018, drivers were handing Bianchi these cards six or seven times a day. But this woman’s card was a little older, a little tattered-looking. It was difficult to make out the contact information of the officer who had given it to her, which is usually written on the card’s back. So Bianchi did the wrong thing, which is to say, the right thing: He wrote the woman a ticket.
Though Bianchi didn’t know it then, he had just begun what would become a yearslong struggle to do the job the way he thought it should be done. He had inherited his moral obligations — and a strong dose of stubbornness — from his grandmother, who raised him on Staten Island. But he had no family in the Police Department, and no one who could tell him what to do when its leadership began to turn against him.
The month after he stopped the Mazda, a high-ranking police union official, Albert Acierno, got in touch. He told Bianchi that the cards were inviolable. He then delivered what Bianchi came to think of as the “brother speech,” saying that cops are brothers and must help each other out. That the cards were symbols of the bonds between the police and their extended family and friends.
Why are these cards legal to begin with? Call me naive, but if you violate traffic laws it shouldn’t matter who your sisters dogs best friends owners cousin is.
Because it’s just a piece of paper. It has no actual legal power, but because of ambiguous police “discretion” and internal thin blue line/“ingroup” social politics, it has the same effect as an actual “i can break the law” card.
Even a law against them wouldn’t necessarily stop them, since its cops that enforce laws, and they can just not enforce that one. We should still pass it, with deep penalties for both the cop who takes these and the presenters who try to use them, but its still a corrupt group policing itself, so they wont end until there is actual systemic oversight of police departments.
It’s evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Or it would be, if cops had any legal obligation to follow or enforce laws.
So why don’t we start copying them and giving everyone one?
The issue is that the people who have them tend to want nothing more in life than to suck on the thin blue line and they protect it like it is their emotional support assault rifle. Well, actually, they protect it a lot more since they tend to not flash it in every park and 7-11 they can find.
But once you know what they look like in that jurisdiction (or a nearby one)? Yeah, they are trivial to fake. But it only works if you look like you are middle/upper class white.
Back in high school we allegedly stole the wallet of the rapist football player, stole his card (and his money), and made a bunch of fakes. Worked well until a Korean girl got her mom’s car completely fucked up by an angry cop. She wold have gotten a drug charge from the baggy they tried to plant but this was right around the time camera phones were becoming a thing and they didn’t realize how worthless the 20 seconds of video on those things were.
Because we don’t have the monopoly on violence.
No, I mean physically copy the cards.
Its not like they’re legally binding or impersonating a police officer.
You probally could. Thats another issue with them. They are an unregulated and unmonitored “break the law” pass given out to strangers.
Based on the article, you need to write a cops name on the back as that’s the common “security feature” they add to prevent counterfeits, but thats it.
Of course, if the cop figures out it’s a fake, they will apply every ounce of possible bullshit they can to ruin your life.
Ideally, everybody would have one. Then the cops won’t have any idea whose are real and whose aren’t, and if they just start indiscriminately ruining everyone’s life things will be much the same as they are now but at least those “special” people won’t be immune any more.
Even that doesnt “hack” the system, because it’s nebulous and has paper thin rules. The only requirement is that it loosely IDs an “ingroup” not bound by the law like the “outgroup.”
They can change the cards at any time to defeat the hack. They can change it to a hand signal and a card. As long as its informal and not written down or explicitly acknowledged, it can be anything.
They can also just opt not to apply it even if you have the “right” card if you are perceived to be in the “outgroup,” i.e black/brown, or in an old beater, or or or…
Okay, ideally this just wouldn’t be a thing at all. I’m proceeding on the assumption that it’s going to be a thing.
Giving everyone one of these cards is still a big leg up, though. It throws chaos into the nice little club these police have set up. It means that everybody knows about it, and it means that the cops never know for sure who’s actually “in” and who’s “out.” Even if they issue new ones constantly, making things cat and mouse, it means the “in” group needs to constantly be updating their cards. Anyone on the “in” group could still find themselves in a situation where they’ve slipped up and are presenting an old card, at which point they need to argue with the cop to convince him. If they fail, they get ticketed. And then the infighting ensues, just like in the case this article’s about.
Turn this secret club into an open battle.
The purpose of traffic stops isn’t even to punish people who violate traffic laws. Not really.
It’s to create a pretext to stop and search whoever they want.