Race Cars

If you're black or brown, driving a nice car will get you noticed by police in Houston

A A A Comments By Margaret Downing Thursday, Sep 2 1999

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Not only will the general data be helpful in determining whether racial profiling is going on to any great extent in Houston, Jacobson says, but "it may also remove some of the more onerous stops simply by being reported."

The important distinction to be made in this, Jacobson believes, is the kind of stop being made. "People get stopped all the time for speeding, and most people understand this." But when someone is stopped only to be asked what they are doing in this neighborhood and a search of the car ensues, then the encounter has gone over the line, he maintains.

Ken Williams's sports cars have brought him a close relationship with Houston police.

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It was a good day. Williams had just gotten his new Mercedes and called a professor friend of his to tell him about it. The friend was excited and asked Williams to come over to his home to show him the car.

"He wanted a ride, so I took him on a test drive," Williams says. Suddenly he heard three sirens.

Williams looked back and saw not only a squad car with its lights on following him, but officers on horseback tracking him. (Clearly this TSU professor is good at attracting crowds.) Williams pulled over; an officer peered into his car and when he saw Williams's companion was white, said, "Oh, you can go," Williams remembers. Suddenly it was all right for this black man to be driving through Meyerland.

"It was almost like living in South Africa with the pass laws," Williams says.

Now there's a role model for you.

E-mail Margaret Downing at margaret_downing@houstonpress.com

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