If you haven’t seen the 1991 Steve Martin film, LA Story, this isn’t about that, so no need for spoiler alerts. Amusing film, though, and worth a watch; it makes fun of 1990s LA, which is to say it makes fun of LA, and there isn’t enough of that, so here’s some more.
It starts like this. “Los Angeles lawmakers told police to stop pulling drivers over for minor issues because they say it affects too many black and brown people.”
The city council voted unanimously on May 6 to recommend banning “pretextual” traffic stops over issues such as broken taillights, leaving it up to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners to consider the policy.”
But not really. Democratic Councilmember Imelda Padilla is reported to have said, “Board of Police Commissioners: Get this done; we’re watching, no excuses,” … “This is what this generation wants.”
BLM is on board, as are other pretend-minority rights groups. BLM is, of course, notorious for scamming billions and billions (say it like Carl Sagan, even though he never said it) out of whoever they could intimidate and guilt into coughing up some cash. Why? Reasons, which included Mansions in white neighborhoods, while Blue cities were defunding the police, which was not something “that generation” wanted.
Black residents in urban areas, including business owners whose operations were not burned down in the mostly peaceful protests, wanted more cops, not fewer. Crime necessarily skyrocketed, harming black and brown people almost exclusively.
By the way, it’s okay to omit “democratic” from any description or naming of any LA Councilperson. They are all Democrats, so they own this. Own what?
Current policy requires LAPD officers to state reasons for suspecting a more serious crime when pulling someone over for a minor violation as their body cameras record the interaction, the Los Angeles Times reported. The LAPD’s pretextual stops most often revolve around incorrect license plates, according to the commissioners’ March report.
And what’s the big problem?
Los Angeles lawmakers told police to stop pulling drivers over for minor issues because they say it affects too many black and brown people.
LA Cops are pulling over brown and black people for having the wrong license plates on the car they are in, along with other possible non-moving violations like busted taillights or a blinker that isn’t blinking properly. You pull over more of them than anyone else, so stop it.
Speaking of more of them, the story and the Council have left out some, what I would call, critical details.
The majority of residents in Los Angeles County are black and brown. The Black and Hispanic population represent 56% of the county population and 55% of the city population.
Whites are 25% County and 28% City.
You basically have a 6 in 10 chance that the car you stop will be driven by a minority with black or brown skin. If we include Asians, the minority population is 70% county, 72% city, but it’s okay, Asians are white people and so are Hispanics, who don’t like they’re supposed to, but that doesn’t change the numbers as presented. The right minorities are in the majority.
Here’s another inconvenient truth. 64% of the Los Angeles police force is either black or brown.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has a highly diverse, majority-minority sworn workforce, with approximately 70% of officers identifying as people of color. As of 2025, the force is roughly 56% Hispanic/Latino, 24% White, 8% Black, and 8% Asian/Filipino, closely mirroring the demographics of the city. [1, 2, 3]
That means the 6 in 10 who have a chance of getting pulled over have a 6.5 in 10 chance of being pulled over by someone who looks a lot like them.
The majority of residents are as likely as not to meet cops who represent their majority. But this is a minority rights issue?
In case you forgot, the LA City Council of Democrats (with no minority party representation of any kind) is implying that there are racial disparities in these incidents when black and brown people are the majority of the population and the majority of the police force.
All other factors being equal, lacking other details, the majority black and brown police force, mathematically, can’t help but pull over more black and brown people in a city that is less than 30% white folk.
If they are pulling more than 6 in ten black or brown drivers over for “busted tail lights,” leading to more detailed searches, we must then ask a different set of questions that have nothing to do with the City Council’s intended narrative: Cops are racist, no matter what color they are. To this end, I return to the point above. “The LAPD’s pretextual stops most often revolve around incorrect license plates.”
Why are more black and brown people driving in vehicles that do not match the description attached to license plates on these cars?
25,825 vehicles were stolen in Los Angeles in 2023. Up 64% from 2019. Probably another under-reported side effect of Long COVID.
The odds of a wrong plate being on a stolen vehicle are likely higher than one not stolen, so is the LA City Council telling us that black and brown people steal more cars and that the police should stop harassing likely car thieves unless they are white or white adjacent (Asian, light-skinned Hispanic who are likely Republican voters)?
The City Council claims it is protecting minorities who happen to be in the majority, but what it’s actually doing is protecting a minority of drivers who are in stolen vehicles, in case they are brown or black.
And regardless of whether car thieves are people of color or not, does this sort of narrative play well with the majority of voters who are brown or black, who are mathematically more likely to have their car stolen by people the city wants the majority of black and brown cops to ignore?
