Political Gumbo: A View from the Front

By now, everybody who stays up to date on local happenings has read some version of the story of the fatal shooting of Anthony McClain.

These are the facts.

The car McClain was riding in was pulled over shortly before 8 p.m. on Aug. 15 on North Raymond Avenue. The driver was stopped for not having a front license plate.

McClain fled during the traffic stop and one police officer opened fire. One bullet struck McClain in the upper torso. Police recovered a gun at the scene and are awaiting the results of tests being performed on that weapon.

The incident is tragic for all involved, no matter who you fault for the shooting.

But the beginning of this incident is also indicative of major problems we have in this country. And one of those problems is far too many Black men are being stopped by police for virtually meaningless offenses.

Yes, driving without a front license plate is an infraction of the state Vehicle Code, but seriously, a police officer needs to make a U-turn to stop a car that does not have a front plate?

During a virtual community meeting, police Chief John Perez said there is not an edict in the department to stop Black men driving in cars with tinted windows and no front plates.

But now there have been two tragic local incidents resulting from traffic stops of young African-American men driving vehicles with no front plates and having window tints. In each incident, police decided to turn around and pursue the car at a high rate of speed before initiating the traffic stop.

The first involved Christopher Ballew — albeit not a fatal incident, thank goodness. However, Ballew was repeatedly struck with a baton during his encounter with police after he was initially stopped for the lack of a front license plate and having tinted windows.

In both cases, the incidents involved police officers who had been working in Pasadena for a short time. While we don’t know much about the police officers in the McClain incident, we do know that the officers in the Ballew incident were lateral transfers from the Sheriff’s Department and Bakersfield. It has to be pointed out Chief Perez was not running the department when the Ballew incident occurred.

In at least 19 states front license plates are not required. On July 1, a law went into effect in Ohio allowing drivers to go without a front plate.

As a matter of fact, some newer cars by Porsche, Audi, Tesla and Mercedes don’t even have a spot to mount a front license plate, and in many cases the window tint comes with the car.

Yes, I do have a hard time believing that police officers in any department are making U-turns and driving at high rates of speed to stop the folks in the high-end cars without plates.

There is no edict to make these stops locally, and some officers have used this infraction to profile young African-American men.

Perez said he is willing to discuss police policy. That said, it’s time he asks his officers why they feel it is necessary to make U-turns and travel at high rates of speed to make contact with African-American men for a fix-it ticket at a time when racial tensions are running high.

Yes, the City Council passed police oversight, but the absolute best oversight any city can have is policies and understandings that prevent bad situations from occurring in the first place.