What percentage of the bike-riding population in Tampa is black?

""This is not a coincidence," said Police Chief Jane Castor. "Many individuals receiving bike citations are involved in criminal activity.""

Wow, just wow.

also according to the article, the woman with the plate of grits wasn't even riding the bike, she was pushing it with the other hand.

@2, you are right. i made the change. even worse than i thought.

@2 & @4 - I really don't question this assertion, but I would like to know: is anyone collecting data to do regressions on? Some of the more compelling (damning) data around stop-and-frisk and racial profiling stops in general is that it can frequently be demonstrated that "reasonable suspicions" seem dangerously broken when compared to the frequency at which "contraband" is discovered. If the Chief's underlying assertion is true, they/he should be able to show some correlation with other charges. I'm gonna bet that correlation doesn't exist.

I thought this might be a well-blacks-can't-afford-helmets thing, but it's about stopping trick riding?

Welcome to the 1960s

I wish some deep-pocketed philanthropist or civil rights organization would flood a place like Ferguson or Tampa with lawyers to work on behalf of everybody who has been hit by these police harassment tickets. Appeal every single broken taillight ticket or riding without a helmet citation, every late payment fee, every failure-to-appear charge, every wage garnishment. Bring the court system to its knees with a sort of DDS attack. Its not like the so-called "justice system" is set up to promote justice, it's only there to fleece poor people because it's politically impossible in this country to tax rich people.

It's illegal to not be wealthy in America.

And, if you are wealthy, nothing is illegal.

@9 the richy riches would tell those poor black people to pull themselves up by their own boot straps and pay tribute to the founding fathers that made this country what it is by enslaving their ancestors, making them work for free and punishing them on a whim of their choosing.

it's interesting that they have to pay the criminal-justice system with pieces of paper that have pictures of slave owners on them