Where are your papers?

On the day of the 2010 Puerto Rican Day parade in NYC, the NYPD ran several "safety" checkpoints around New York City specifically targeting only motorcycles.  Motorcyclists who passed their inspections at one checkpoint were given these slips of greenish paper to display to officers staffing other motorcycle checkpoints.

The photograph on the left shows one of those "Puerto Rican Day Safe Pass" slips issued to the owner of a BMW motorcycle by HWY1 officer Marshall, badge #1425, at a detail at Park Avenue and 57th Street.

 

In our opinion these motorcycle targeted checkpoints are unconstitutional, and a battle with the New York State Police over policies promoting motorcycle targeted checkpoints is currently being fought in Supreme Court.

 

The NYPD thought these slips would be a handy way to speed motorcyclists' ways through later checkpoints, and perhaps make the repeated stops less objectionable to law abiding motorcyclists.  Either way this practice reminds us of old movies about wartime Germany, with Gestapo officers demanding "where are your papers?!"

 

Unlike the Gestapo, the HWY officers running the lengthy checks were reportedly polite and even apologetic, stating they had to do it.  Funny thing is, again, we've heard phrases like that in movies about wartime Germany.

 

There is nothing acceptable or tolerable about the possibility of being stopped multiple times throughout the day just because you choose to ride a motorcycle.  The laws governing the use of our roadways apply to all motorists.  Those laws should be enforced fairly and equally to all motorists.  Being a motorcyclist is NOT "reasonable suspicion" of wrongdoing.

 

In addition to our objections to motorcycle -targeted stops in general, we believe the NYPD is guilty of racial profiling.  For the second year in a row, the day of the Puerto Rican Day parade has witnessed more motorcycle -targeted police checkpoints than on any other single day of the year.  It is offensive enough that the NYPD effectively considers being a motorcyclist to be reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing -  now it is clear that the possibility of being a Puerto Rican motorcyclist is perceived by the NYPD to be exponentially more suspect.

 

Do you think we are exaggerating?  Where were all these motorcycle -targeted police "safety" checkpoints on Israel Day?  How about Chinese New Year?  Better yet, how about Saint Patrick's Day?  We didn't hear of ANY motorcycle checkpoints on those days.

 

Still, the NYPD does run motorcycle checkpoints throughout the year.  They use the term "safety" but based on our experiences, we doubt the sincerity and we gravely doubt the officers' training too.  We have heard officers looking for "DOT markings" on eyewear.  There is no such thing.  We've seen training documents that insist all protective eyewear lenses must be marked "Z87".  That is utterly false.  We've been told that it is illegal to open the face shield of a full-face helmet even fractionally.  The law makes no such assertion and there is no case law supporting that assertion either.  For reasons such as those the NYMSTF has created the CHECKPOINT ALERT SYSTEM.  Area motorcyclists may use this FREE tool to report motorcycle -targeted checkpoints and to receive instant alerts about checkpoints via Twitter™ or our RSS feed.

 

If as a motorcyclist you have been treated unfairly in one of the NYPD's traffic stops, targeted or not, we encourage you to complain to the Civilian Complaint Review Board.  We also suggest submitting your complaint using our Law Enforcement Discrimination Complaint form, which gets filed with the law office that is currently challenging the New York State Police over their motorcycle targeted enforcement practices.

 

If you received one of these inspection slips, please send a picture or a scan of the slip to our email address, nymstf@nymstf.org.  We will conceal personally identifiable information before sharing or publishing the slips.  We would like to hear about your experiences - please share!