To Spin or Not to Spin

Good Evening,

My name is Anthony Taylor and I am issuing a formal complaint for racial profiling with the Eatonville Police department.

On the evening of August 20th 2010 I was stopped by an officer who was standing on the side of the road on West Kennedy and the intersection of Keller road. the time was 5:52pm. Before the officer walked out into the middle of the road, i was in back of a stopped vehicle that had pulled out past the stop sign. Any one who knows this intersection knows that if you are about to turn right toward Forest city road you may have a hard time seeing into the intersection unless you vehicle is a truck or a vehicle that is tall enough to see over other cars. On this day i decided to take my truck to work, and after stopping at a stop sign in back of another vehicle that had stopped past the stop sign i was placed in the wrong.

The law states that if there is no clearly marked line then at the point nearest the intersecting roadway where the driver has a view of approaching traffic on the intersecting roadway before entering the intersection. After having stopped, the driver shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle which has entered the intersection from another highway or which is approaching so closely on said highway as to constitute an immediate hazard during the time when the driver is moving across or within the intersection.

There were no camera's used, or any other device used to note that i was actually in the wrong, except for the eye of an officer who was standing 1/8 of a mile away. i know the law and i know that the driver in front of me was in the wrong, but unfortunately that driver didn't look like me. when i asked the officer why he didn't pull the other driver over for crossing the clearly marked stop line he could not provide a valid answer. also when i asked the officer why he was profiling people he asked me if i could see a person driving a CRV at the same intersection and i told him that i could and the person had lighter skin than i did. the officer then told me that he could not see far enough to tell what the person looked like, so how could he judge If police are going to profile the people of color who work in Eatonville, how are we to believe the police are working to citizens.

This is a classic example where the police know they are above normal working citizens. On a Friday afternoon on the way to pick up my daughter I was enraged. The color of my skin and the hair style i wear has a bill attached to it. When ever you are right the law enforcement will claim you are wrong to make a quick $164 dollars. I will Blog this and send it to every one who has the need to know of the unfairness that is happening in Eatonville, FL. The money collected from previous tickets could have put a stop light at the intersection. Thinking that the town is one who is last on the list for growth shows how they take from the poor and keep it poor.

Being the oldest incorporated African American municipality in America does not entitle the police department the right to squeeze the life out of an already targeted environment. If you want to make a change loose the corruption. If an officer cannot admit he made a mistake to a hard working citizen that pays taxes, that are partly funding officers pay checks, just to look good in another officers eyes, then you will never win the trust of the community! The officer that stopped me let another officer handle me and he didnt even see what happened but they were both already on the scene.

This is pending and hope to inform all of what's going on where i reside and work daily to make an honest living for my family. Please take a look into this item, and provide me with feedback, as I will proceed to escalate this to the highest level until a clear resolution has been stated for all to have a clear understanding.

Thank you,

Anthony