After Daunte Wright's killing, criticism of "pretextual" traffic stops grows
They net minor violations, target nonwhites, don't cut crime, research shows.
April 17, 2021 — 4:26pm
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Cedrick Frazier has been thinking about the time when he was 17, driving his aunt's old Ford Escort, and Chicago police pulled him over for a broken taillight. After officers discovered the car wasn't registered to Frazier, the routine stop turned into something more. They detained Frazier on the side of the road for 45 minutes to search the vehicle.
Frazier, who is Black, is now a 41-year-old DFL state representative from New Hope and a father of three. "I was terrified. I didn't know what to do," he said, recalling the ordeal at a public hearing last week. "Watching the video of Daunte [Wright], I saw that same fear. ... He didn't know what to do."