Motorists Beware

Lately Arkansas lawmakers have tried to upgrade motorists not wearing a seatbelt from a secondary offense to an offense that officers can pull someone over for. This is going to be one of the biggest profiling greenlights that we will have seen in a long while. Now when an officer wants to pull someone over because they don't like them for one reason or another, all they have to do is make sure the person is not wearing a seatbelt. Gone are the days of trying to prove someone was speeding or had their music too loud. This is going to lead in a spike in search and seizures. Some good. Some bad. Lawmakers will have you think that the only people who have to worry about this are people out there doing wrong. As a law-abiding black man I can tell you that isn't the truth. If people don't want to wear seatbelts and risk their safety, that should be their business. You don't see laws banning people from smoking, drinking, eating the wrong foods, and all the other things that could lead to death so why should wearing a seatbelt be any different. And wearing a seatbelt doesn't insure survival. What's next, a law saying what size rims a person can have on their car.