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Denver City Council Votes Down “Racist” Traffic Initiative

Written by News One on October 7, 2009 4:35 pm

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From TheDenverDailyNews.com:

The Denver City Council voted 12-1 yesterday evening to oppose a ballot initiative that would require police to impound cars driven by unlicensed drivers.

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz was the only Council member in favor of Initiative 300, arguing that tougher measures are needed to address uninsured and unlicensed drivers, including undocumented workers.

But the majority of her colleagues described the initiative as “racist,” arguing that the initiative’s lead proponent, Daniel Hayes, is only seeking to harass a specific segment of the city’s population — undocumented, Hispanic drivers.

“See this initiative for what it is,” Councilman Michael Hancock told Denver voters last night. “It is an injustice, it is a racist initiative, and we simply know better than that.”

Despite stating last year that the ordinance is about curbing illegal immigrants from driving without a license or insurance, Hayes now tells the Denver Daily News that his initiative is about putting “teeth” into a similar ordinance backed by voters last year. The law requires police officers to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers. But Hayes said officers have been using their discretion and not impounding enough of the cars.

The initiative aims to solve several problems that arose out of the 2008 law by exempting rental car companies and victims of theft, said Hayes. Several citizens also complained of having their cars towed and needing to pay $2,500 bond to release their vehicle simply for forgetting their license at home.

Widespread media attention to an Iraqi war veteran whose car was impounded under the ordinance only added to the controversy. Airman Brian Furman was forced to raise nearly $4,000 to cover bond and fees associated with driving with an expired Missouri driver’s license. Even though the Denver district attorney’s office dismissed the traffic charges, Furman’s car sat in the city’s impound lot because of the ordinance.

To read more, click here.

Tags: Denver, Police Brutality, Racism
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  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Da_J_Rok/ Da_J_Rok

    Laws Smaws… Lawmakers are the main law breakers

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Poetic_Assasin/ Poetic_Assasin

    I understand the point that people are making about this law being aimed at immigrants, but at the same time, one has to stop and ask himself why we are trying to protect people who break the law. If you do not have a liscense, don’t drive. Why the hell should we, black people, care about how laws protect immigrants, in the event that they break the law, when we can be driving along with liscense and registration and get snatched from our cars and have the hell beat out of us just because police officers don’t think we should be in a car that is expensive?

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Chandlar99/ Chandlar99

    i dont think we should make a person life more horrible because they are undoc**ented workers in this country. It is only making someones life worse if you take away their car and force them to pay a ridiculous fine. The problem is the undoc**ented workers dont have enough money in the first place, so thats going to keep their cars in the impound lot. Its like telling them to go back to their country and leave. Just by taking their cars away, an easy way “immigrant deportation” without deporting them.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Young_Hoagie24/ Young_Hoagie24

    All I got to say is those who don’t have liscense and registration and so forth,please be careful when you drive and know how to drive because these cops out here are so eager to lock up a n$**a who ain’t all the way legit.If you gonna take that risk of ridin dirty then make sure you extra caucious.These laws are killin us off.Sometimes they work in our favor but half the time they don’t.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/TMAC_35000/ TMAC_35000

    Driving without a license is against the law and targeting undoc**ented individuals who come into the country illegally needs to start happening as well as penalizing businesses who hire them for cheap labor. I don’t necessarily think that this initiative would have been the best way to go about it because it would have lead to racial profiling but these people need to be gotten under control. I can’t drive around without a license; I have to pay taxes, so they should have to do the same.

  • http://www.blackinfo.net/?p=4577 Black Info.Net – African American News Hub | Black Info.Net

    [...] read more, click here. Read more here: Denver City Council Votes Down “Racist” Traffic Initiative Related ArticleAn Open Letter To Clubgoers: Stop Fighting Posted in The 411 Tags: nation, obama, [...]

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/jazzpast/ jazzpast

    This has nothing to with racism, dont get me wrong the system is racist point blank. This is a political move, since election for lower seats are all coming up.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/maatra/ maatra

    These are yo real PIRATES.

    Destroy ameriKKKa

    Muthaphukas hurtin in this opressed system and they wanna take all yo shyt. Let them muthaphukas pass the law. This will give us more reasons to fight this dying ILLUSION state called the united SNAKES of ameriKKKa

    Phuk these pirates

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/maatra/ maatra

    Reading these silly azz comments the only ilegal imigrant in the west is the europeans

    No peckerwood is indigenous to the west so how are they controling the country… These muthaphukas killed and shed a lot of blood to become the lords of this land

    So we must shed sum blood to gain control because even many of us africans are illegals forced here b this pink beast threw slavery so watch who u call illegals

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/bj24681357/ bj24681357

    What is this undoc**ented garbage? They are not undoc**ented they are out and out ILLEGAL, send them back to where they came from.

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