The Case for Pretext Stops

In my column yesterday here on PJ Media, I discussed the murder of Patricia McKay, the tourist from New Zealand who was run over and killed during an attempted robbery in Newport Beach, Calif., on July 2. One of the three suspects now facing charges for the crime, Leroy McCrary, who police say was the driver responsible for running over McKay, had at least twice been the beneficiary of Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón’s lenient policies, the most egregious example of which was a plea deal that allowed McCrary to avoid prison after pleading guilty to a 2022 armed robbery in Santa Monica. Had McCrary been incarcerated for the crime, as he would have been in most other jurisdictions in California, McKay would be alive today.

But the crime raises other law enforcement issues tangential to the soft-on-crime policies favored by Gascón and other George Soros-funded “progressive” prosecutors. McKay was killed at the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, described as “upscale” in many of the news reports covering her death. And indeed it is, as befits a city where the median household income is $149,471 and the median home price is $2 million. The city’s population is also just 0.65% black.

This is not to say that black shoppers are not to be found at Fashion Island, but merely to point out that McCrary, 26, and his two 18-year-old co-defendants, all of whom are black, would have been seen as extreme outliers among the mostly well-heeled patrons, and not solely because of their race. Consider: the Toyota Camry the three were in had no license plates, a violation of California law that, had the trio crossed paths with any police officers, would have warranted a traffic stop. 

If the officers developed probable cause to search the car, they would have turned up the gun, the possessor of which, if not all three, would have been arrested, thereby sparing Patricia McKay the gruesome death she suffered. Any police officer worthy of the title would have seen McCrary and his two apprentices for what they were: three thugs out looking to caper.

In Newport Beach, police officers are still encouraged to perform the type of proactive policing that leads to the discovery of weapons and discourages predators like McCrary and his protégés from plying their trade. This type of policing involves traffic stops, often for minor violations like missing license plates.

But in the Bizzaro World that is California, some would ban this type of policing in the name of “social justice.” Currently stalled in the California legislature is Senate Bill 50, which would prohibit police officers from making stops for “low-level infractions.” You can see the bill’s author, State Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat (of course) representing Gardena, discussing the bill here.

Excusing so-called low-level infractions will not make people of any race any safer. It will have the opposite effect as drivers begin to take advantage of the lack of enforcement and the definition of “low-level infraction” becomes ever more capacious. Police in many jurisdictions are already prohibited from engaging in pursuits for traffic violations. Will they now be expected to ignore them altogether?

When I was a young street cop in South Los Angeles, my partner and I would play a little game every night when it was time to have code-7 (dinner, for the uninitiated). We would park in front of the eating spot, and the first to spot a passing car with no collision damage would be treated to dinner by the other. We sometimes waited several minutes to find a winner. 

Every dent in every car was the result of someone’s careless driving, which as any cop in any city one can name, is more common in some neighborhoods than others. Witness the increase in traffic deaths, especially among blacks, since the George Floyd effect hobbled law enforcement in 2020, and you see the grim harvest that results when people feel free to disregard the law.

It's a pity that on July 2 the police didn't stop those three predators before they killed Patricia McKay, and it’s a disgrace that some lawmakers would have objected to their doing so.