The tight connection between policing and car culture

Nick DeMarsh and Rick Banks write for Next City:

While efforts to increase policing in response to the danger of cars were successful, hindsight reveals that this growth of policing in response to the increasing ubiquity of cars was an ineffective cure with a fatal side effect. This increase in policing has had devastating consequences for Black and brown communities. Often, especially for Black and brown people, a traffic stop is just the first step on an increasingly lethal scale. Philando Castile was shot by police during a traffic stop, and Sandra Bland died in police custody three days after being arrested during a traffic stop. At the same time, cars remain a dangerous threat to the safety of drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

The rise and domination of car culture is often the original sin that caused many of our modern social problems.