Driving Along...

Have any of you been pulled over by the police, and you swear you've done nothing wrong? Yeah, maybe you were speeding a little in your fixed up Honda Civic, but you were really just following the flow of traffic! So why did you get pulled over and not that tiny little Volkswagon buggy that was quickly speeding past you in the lane on your right? Could it be because of the type of car you're driving?

*lightbulb turns on over head* Ah hah. A possible explanation as to why you got pulled over.

I haven't personally experienced this [thank goodness - knock on wood], but I have heard stories and have seen this happen to friends and family. The police pull you over simply because you're driving what is dubbed by many as a "rice rocket", and they'll do anything to be able to give you a ticket of some sort, whether it's a fix-it ticket or a speeding ticket. Some cops will also try to find any reason to look under your hood, or peer into your car to see if you have anything illegal in your car. For example, a friend of mine was driving in the evening, so his headlights were on. The cop that pulled him over told him he pulled him over because his headlights were "too bright" and that he would have to fix them. The cop then reached into the car through the window and started pushing buttons and checking things in my friend's car. Then, the cop has the nerve to tell my friend to open his hood to see if his engine had been swapped. I mean, SERIOUSLY?! That can't be legal, right? I mean, it never ceases to amaze me what the "law" can do and get away with it just because they're cops.

So, I drive an Acura RSX with pretty dark tinted windows, but other than that, my car looks pretty much stock, meaning it's not dropped low or anything like that. One day, I was driving in the parking lot in the mall back home in Stockton and I see these two cops that were standing near their patrol cars, talking to one another. As soon as I get closer and these cops see my car, I can see that they're staring my car, and they're LITERALLY inspecting every aspect of it. Then, they see that there's a girl driving in the car, and although they continue to glare at me, it isn't nearly as harsh. I noticed that these cops also did this to another "rice rocket" that had driven by, but as soon as they noticed that the driver of that "rice rocket" was a Caucasian female, they looked away and continued their conversations.

I think this process is so unfair and biased, as well as a bit racist and unjust. I hate the fact that cops try to make these judgements about people just because of the car that people drive. Just because an Asian guy is driving a fixed up Honda, he's automatically a person who races and drives dangerously. Have cops ever considered that maybe some people just like having their cars fixed up that way because they like the way it looks? It's so ridiculous that the cops specifically go out in search of "rice rockets" just so they could "get the off the streets". It's so unfair! I mean, i get this treatment as a GIRL driving this type of car, I can imagine the further harrassment that guys must experience when cops pull them over.

Sorry - I went off on a little tangent there. I swear it would've made more sense if I wasn't sleepy.

--Kim [=

Jupacalypse Now

"JUPAC" that was my call-sign over the radio when I was in the Marine Corps for two deployments, because of my fondness to listening to Tupac songs right before a mission to kind of "Get me in the zone"and due to the fact my last name is Ju it was kind of nickname that a few marines in the platoon gave me that stuck through the my entire 5 years of service. But what i loved about Tupac was not his harsh lyrics and his thuggish exterior, it was quite the opposite in fact many of Tupac's songs and poems{he was an avid poet and wrote many composing a few books} were nothing that a conventional rapper or hip hop artist would ever touch in their songs and lyrics. I first heard of Tupac when i was in High School and was not terribly impressed and not really into rap music, and kind of held the same opinion in until i joined the Marines. I started listening to his music after i saw an interview that he did after he got out of jail, and was just blown away by the intelligence, charisma, and brutal honesty that Tupac obviously had and personified in the very literal sense. I didnt agree with all of Tupac's comments but I loved that he always said exactly what he was feeling that exact moment no matter how ridiculous it may sound and didnt care what people thought of him, he was just being himself. To me the TRUE definition of an artist is someone that can take their artform and personify in a way that could make you relate to it internally. I never liked rap or hip hop until i discovered Tupac and after him i was hooked, after he died i never really cared for music as much because i always felt that the artists were just tools of corporations that catered to certain images that they thought would sell. Tupac was in every sense of the word an artist. and i could hear the pain in his voice and the struggle of his lyrics; absolutely stunning individual amazing and intelligent rapper and a very insightful poet. The reason i wrote this blog is because I saw the movie "Notorious" and i am in shock that some people think Biggie was a better rapper then Tupac, how can you be the best rapper of all time and have only 3 albums? Tupac had about 15 not to mention countless mixtapes and unreleased tracks! Come on people!
Jeff Ju