According to statistics from the Department of Justice, the chances of any motorist being pulled, at least in 2002, was 8.7 percent. It also reported that, although whites were more likely to be pulled over for speeding, 78 percent of blacks actually received a citation, compared with 70 percent of whites. Of all groups, Native Americans are stopped most often.

No matter the gross numbers: comedian Chris Rock, who says he has been stopped three times in seven weeks, says it’s out of hand and has begun posting photos of each episode to Twitter.

His point is that black men are much more likely to be stopped by police.  The “pulled over for speeding” number says only so much. The federal stats state that blacks were stopped in the United States more often for less offensive reasons, such as to check records, vehicle defects, or other reasons not listed. But black drivers were a full three times more likely than whites to be searched once they’ve been stopped.

There are two general reasons cops make traffic stops. The first is for traffic violations and black and white drivers seem to suffer such pull-overs equally. However, cops also stop motorists for “investigatory” reasons. If they believe something is vaguely suspicious about a driver or car, the motorist will be stopped, a few questions may be asked, then a request is made to search the vehicle.

According to University of Kansas professors Charles Epp and Steven Maynard-Moody, black men below 25 years of age who had not broken any rules nevertheless had a 28 percent chance each year of being stopped. The comparable statistic for white men less than half that, at 13 percent.

Epp and Maynard-Moody, whose survey was of over 2,300 drivers, maintain that individual police officers are not necessarily to blame. It is institutional, as police department directives define quotas for officers to make a certain (large) number of investigatory stops, the intent being to identify criminals before crimes are committed. Such Minority Report policing is to look for guns and drugs. Such widespread practices see people pulled over even while when no evidence exists. Under this scenario, black drivers feel harassed by racist officers. As for Chris Rock, his intent is to shine light on what black drivers have said for years, that “driving while black” begets harassment.