Considering my day started off with me almost getting blindsided as I was pulling out of my driveway by someone, evidently a little too excited that it’s Black History Month, I’ve decided to start this Million 400,000 Man March (fail) of questions in relation to cars. Seriously, I turned my head to the right, no car, I turned my head to the left, no car, and as the rear of my car was just hitting the asphalt, ZOOM goes a Toyota Land Cruiser a foot off my bumper. I’d ask the question of why black people drive so idiotically fast all the time, but I actually had been given a valid answer in the past which satiates the need to know.
What historic events led to the black man’s fascination with retired police cruisers?
Maybe this is an Atlanta-thing, as most of my questions may very well turn out to be, but I have noticed that without question, the most popular vehicle among African-Americans isn’t any one particular make and model of a car, but anything that used to be a police car. Typically it’s the Ford Crown Victoria, but I have seen black guys driving around in Dodge Chargers and Chevy Expeditions, evidently retired police cars, indicative by the utilitarian wheels, marks on the body where decals used to be, and often times, strobe light as well as steel pushing bars.
Like most black stereotypes, I don’t quite understand the fascination here. Sure, they’re typically very cheap to get at auctions, since they usually have close to 250,000 miles on them by the time they’re retired, but in an age where lots of people could use cars, it’s evident that only black people are remotely interested in them, let alone being the ones driving them around.
Part of the appeal, I’m guessing has a lot to do with the sense of false authority they’re entitled to when driving them around. I’m one of the few that can identify many different cars based on the headlight design in my rear view mirror, and I can tell when a Crown Vic is behind me in the daytime or night. I’m positive I’m not the only person who has felt the chill of “what am I doing wrong,” when one is suddenly behind me, tailgating me. And then when they blow past you at twice the legal speed limit, you might get a glimpse of a random black guy dressed like 50 Cent, and it dawns on us that it was just a black guy in a retired cop car, and all black people tailgate and drive fast. I’m sure many get a kick out of the fake authority they command when driving around in those cars. But truthfully, it’s actually kind of aggravating. Ultimately, the best disguise a real cop could have is to drive around a “retired” police cruiser that people will think is just a ghettomobile, but then actually use it for traffic policing.
Or maybe it’s one of those “anything I eat is beneath me on the food chain” beliefs, where they drive retired cop cars with the belief that their familiarity with them is what will ultimately keep them out of active cop cars some day. It’s kind of ironic that the one race of people who are stereotypically most inclined to end up in cop cars seems to be one most fascinating with owning their own, inactive as they may be.
So I’m curious to what events in history led to this association that lives on through to today? Did Kunta Kinte acquire Mr. Ames’ ship when he was tired of it, and wanted a new one, and then subsequently use it to cruise around the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, pretending to be a 100% free equal man? Did Rosa Parks’ kids go around buying retired buses because it would be some sort of ironic retribution for what their mother/grandmother had to endure? Or was it simply because retired police cruisers are cheap? I can’t believe it’s completely the latter, because if they were so cheap, then people of all races would want to own them, but they don’t.
I think it’s a valid question. As much as I’d like to get a legitimate answer from the intertubes, I doubt it’ll happen.
