Bikers Targeted by Checkpoint

2009 November 2

Bikers Targeted by Checkpoint

Laurin Penland

WILMINGTON, NC (whqr) – Motorcycle activists say Holly Ridge police in Onslow County discriminated against bikers last month when they stopped traffic, but let cars slip through. The police only checked motorcyclists for violations. 

The North Carolina Governors Highway Safety Program says it supports all kinds of traffic stops, including biker specific ones, because bikers have a higher percentage of fatal accidents than cars.

But Janice MacKay, director of the N.C. Chapter of a biker activist group, says she thinks the stops are unconstitutional.

“If it were a checkpoint that we’re used to, in other words all vehicles get pulled over and checked, I would not think that it was discrimination. And since this was a motorcyclists only checkpoint, it is discrimination.”

The Highway Safety Program says traffic stops are an effective way to promote safety and to get drivers to comply with traffic laws.

Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? Please email us, we’d like to hear from you. news@whqr.org.

2 Responses leave one →
  1. 2009 November 2
    Stephen permalink

    Sad fact but many bikers do not have endorsements on their licences. NY City police and the NY State troopers do this all the time and its amazing how many people they nab.

  2. 2009 November 2
    goldiron permalink

    Stephen,
    What do you consider to be “many”?

    NYC Police and NY State Troopers do this all the time as harassment as “control freaks” operating from a bully pulpit. The tide will turn soon enough. “Easy Money” schemes like this that are concocted by the government will meet increasingly stronger resistance.

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