Police sobriety check points are meant to be used as a safe guards to stop drunk drivers out on the road. This tactic is primarily used on holidays like news years or memorial day when there’s a lot of people driving. Thus my question is why was a check point set up on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Evergreen on June 6 ? Honestly what was the purpose for it ? I’ll reframe from bad mouthing the police because I didn’t ask any of the officers on hand why the post was up, but if anything I did see burnt out road flares and shards of glass in the middle of the street. My best guess is that there was a crash and the police decided to set up a post as a result of that. However it’s disheartening to see a tactic meant to saves live being manipulated into “policing” neighborhoods. When I walked by the scene all I saw was families and people gathered around the police tape watching as family vans being towed away.

Among all the commotion, I could hear woman with her kids saying “pinche policia no sirve paranada,” other’s calling friends and family to not drive near the area and other various muffled comments that expressed nothing but contempt and disgust for the police for doing something like this. There was a lot of tension in the air as car after car pulled up to have their license, insurance and what not checked by the police. This of course was a major concern for some because there’s a lot of people driving around who don’t have papers or a legal license to drive. Some tried to drive off through local neighborhoods so as to avoid the check point, but the police had lookouts on motorcycles stopping those who thought they could get away. Others resorted to asking people watching from their homes for a favor and parking in their driveways until the police left. Despite all the commotion and chaos going on people still look out for each other in times of need. Something we need more of.