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This naturalistic observation took place in Los Angeles, California. The study was undertaken as a result of professor Heussenstamm's discussion with a number of students who were members of the Black Panthers and who were complaining about harassment from law enforcement officers. It turned out that all of these students had Black Panther bumper stickers on their cars.
To test the impact of these stickers a sample of 15 students (5 Blacks, 5 Whites, and 5 Mexican-Americans) agreed to place these bumper stickers on their cars. Each group included 3 males and 2 females, all had exemplary driving records, all cars were inspected to ensure no defective equipment, and each student pledged to do nothing to attract the attention of law enforcement officers and drove their normal daily routes.
The results? Over a 17 day period, 33 citations were issued to the 15 subjects. Reasons for citations included: "driving too slowly," "making unsafe lane changes," "following too closely," etc. The citations were equally distributed by race, and by sex. Because of the cost and potential damage to the driving reputations of the subjects, the study was called off after 17 days.
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