Monday, December 2, 2013

Why Kenny Britt won't drive expensive cars his home state of New Jersey anymore

Former Rutgers and current Tennessee Titans receiver Kenny Britt spoke to USA TODAY for a feature on racial profiling of NFL players. It's suffice to say, it sounds like the Bayonne native doesn't heart the Garden State anymore.

Britt said "it's safe to say" racial profiling happens. "Because people are human, and it is not just policemen," he told the newspaper.  "You can't just say it's cops. But they make their own judgments, and some of them use their power. ... It definitely makes you leery about where you go and who is watching for you."

The receiver then added that, because an African-American male in a high-end vehicle can lead to profiling, "I don't bring ... my (expensive) cars to New Jersey anymore."




Britt has been arrested or faced charges in four traffic stops since 2010 — two for license issues, one drunken-driving case and one case of eluding police. He paid fines in two of those cases, was acquitted of the DUI charge and saw one license case get dismissed. Two of those incidents were in his homestate of New Jersey, where the state police were embroiled in a scandal in the 1990s that resulted in authorities agreeing to a consent decree that expressly barred racial profiling in traffic stops. The decree was dissolved in 2009.

Britt also said in a separate post he records the police during traffic stops with his cell phone and has been let go because of his actions.

Back in July, The Tennessean's John Glennon noticed Britt didn't spend much of his offseason in New Jersey and asked him about it and Britt piled it on:

"It was just to get away from everything and try something new in the offseason. Just to get out there and get some fresh air because the New Jersey air is horrible, especially around my area. It stinks around there. My wife says it all the time because she's from south Jersey and the air is a little cleaner there."

Sorry Kenny. That's just the Jets out in the Meadowlands.


1 comment: