During a routine traffic stop in California, police broke the car window of a Black driver after he refused get out of the car so that they could conduct a search of the vehicle. He repeatedly asked, “What is the probable cause?” The officers refused to answer him, instead breaking his car window.
Nicholas Hoskins, a 31-year-old San Diego resident, spent eight years in prison on a false conviction before the California Supreme Court overturned his conviction for lack of evidence and set him free.
But since his release in February 2023, he has been pulled over several times by San Diego police over minor infractions like a broken tail light, tinted windows and rolling through a stop sign.
It was the latest stop in May for rolling through a stop sign that resulted in San Diego police breaking his passenger side window after he refused to step out of the car to allow them to search it for weapons.
Hoskins was pulled over on his way to pick up his son at a school bus stop. When the officer asked to search the vehicle, Hoskins declined, asking the officer to state the probable cause for the search. Ignoring his questions, the officers asked him to exit the vehicle. After Hoskins repeated the question several times, the second officer walked around to the passenger side of the vehicle and the San Diego police officer broke the window of the car door.
Hoskins was polite and calm throughout the entire incident, which was filmed using the camera on his phone that was mounted on the dashboard of the car (See recording below). After the San Diego police officer broke his car window, Hoskins exited the vehicle and was placed in handcuffs. He was taken to the station and given a citation for the traffic violation with the added charge of resisting arrest before being released.
After his son was left waiting at the bus stop for 2 hours, not knowing what had happened to his dad (police seized his father’s cell phone), Hoskins was able to pick him up. He was forced to pay $1000 to get his car out of police impound and to replace the broken window.
The Overturned Conviction
The Atlanta Black Star reported that Hoskins had recently been released from prison after serving 8 years of a 25-year sentence for a false conviction. The California Supreme Court had overturned his conviction for conspiracy to commit murder, citing the fact that the prosecution had no evidence tying him to the crime.
Instead, the prosecution had used an image from Facebook that showed Hoskins throwing up gang signs as evidence. He said it was a case of him being a stupid, ignorant teenager and that it was common for teens to throw up gang signs in photos taken at house parties during that time period. The only other evidence presented against him was Facebook posts of rap lyrics condoning murder. That was all the jury needed to come back with a guilty verdict.
Hoskins told NBC7 that he has been pulled over by the SDPD often ever since the conviction was overturned. He feels targeted and thinks police see him as a violent criminal when he’s not.
Nicholas Hoskins has been using his newfound freedom since February 2023 to turn his life around. At the time he was pulled over in May, Hoskins was just about to start attending a technical college to study carpentry and welding so he could improve his life and care for his 12-year-old son.
The Crime of Driving While Black
NBC7 conducted an investigation into traffic stops as part of their reporting.
Hoskins raced through a lot of emotions moments before the San Diego Police officer shattered his passenger-side window: Anger, frustration, and a sense that police were treating him differently because he’s Black. It was the fourth time he’d been stopped in just a year. Statistics show he’s not wrong. SDPD officers pulled over Black and brown drivers disproportionately. While 23% of drivers pulled over for traffic violations were Black, they only make up 6% of the population in San Diego. People of color are not only stopped more often, those stops result in vehicle searches more often as well.
“It’s kind of demeaning. Emasculating. Sometimes I feel like I’m not a man,” Hoskins said in an interview with NBC7.
People of Color More Likely to Be Searched During a Stop by San Diego Police
While Black residents make up only 6% of the population in San Diego, searches occurred in 27% of traffic stops. 23% of Hispanic drivers stopped resulted in searches, while only 19% of stops involving White drivers did.
Hoskins has now retained an attorney and is planning on filing a lawsuit.
A San Diego traffic stop is under an internal investigation after video shows an officer smash a Black driver’s window when he refused to consent to a search.
The Statistical Data of Traffic Stops in San Diego
