I had experience what he had experience in the past many times and will still experience this in the future where I could be walking or driving or even be sitting in a public place or even at home where a police officer is present. The tactic is very demeaning and intimidating if one has ever been experience this, one need not have to be a suspect or had committed a crime to be stopped and detained, questioned and have to show proof of identity. I’m not really oppose to providing my identification, but I would like to produce with a “cause”, this kind of methods you would expect in places like North Korea and such, but it happens here in this so called “free country”. In the United States in it’s short history have had always had some form of racial in-equality among it’s citizen or residents, it was in it’s history then and it is today. People like Lawson is a hero for those that could not speak for themselves or weren’t brave enough to challenge the oppressors, with time and some careful study of laws and a bit of luck he manage to get justice. Lawson is an inspiration that the great laws is there and it just needs to be exercise and implemented.

Between March 1975 and January 1977, Lawson was detained approximately fifteen times, as a pedestrian or as a diner in a cafe, and asked to present identification; some detentions lasted minutes, others lasted hours. He was arrested several times pursuant to California Penal Code § 647(e),[1] but prosecuted only twice, with one conviction (the second charge was dismissed). In 1975, Lawson, representing himself (known as pro se), brought a civil rights action against San Diego police chief William Kolender and others, taking the case through U.S. District Court and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor.

Edward Lawson Interview Video

Edward Lawson on Wikimedia.

Edward Lawson website.