In open defiance of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly, New York’s City Council last week passed
two bills aimed at curbing the NY Police Department’s practice of
“stop-and-frisk,” which has been among the most effective crime-fighting
tactics ever employed. One of the bills mandates the appointment of an
independent inspector general to monitor the department for evidence that its
use of stop-and-frisk may be unfairly targeting blacks and Hispanics; the other
opens the door to racial profiling lawsuits against the NYPD. Black Councilman
Donovan Richards (D-Queens), who prides himself on being a strong voice against
profiling, says
that he himself was once “dehumanized” by the experience of being stopped and
frisked as a teen, and thus wishes to spare other minority youth the same pain.………The statistics above, it should be noted, raise a
vital question that merits contemplation: If blacks constitute 66% of all
violent offenders but only 53% of stop-and-frisk targets, and if whites are
just 5% of violent offenders but fully 9% of stop-and-frisk targets, could it
not be argued that it is actually whites, and not blacks, who are
disproportionately “targeted” by stop-and-frisk? …… And here’s another reasonable question
that deserves an answer:….…To Read More….
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