Cops' frisk policy is out of control: It creates a climate of distrust in minority neighborhoods

Cops' frisk policy is out of control: It creates a climate of distrust in minority neighborhoods

BY Rev. Al Sharpton

Sunday, May 16th 2010, 4:00 AM

We will never cease to be able to deconstruct the many powerful ways in which race still impacts virtually everything we do. Here in New York City, nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the relations between the men and women of the NYPD and the many communities they serve - specifically communities of color. And as the latest data of "stop and frisk" numbers and arrest statistics succinctly show, there is as yet much more to talk about.

Shortly after the NYPD released its most recent numbers - which indicate that, in 2009, black and Latino New Yorkers were nine times more likely to be stopped by police than whites - a good friend of mine approached me and engaged in a telling conversation. Citing the additional statistics that, once these minorities were stopped, their arrest rates were the same as whites - about 6% of each group wound up in custody - my colleague argued that race was therefore proven insignificant, and racial profiling nonexistent.

Now let's stop and think about this for a minute. Harassing, criminalizing and targeting certain ethnic groups nine times more than others on the premise of questionable probable cause is not a form of racial profiling? Doesn't the fact that the arrest rates among blacks and Latinos are virtually the same as whites in fact blatantly disprove the idea that these groups commit more crimes? In other words, isn't it evidence that the stop and frisk policy is biased, not the contrary?

Why is it that we spend so many resources and our tax dollars to support antiquated policies that create an environment of distrust between the police and those they are sworn to serve and protect?

Supporters of the Police Department claim that the police are simply going where the crime is - which tends to be in minority neighborhoods. They claim they are relying on descriptions of perpetrators by crime victims.

This might explain some disparity in the numbers; it cannot explain how blacks and Latinos are nine times likelier to be stopped. And it cannot justify a massive change in the climate of minority neighborhoods, which is precisely what is caused by hundreds of thousands of police stops.

Indeed, over and above the race question, we have to ask what crime gains are generally being produced by more than a half-million stops by police. The total number of stops last year - about 575,000 - was up by nearly 100,000 since 2007. For what?

It is inconceivable that the NYPD would spend so much money and manpower on this questionable tactic at a time when murder rates, robbery rates and other felonies are actually on the rise in some parts of the city. Instead of focusing on the amount of stops and frisks they muster, perhaps police officers can focus their energies on capturing the true perpetrators of crime and in effect making all of us safer.

A few weeks back, we witnessed the passage of the most draconian anti-immigration law in Arizona. You may think I'm changing the subject by invoking this - but it's closely related. Allowing police officers to arbitrarily question an individual's immigration status opens the floodgates for racial profiling; it deters cops from focusing on crime prevention. It is the same troubling pattern of behavior that we witness here in New York.

Racial profiling, wherever it occurs, is an unfortunate byproduct of the price we pay for diversity, and one we simply cannot continue to tolerate. And until we are ready to face these realities, and have a genuine discussion with ourselves across all color lines, we will unfortunately continue to be plagued by the issue of race.

Sharpton is president of the National Action Network.

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Cops' frisk policy is out of control: It creates a climate of distrust in minority neighborhoods.