Cop Tactics for Minorities Different Than for Whites
IT’S THE CRIME, NOT THE CENSUS: Heather MacDonald, a Manhattan Institute fellow who writes frequently on the police and race, says stop-and-frisk statistics, which show most of those stopped are black and Latino, are not evidence of racism because those two groups are responsible for 95 percent of the city’s violent crime. ‘Crime, not census data, drives everything the department does,’ she said. The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang Policing is done differently in minority neighborhoods, and that needs to change, agreed attorneys and law-enforcement veterans on a panel June 16 discussing police strategies and minority communities.
They battled over the stop-andfrisk program, police shootings of unarmed blacks and Latinos and police attitudes toward minorities in general.
The panel was part of a Conference on Race, Law and the Courts hosted by the Unified Court System’s Judicial Commission on Minorities.
‘LAZY POLICE WORK’: Anthony Miranda, executive chairman of the National Latino Officers Association and a retired NYPD Sergeant, says stop-and-frisk is often numbers-driven and results in ‘lazy police work.’ Precinct commanders ‘need the numbers because they haven’t been able to catch a criminal but they want to show the Police Commissioner they’re being proactive,’ he said. The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang Defending Stop-and Frisk
Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute who writes frequently about the police and race, defended the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program, deriding critics of the effort who say it is racist because the makeup of racial and ethnic groups stopped does not match their percentage in the general population.
“In the Compstat era, crime, not census data, drives everything the department does,” she said. Blacks made up 27 percent of the city’s population in 2009 but were responsible for 80 percent of the shootings and 71 percent of the robberies, she said, adding that blacks and Latinos were responsible for 95 percent of violent crime in the city.
Ms. MacDonald shrugged off the fact that only 12 percent of the stops resulted in an arrest or summons. “The purpose of the stops is to deter criminal activity before it happens,” she said. “What should the proper percentage be?”
Not 12 percent, responded Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “What kind of return on investment is this?” she asked. The problem is compounded by the fact that the NYPD records all such stops in a database. “We’re creating a pool of suspects that happens to be black or Latino,” she said. “I think there’s something wrong with that.”
“They’re supposed to know what’s suspicious,” Ms. Lieberman said of police. “You don’t look at a 17-year-old and say ‘that’s suspicious.’ ’’
‘Lazy Police Work’
Anthony Miranda, executive chairman of the Latino National Latino Officers Association and a retired NYPD Sergeant, said officers are often given numerical targets for stop-and-frisk that result in “lazy police work” rather than actual investigations of crimes. Commanders “need the numbers because they haven’t been able to catch a criminal but they want to show the Police Commissioner they’re being proactive,” he said.
“The way we stop blacks or Hispanics is different from the way we stop white people,” he said. Whites are treated more gently and touched less often, he said, while a minority youth can be grabbed, put against a wall, handcuffed, shoved into a police car and locked in a cell. “Then we say it’s all right because we let him go,” Mr. Miranda said.
H. McCarthy Gipson, retired Buffalo Police Commissioner, said communities of color “tend to view police as the occupying force.” He blamed that on abuse of trust by police: stop-andfrisk efforts, abusive interrogations, harsh arrest tactics and unjustified shootings. Many cops act “in a lessthan professional manner” in these neighborhoods, perhaps because minorities are disproportionately both criminals and victims, he said.
“When a community is respected, they respond in kind,” and policing becomes easier and more pleasant for all involved, said Michael A. Hardy of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, who has been involved in controversial police-conduct cases involving Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and Abner Louima.
Ms. MacDonald quoted a lawyer who told her,“We are going to be more trigger-happy with a black suspect than a white suspect” because almost all shootings in the city are by blacks and Latinos.
Some Shootings ‘Totally Excessive’
“A police officer’s not supposed to be human,” said Mr. Miranda, noting that the officers’ training should inform their responses. He added that “poor police tactics” such as failure to take cover “don’t justify shooting somebody,”
Mr. Gipson said that some of the shootings by police in New York City have been “totally excessive.”
“There’s not a word said in [Compstat] meetings about race,” Ms. Mac- Donald said. Audience members responded that police didn’t need to talk about race because they knew when locations under discussion were in minority neighborhoods. “Because they don’t ask about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” said Mr. Miranda.
Police respond differently in minority neighborhoods than they do in white neighborhoods, Mr. Hardy said. If a gunshot is heard in a white neighborhood, he said, it may not even be reported to police; neighbors will call each other to find out what happened. But “in the projects if a gunshot is heard, it becomes an armed camp.”
Ms. Lieberman said that 90 percent of people arrested for misdemeanors involving marijuana, a drug that is far more popular among whites than blacks, are black and Latino.
‘Narrow the Gap’
Ms. MacDonald noted that during a period in which police officers shot 11 people, “hundreds of people” were killed by criminals. She said she would like to see “one-tenth the attention” given to shootings by police focused on black-on-black crime. “We deal with black-on-black crime every day,” Mr. Hardy responded.
The criminal justice system should try to “narrow the gap” between the way policing works in white neighborhoods and black neighborhoods, Mr. Hardy said. “We should not have communities where we have to fear both the cops and the robbers,” he said.
Panel Examines IssueIT’S THE CRIME, NOT THE CENSUS: Heather MacDonald, a Manhattan Institute fellow who writes frequently on the police and race, says stop-and-frisk statistics, which show most of those stopped are black and Latino, are not evidence of racism because those two groups are responsible for 95 percent of the city’s violent crime. ‘Crime, not census data, drives everything the department does,’ she said. The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang Policing is done differently in minority neighborhoods, and that needs to change, agreed attorneys and law-enforcement veterans on a panel June 16 discussing police strategies and minority communities.
They battled over the stop-andfrisk program, police shootings of unarmed blacks and Latinos and police attitudes toward minorities in general.
The panel was part of a Conference on Race, Law and the Courts hosted by the Unified Court System’s Judicial Commission on Minorities.
‘LAZY POLICE WORK’: Anthony Miranda, executive chairman of the National Latino Officers Association and a retired NYPD Sergeant, says stop-and-frisk is often numbers-driven and results in ‘lazy police work.’ Precinct commanders ‘need the numbers because they haven’t been able to catch a criminal but they want to show the Police Commissioner they’re being proactive,’ he said. The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang Defending Stop-and Frisk
Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute who writes frequently about the police and race, defended the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program, deriding critics of the effort who say it is racist because the makeup of racial and ethnic groups stopped does not match their percentage in the general population.
“In the Compstat era, crime, not census data, drives everything the department does,” she said. Blacks made up 27 percent of the city’s population in 2009 but were responsible for 80 percent of the shootings and 71 percent of the robberies, she said, adding that blacks and Latinos were responsible for 95 percent of violent crime in the city.
Ms. MacDonald shrugged off the fact that only 12 percent of the stops resulted in an arrest or summons. “The purpose of the stops is to deter criminal activity before it happens,” she said. “What should the proper percentage be?”
Not 12 percent, responded Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “What kind of return on investment is this?” she asked. The problem is compounded by the fact that the NYPD records all such stops in a database. “We’re creating a pool of suspects that happens to be black or Latino,” she said. “I think there’s something wrong with that.”
“They’re supposed to know what’s suspicious,” Ms. Lieberman said of police. “You don’t look at a 17-year-old and say ‘that’s suspicious.’ ’’
‘Lazy Police Work’
Anthony Miranda, executive chairman of the Latino National Latino Officers Association and a retired NYPD Sergeant, said officers are often given numerical targets for stop-and-frisk that result in “lazy police work” rather than actual investigations of crimes. Commanders “need the numbers because they haven’t been able to catch a criminal but they want to show the Police Commissioner they’re being proactive,” he said.
“The way we stop blacks or Hispanics is different from the way we stop white people,” he said. Whites are treated more gently and touched less often, he said, while a minority youth can be grabbed, put against a wall, handcuffed, shoved into a police car and locked in a cell. “Then we say it’s all right because we let him go,” Mr. Miranda said.
H. McCarthy Gipson, retired Buffalo Police Commissioner, said communities of color “tend to view police as the occupying force.” He blamed that on abuse of trust by police: stop-andfrisk efforts, abusive interrogations, harsh arrest tactics and unjustified shootings. Many cops act “in a lessthan professional manner” in these neighborhoods, perhaps because minorities are disproportionately both criminals and victims, he said.
“When a community is respected, they respond in kind,” and policing becomes easier and more pleasant for all involved, said Michael A. Hardy of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, who has been involved in controversial police-conduct cases involving Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and Abner Louima.
Ms. MacDonald quoted a lawyer who told her,“We are going to be more trigger-happy with a black suspect than a white suspect” because almost all shootings in the city are by blacks and Latinos.
Some Shootings ‘Totally Excessive’
“A police officer’s not supposed to be human,” said Mr. Miranda, noting that the officers’ training should inform their responses. He added that “poor police tactics” such as failure to take cover “don’t justify shooting somebody,”
Mr. Gipson said that some of the shootings by police in New York City have been “totally excessive.”
“There’s not a word said in [Compstat] meetings about race,” Ms. Mac- Donald said. Audience members responded that police didn’t need to talk about race because they knew when locations under discussion were in minority neighborhoods. “Because they don’t ask about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” said Mr. Miranda.
Police respond differently in minority neighborhoods than they do in white neighborhoods, Mr. Hardy said. If a gunshot is heard in a white neighborhood, he said, it may not even be reported to police; neighbors will call each other to find out what happened. But “in the projects if a gunshot is heard, it becomes an armed camp.”
Ms. Lieberman said that 90 percent of people arrested for misdemeanors involving marijuana, a drug that is far more popular among whites than blacks, are black and Latino.
‘Narrow the Gap’
Ms. MacDonald noted that during a period in which police officers shot 11 people, “hundreds of people” were killed by criminals. She said she would like to see “one-tenth the attention” given to shootings by police focused on black-on-black crime. “We deal with black-on-black crime every day,” Mr. Hardy responded.
The criminal justice system should try to “narrow the gap” between the way policing works in white neighborhoods and black neighborhoods, Mr. Hardy said. “We should not have communities where we have to fear both the cops and the robbers,” he said.
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