The Crime of Walking While Black
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
"The data make plain that race-based police conduct is the norm."
Half a million times last year, New York City police stopped and frisked individuals on the street. Eighty percent of the time, those individuals were Black or Latino - groups that make up just over half the city's population. Whites comprise 44 percent of New Yorkers, but made up only ten percent of the people stopped and frisked by police. The Center for Constitutional Rights says that's hard evidence of racial profiling and stopping people without reasonable grounds for suspicion, violations of the 4th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The data on stop-and-frisks was compiled by the NYPD, itself, but it took ten years to force the cops to make the numbers public - proving, in a real sense, that lots of cops would prefer to be in the "secret police."
Over a period of three-and-a-half years New York City police made 1.6 million stops on the streets - many of which involved stopping the same people in the same neighborhoods over and over again, even after finding they were engaged in nothing illegal. In fact, one of the most disturbing patterns of police behavior was the "remarkably low rates of stops-and-frisks" that resulted in arrests or the seizure of weapons or other contraband. In other words, in most of the cases cops were bothering Black and Latino pedestrians who were just going about their business.
"It is the police who are provoking - or inventing - resistance to arbitrary police authority."
The New York City street cop data is quite similar to statistics on vehicular stops in other states and localities. The same broad pattern emerges: whites are seldom stopped except for actual violations, while Blacks and Latinos are stopped for no reason at all. They are guilty only of driving or walking while Black or Latino.
Although most of the people stopped by New York cops are allowed to continue on their way, about one in four stops results in excessive police use of physical force. This is a very disturbing statistic, since few of these instances of police force involve people who are carrying weapons or contraband. It is the police who are provoking - or inventing - resistance to arbitrary police authority. Put another way, the cops are creating crimes, and committing crimes. That's the opposite of law enforcement.
No wonder the cops fought tooth and nail for a decade to keep their own records a secret. What the numbers reveal is pervasive, institutional racism against Blacks and Latinos under color of the law. The data make plain that race-based police conduct is the norm. The numbers are so consistent, it is impossible not to conclude that racial profiling and contempt for the rights of non-whites is official policy of the New York City Police Department. Which is what the Center for Constitutional Rights hopes to prove, in court.
The American Black Prison Gulag begins on the streets, with super-surveillance of Black youth who are then swept up by cops, to be devoured by prosecutors, judges and, ultimately, prisons. The process is systematic, but it bears no relationship to justice.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Samah Sisay is a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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