Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
Before former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg threw his hat into the 2020 presidential race, he defended the New York Police Department’s use of “stop, question and frisk” policing. At a United States Naval Academy’s 2019 Leadership Conference, Bloomberg said, “We focused on keeping kids from going through the correctional system … kids who walked around looking like they might have a gun, remove the gun from their pockets and stop it.” He claimed that as a result of his policy, New York’s murder rate fell from 650 a year to 300 the year he left office.
In the cases of Terry v. Ohio, Sibron v. New York, and Peters v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1968, granted limited approval to officers to stop, question and frisk, even though they lacked probable cause for an arrest, if the officer believed the subject to be dangerous. The Court’s decision made suspicion of danger to an officer grounds for a “reasonable search.”
The stop, question and frisk policy has taken on racial overtones because most of the people stopped are black men. Let’s look at the numbers. Last year, NYPD data showed that 93% of suspects arrested for murder were black or Hispanic. Ninety-six percent of those nabbed in shootings were also minorities. Eighty-eight percent of New York City’s homicide victims were black or Hispanic as were 96% of shooting victims. While these percentages have been roughly the same for decades, New York police have brought the absolute number of crimes, including homicides, way down from its 1990 peak at 2,245 to 289 homicides in 2018. Since blacks and Hispanics are the major victims of homicide, as a result of the NYPD’s proactive response to crime, possibly tens of thousands of blacks are living today who would otherwise be dead.
For a law-abiding black person to be stopped, questioned and frisked — in a word or two, be racially profiled — is truly insulting. However, to analyze the policy, let’s look at the origins of racial profiling or any other kind of profiling. First of all, policemen are neither mind readers nor are they equipped with X-ray vision. That means good policing requires learning how to use an easily observed physical characteristic as a guess or proxy for some other difficult-to-observe characteristic. Thus, the reason people profile is that information is costly and they seek methods to economize on information costs. One way to do that is through profiling.
The reality is that race and other behavioral characteristics are correlated, including criminal behavior. That fact does not dispel the insult, embarrassment, anger and hurt a law-abiding black person might feel when being stopped by police, being watched in stores, being passed by taxi drivers, standing at traffic lights and hearing car door locks activated or being refused delivery by merchants who fear for their safety in his neighborhood.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a politician in pursuit of his own agenda. President Donald Trump is also a politician in pursuit of his own agenda. Both will deny their support for and talk down the policy of stop, question and frisk in an effort to curry favor with black voters. Most Bloomberg and Trump supporters don’t live under the horrible conditions that so many blacks live under in high crime cities like Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit. Black people must ask what needs to be done to stop criminals from preying on them and making so many of their communities economic wastelands. If stop, question and frisk can contribute to that goal, so be it. They need not listen to politicians, academics, talking heads on the news and others.
I’ll add that even if the police, intimidated by leftists, are not doing their job to safeguard black residents in high crime communities, that doesn’t mean that black people should not organize to take independent measures to protect themselves.
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Instead of the police doing something about crime, why not try a different approach.
If every adult was armed and dangerous, every adult would be the equivalent of a cop and on the scene in 0 seconds. If every adult was armed and dangerous, every predator in the society would KNOW that acting out is a death sentence carried out in seconds as opposed to languishing in a prison for decades on the public’s dime before execution.
The very idea of the ‘police’ is stupid. They do not protect people because they can’t. They aren’t there when and where a typical crime occurs, so how can they be protecting the victim?
The police are used by TPTsB to keep the society from seeking retribution from the political class. The cops protect the people that pay their salaries and no one else.
Let every adult carry and get trained on firearms use by the same people that train the cops. Why not give that a try?
That was / is the policy and law in Kennesaw GA. No it’s not NYC, would be interesting to get the crime stats and compare.
“If every adult was armed and dangerous”
well in point of fact everyone in the “ghetto” who wants to be armed and dangerous already is. in fact they seek it and celebrate it. “j with a gauge and vanilla with a 9”. what they lack is not aggression and armament, but morality and self-control.
Solutions, why would armed law abiders want to be called ‘armed AND dangerous’? “Armed” should be quite enough.
SamFox
Some people are too timid to use their weapon or use it in the split second where it can make a difference.
The ‘dangerous’ part is admitting that you have no hesitation to use the weapon should the need arise.
its estimated 70% of the population carries in the vehicle in my state,more like 90% in my county. major crime is nihl, god bless open carry states
Let the conservatives have guns……libs not so much…..
in the 1960’s someone said, “When the authorities warn you of the dangers of having sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.” the left says guns are dangerous – fine. don’t let the left have guns.
Slightly off topic.
Men, grab your dicks.
Weinstein was found guilty and whatever you may think of the man, Hollywood whoredoms(1), the accusers, or the #metoo social engineering Men vs. Women disaster, it’s just not cool.
If you pinched the wrong ass in college, or someone says you did, your good name and estate could be stripped to the fucking bone. Personally, I think the man is an actor and the trial is a sham, but that does not matter one IOTA to public opinion.
BTW, it’s time to get your assets out of NH before the ass pinching lawsuits begin.
This fake #metoo women vs. men aka ALL MEN ARE PREDATORS social programming shit has to end.
https://www.wmur.com/article/nh-lawmakers-consider-eliminating-statute-of-limitations-for-civil-sexual-assault-allegations/31027699
(1) Whoredoms, see Book of Mormon (1830)
as i read this comment at 12:45 which was posted over 4 hours ago,there are only 2 upvotes–is tbp now being read by soyboys,queers,women,what ?
4 those of you who think weinstein got what he deserved,going after him trivializes true sexual assault–
winnie is correct on this one,even if he is a closeted crypto jew taking up 4 his cuz–
Well said Winnie, spot on.
“the man is an actor”
the plaintiffs are too.
You know what’s interesting? Kobe was accused of rape and so was Weinstein. Kobe is dead and he’s a hero. Harvey is alive and no hero.
Speaking as a dude and not a liberal, I tell my wife that it seems a bit unfair that Simpson got off after killing his wife but Harvey grabs some poon, as men are wont to do, and goes to jail. WTF.
“Kobe was accused of rape and so was Weinstein. Kobe is dead and he’s a hero.”
studies show .41 of women have rape fantasies. presumably the fantasies involve people like kobe, not people like weensteen, because people like weensteen are expected to pay-off, while people like kobe are the pay-off.
If the women gave it away to a good looking man is one thing but to give it up to that ugly lump of lard is perhaps the reason the came at him with knives out.
that they didn’t get the expected payoff is the reason the knives came out.
How about sticking to the bill Of Rights and our constitution .
In far to many cases police cannot be trusted with the limited police powers they do have . Too often police cross the line then add the piling on of frivolous additional charges often with the help of a prosecutor bucking for a high case conviction ratio to prove their effectiveness . Meanwhile average people lose property money homes jobs etc over nonsense !
Never ever talk to police , never answer questions , NEVER !
Am I being detained or am I free to go ? Any response from police other than you are free to go means you are detained which means you are under arrest ! At that point keep your mouth shut and if you can record and film everything if you can . This is because police body cams have a funny glitch that loses some of the recording usually where your rights are being flushed down the thin blue line shitter !
“police body cams have a funny glitch”
personal experience? goes both ways you know.
Only the black community can solve the black crime problem. As long as 3/4 of black babies are born to unmarried women and grow up without a male, positive role model, they will gravitate to the life of crime. Paying women to have babies is a big part of the problem.
Welfare – Another government program to exacerbate a perceived problem.
“Only the black community can solve the black crime problem.”
this.
but since they insist that only whites can solve it, then should the whites solve it?
Williams also rightly condemns the racist war on drugs as being a major contributor to crime problems and police justification for stops and searches. Indeed, the black crime problem is something the black community must also work on….the perpetrators are THEIR CHILDREN after all.
The black community should be working on this as the victims are usually their CHILDREN also. A person would think it would have been taken into their own hands long ago. Discretely though……
Well, the bigger problem is that there are no dads around, and moms is too busy creating more welfare check recipients to care. One kid goes to prison and the dollars go down in the check.
“That fact does not dispel the insult, embarrassment, anger and hurt a law-abiding black person might feel when being stopped by police, being watched in stores, being passed by taxi drivers, standing at traffic lights and hearing car door locks activated or being refused delivery by merchants who fear for their safety in his neighborhood.”
when they’re insulted, embarrassed, angered, and hurt more by their out-of-control neighbors, and take care of business in their own communities, then the police and merchants and deliverymen won’t need to stop, watch, or fear.
He’s always been pretty clear about that truth….even if not stated directly here.
Easy fix. Frisk and find no gun, here, have lunch on us and hand them a ten dollar gift certificate for fast food. Use confiscated drug money. They will be begging for stop and frisk.
and the ones who avoid it will be suspect.
End the war on drugs, and the gun presence and violent crime numbers will also drop considerably. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
end all law, and crime will disappear too.
It’s my understanding that it was Rudy Giuliani was the one who instituted ‘stop, question & frisk. He said that Bloomberg copied that strategy but left out the ‘question’ part. I can go with s, q & f IF the questioning reveals &/or the officer actually finds true probable cause to ‘frisk’.
SamFox
It is easy to create a crime free environment, just ask the dictator of North Korea. All you need to do is create a police state where people have no rights. Personally, I do not think living in a dictatorship is worth lowering the crime rate. I would prefer to live free than to allow Bloomberg to create a dictatorship, as he has proven by his past history, he will do.