An ACLU study has concluded that “Boston’s black residents are more likely to be stopped, questioned or searched by police,” CBS reported today. The study found that 63% of civilian-police encounters between 2007 and 2010 involved blacks, even though blacks make up only 24% of the city’s population.
The city’s police commissioner has criticized the report, asserting it doesn’t reflect recent training and is distorted by policing efforts being concentrated in “high-crime” areas of the city. He also claimed these statistics are skewed by the fact police repeatedly stop and question known gang members and criminals they encounter on the streets.
But Massachusetts ACLU’s legal director said, “These findings are clear evidence of racial bias in BPD policing.” He said his organization wants to work with the Boston PD to address the problem. Nationally, the Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder has been investigating whether policing is racially biased in several major cities.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boston-police-more-likely-to-stop-blacks-report-says/
My comment: Arguing that blacks have higher rates of police encounters because they commit more crimes is too simplistic. Raw statistics of encounters and arrests fail to capture the effects of police discretion in enforcing laws.
Partly as a result of the media attention to police behavior precipitated by the shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager, by a white cop in Ferguson, Missouri, the American public has recently had its attention drawn to longstanding police practices that target and harass minorities. The reality in much of America is that a person’s race is likely to be a major factor in whether police decide to stop and question him or her, or issue a citation for a minor infraction like jaywalking (which is what Brown was doing when he was stopped, then killed). Recent court decisions have reinforced the prerogative to police to stop anyone they don’t like, even without probable cause, and such actions of course are highly discretionary. And simply too much statistical and anecdotal evidence has accumulated to deny anymore that there’s a strong racial component in how this discretion is exercised by America’s overwhelmingly white police forces.
From all this, it’s unreasonable to deduce that police departments simply are hiring the wrong people, training is inadequate, and there’s a lack of appropriate supervision. Some cops shouldn’t be on the force because they’re just plain dumb and incapable of exercising sound judgment. Far more problematical are violence-prone psychopaths, which may stem to some degree from hiring (I hate to say this) recently returned veterans who can’t comprehend that being a soldier and a cop are two vastly different jobs and our communities aren’t military battlefields.
And finally, there’s something wrong with character evaluation in the recruiting process, because there’s just too damn many cops who lie on official reports, fabricate bogus
charges, commit perjury in court, tamper with or destroy evidence, plant false evidence, and even rob people and commit crimes of violence when they’re supposed to be carrying out their official duties.
All of these things need to change, but it’s not clear to me how ordinary civilians can effect these changes. When you have a systemic failure like we’re seeing in law enforcement, usually it started with rot at the top, so you begin by replacing the top managers. But there’s a good deal of weeding out that needs to be done at all levels, and also a clear need for fundamental reform of police management and practices throughout our country.
Businesses often utilize “best practices” to improve their organizations. Our police departments have declined into “worst practices.” What’s now needed is an extreme makeover.
It’s getting worse.
I do not think so. I think we are all suffering from the media’s need ot make oney. That doe snot eman that the problem is not there, but the profit the media make form creating such caises distorts reality.