NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly: Blacks Are ‘Understopped’ For Stop And Frisk

Presumably, he meant out of proportion to crimes committed, but it didn’t sound good.

Kelly said, “About 70 percent to 75 percent of the people described as committing violent crimes- assault, robbery, shootings, grand larceny- are described as being African American. The percentage of the people who are stopped is 53 percent African-American. So really, African-Americans are being under-stopped in relation to the percentage of people being described as being the perpetrators of violent crimes. The stark reality is that a crime happens in communities of color.”

However:

The percentage of African-Americans stopped was actually 55 in 2012, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, using the N.Y.P.D.’s own data. The percentage of Latinos was 32, and the percentage of whites was 10.

Critics of stop-and-frisk complain that cops are not abiding by constitutional rules, but indiscriminately going after young black and Hispanic men on bogus grounds — like acting “suspiciously.” They say that walking while black (or Hispanic) in certain neighborhoods is enough to get you stopped. In 2012, New Yorkers were stopped by cops 533,042 times. In 473,300 of those stops, or 89 percent, the person was innocent.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.