Ray Kelly: By the department's count, African-Americans are being 'under stopped' | Capital New York

BY AZI PAYBARAH
7:43 am May. 2, 2013


In an interview on ABC's "Nightline" last night, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly elaborated on a point Mayor Michael Bloomberg made in a speech this week, about the racial breakdown of stop-and-frisks conducted by city police officers.

Bloomberg said NYPD critics are unfairly compare the number of black and Latino men stopped to the number of black and Latino men in the general population, whereas they should be comparing the numbers of stops to the descriptions of suspects.

Kelly, in his interview, said that if you use that methodology, "African-Americans are being understopped."

A year ago, Kelly went even further, telling reporters people in "communities of color" actually "want more" stop-and-frisks.

That kind of rhetoric will effectively require a response from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is the only Democratic mayoral candidate who wants Kelly to stay on as commissioner and also wants the department to make fewer stops.

Yesterday, after she took credit for a recent reduction in the number of stop-and-frisks, Quinn avoided answering a reporter's question yesterday about whether she would continue that reduction as mayor.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/05/8529626/ray-kelly-departments-count-african-americans-are-being-understoppe

I am black. I have therefore committed a crime. I am black. I know what is the problem with my black body, It exists. I therefore “am” a crime. “As a sentencing factor, race ranks with prior conviction for rape, armed robbery and even murder. The race factor here isn’t merely statistically significant, it is, as you might think, downright determinative” (Gates 1992,333) The black accused needs only to be “seen” to be guilty of a prior offense. His color is the evidence. He is guilty of Blackness.

The Black child learns what to do when he is approached for shoplifting., when he is approached for assaulting another, when he threatens the welfare of white children, when he is stopped by police. This moment of being stopped by the police, this (it seems) inevitable moment, stands waiting out there like FATE. For the black adult, this when is transformed to DONT. DONT jog for he may be mistaken for a criminal in flight. DONT drive an expensive automobile for he may be appearing to have stolen it.
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Lewis R. Gordon from Bad Faith and Anti Black Racism

http://mrscorpio.tumblr.com/post/49621431882/i-am-black-i-have-therefore-committed-a-crime-i