African American
Related: About this forumOff duty, black cops in New York feel threatened by fellow police officers
From the dingy donut shops of Manhattan to the cloistered police watering holes in Brooklyn, a number of black NYPD officers say they have experienced the same racial profiling that cost Eric Garner his life.
Garner, a 43-year-old black man suspected of illegally peddling loose cigarettes, died in July after a white officer put him in a chokehold. His death, and that of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked a slew of nationwide protests against police tactics. On Saturday, those tensions escalated after a black gunman, who wrote of avenging the black deaths on social media, shot dead two New York policemen.
The protests and the ambush of the uniformed officers pose a major challenge for New York Mayor Bill De Blasio. The mayor must try to ease damaged relations with a police force that feels he hasnt fully supported them, while at the same time bridging a chasm with communities who say the police unfairly target them.
Whats emerging now is that, within the thin blue line of the NYPD, there is another divide between black and white officers.
Reuters interviewed 25 African American male officers on the NYPD, 15 of whom are retired and 10 of whom are still serving. All but one said that, when off duty and out of uniform, they had been victims of racial profiling, which refers to using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/off-duty-black-cops-in-new-york-feel-threatened-by-fellow-police-officers/
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)elleng
(130,980 posts)That police union has to get it's damn act together.
tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)but i am glad that they are speaking up
JustAnotherGen
(31,828 posts)Maybe that will wake some of the apologists up!
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Zinclepto
(1 post)The good thing coming from these tragedies is the spotlight on what amounts to the erosion of our liberties as a society in general.
As a white male from upper middle America, I've had the opportunity to experience first hand the radically different treatment that I've received when getting questioned by police in my bentley and work clothes, versus my older pickup and my work around the yard clothes! The difference has been vast, and pronounced. I am treated as a criminal suspect and treated as a second class citizen while in the non descript scenario, and I'm treated with kid gloves and talked to as though I'm a superior in the nice car, rolex and suit.
It's the same me, only the cops seem to assume that a person of means wont allow them to get away with the violation of his/ her civil liberties, while the person assumingly with little means has no liberties! It's shameful and the people need to wake up ( which appears to be happening) and take this county back!
Our founding fathers started the revolutionary war over far less than were now facing as a country! It's time to stop listening to the propaganda trying to make everyone believe that we need more government... Out government is not here to protect us, our communities are supposed to do that! Out government is here to serve us! It's time to fix this, and one thing that will help is to vote out every incumbent congress person or senator, regardless of how well they speak and smile! Root out the corruption by getting rid of those that are corrupted by special interests and our country can start returning to we the peopleof the United States of America!
Turn up the volume on the protests folks, let it be known that this won't be tolerated!
Zin Clepto!
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Now if you want to get into the essence of why certain groups are stopped more than others, then you only need to go to the crime reports and see which ethnic groups are listed more as suspects. Thats the crime data the officers are living with.
- Statement by Bernard Parks (African-American former Police Chief, LA)
To understand the flaw in this policing attitude, here are more crime data:
80% of child molesters are white males, under the age of 35, so law enforcement's optimal approach should be to stop every young(ish), white males, right?
http://www.yellodyno.com/html/child_molester_stats.html
retLAPDsgt
(2 posts)Introduction and link to my blog. As an LAPD insider for 20 yrs I don't fear police but I am not immune from racial profiling (traffic stops). I blog about my experiences and what I see as the problem (and solution) with events making national news. Thanks for reading. http://www.laprogressive.com/author/cheryl-dorsey/ www.cheryldorsey.net
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)An off-duty rookie cop chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem with his gun drawn was shot and killed Thursday night when an officer mistook him for a criminal.
"Police! Stop! Drop it!" cops from the 25th Precinct shouted at Omar Edwards, 25.
As he started to turn toward him - the gun still in his hand - an officer opened fire, sources said.
The officer involved in the shooting is white, Edwards is black and had no visible NYPD identification on him, sources said. It was unclear if Edwards identified himself.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/black-killed-white-officer-horror-east-harlem-off-duty-rookie-shot-pursuing-suspect-article-1.372647