NYPD Police Chief Bratton: 'We Are Not A Racist Organizarion"

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/09/bill-de-blasio-choke-hold_n_5664453.html

responded Friday that there are more misdemeanor arrests in minority neighborhoods because more officers are assigned there in response to higher crime rates.

"Are there more minorities impacted by enforcement? Yes. I'm not denying that," he said. "But it's not an intentional focus on minorities. It's a focus on behavior."

He added: "We are not a racist organization — not at all.".

Bratton and de Blasio also have come under fire from police union officials who were offended by the sight of the police commissioner and mayor sharing a dais with the Rev. Al Sharpton, a vocal NYPD critic, last week at a City Hall forum. The pair looked on glumly as Sharpton lectured that "the best way to make police stop using illegal chokeholds is to perp-walk one of them that did."

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. I hope the bar is going to be a *little* higher than that. n/t

[Nuclear Unicorn]

21. NYPD: No, really; we have black friends. nt

[sabbat hunter]

2. I do NOT believe that

the NYPD is a racist organization. Crime is higher in lower income areas, and unfortunately those areas usually are mainly populated by minorities.

There are areas that have a large minority population, but the income level is higher, and the crime rates there are much lower, and there are less misdemeanor arrests/felony arrests as a result.

We need the police to continue to fight against 'broken window' crime. But we also need to fight poverty and help those in lower income areas pull themselves up out of poverty.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. racism = applying 'broken windows'to men of color but giving whites a pass

Sure you like. You get to move about freely.men of color get slammed against the wall, searched, and fined.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. 'lower income areas'. Pssst, that's a result of racism.

There are more minorities in 'lower income areas' because minorities are disproportionately passed over for jobs, paid less, given fewer raises, etc. Lack of money and opportunity drives people to try to survive any way they can, even if those ways aren't entirely legal. And it drives them to lash out in 'petty crimes' and vandalism to vent their frustrations and anger at the injustices that keep them trapped in 'low income'.

The way to lower crime is to prevent it, not to crack down on enforcement after it happens - that merely exacerbates the anger and frustration, while not having actually stopped any windows from being broken. Living wages and jobs placement programs will do far more to end crime than 'punishment'.

[sabbat hunter]

11. however

that racism has nothing to do with the police officers.

Additionally it is not the police's job to reverse racism, have job placement programs, etc. That is the job of other areas of government.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. Actually, that's exactly what they are.

What he probably MEANT was that he didn't believe his individual officers are racially bigoted.

A racist institution, or one the promulgates institutional racism, is one that does exactly what he admits to first - one that negatively impacts minorities more than the group in power, ie whites in the US. His 'broken windows policy' as well as 'stop and frisk' and various other choices are indeed racist.

[sabbat hunter]

9. the broken windows policy

includes things like farejumpers (which hits all races and areas as you get stupid people in all neighborhoods, or people in a rush that don't want to wait on the line for the metrocard machine, etc)

Broken windows means stamping out even minor crimes (which like felonies proportionally happen in greater numbers in poor neighborhoods). Arresting/ticketing after the fact. Stop and frisk was entirely different.


You put police officers where the crimes happen.

[badtoworse]

6. Bratton is right. The NYPD focuses its efforts on areas with the highest crime.

That's exactly what they should do. It's not their job to deal with the root causes of crime. The cops need to be in the areas with the highest crime regardless of whether minorities live there or not.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. this is america. black men who have not committed a crime should NOT be sibject to searches

Of their body simply because they are black in a poor neighborhood. If cops are serious about crime they should start slamming folks in rich neighborhoods against the wall and searching them for drugs.

[badtoworse]

8. As a rule, the rich guys aren't dealing drugs.

Why would they?

[Comrade Grumpy]

12. As a rule, the young men of color they mass stop and search aren't dealing drugs, either.

http://www.nyclu.org/content/stop-and-frisk-data

An analysis by the NYCLU revealed that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 5 million times since 2002, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports:

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. You seem to assume young men of color are dealing drugs. Why would you?

[badtoworse]

14. Where did you get from?

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. "As a rule, the rich guys aren't dealing drugs."

[badtoworse]

18. Do you think they are?

The poster I replied to evidently does. I said nothing about black males.

[X_Digger]

22. That was an almost freudian slip on his part, wasn't it? n/t

[badtoworse]

26. It was a gratuitous slap at rich people that needed to be challenged.

It seemed vindictive to me.

[BronxBoy]

30. Well aren't you special!!!!!!

Not only do rich people do drugs but they are major part of why there continues to be a drug problem today.

Question: who do you think is worse: a homeboy selling 5 dollar hits of crack on a corner or a multinational bank that launders drub money for some of the largest drug cartels in the world?

[BronxBoy]

23. Of course they are...

Go behind the veil on Wall Street and you'll see more drugs than on any "block in da hood"

And if course, money launderers like HSBC only get a fine for cleaning millions of dollars of drug money

Broken windows my ass

[badtoworse]

24. I've worked for Wall Street firms for the last three years and saw no evidence of that.

I'm sure it happens, but more drugs than the "hood"? No way in my opinion.

[BronxBoy]

25. 3 years??????

Keep looking homie. I spent a lot more than 3 years and saw plenty of it.

Who do you think drove the cocaine wave of the 70s through the 90s? Johnny homeboy on 125th street? Poor black and brown people are the major consumers of illicit drugs Yeah right!

[badtoworse]

27. I guess I missed the parties.

[BronxBoy]

28. You most certainly did

And are probably still missing them

Rich White people have the money and desire to do drugs......and they do

[badtoworse]

29. I never liked I Banks or financial services firms and I recently left.

I'm back with real electric power people where I belong.

[BronxBoy]

32. I didn't care for them too much myself...

And as a Black man, I certainly saw the tremendous double standards when it came to policing in NYC

[WillyT]

34. Really !!! - Then Explain This:

HSBC Judge Approves $1.9B Drug-Money Laundering Accord
By Christie Smythe - Bloomberg
Jul 3, 2013 1:06 PM PT

HSBC was accused of failing to monitor more than $670 billion in wire transfers and more than $9.4 billion in purchases of U.S. currency from HSBC Mexico, allowing for money laundering, prosecutors said. The bank also violated U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba, according to a criminal information filed in the case.

Lack of proper controls allowed the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico and the Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia to move more than $881 million through HSBC’s U.S. unit from 2006 to 2010, the government alleged in the case. The bank also cut resources for its anti-money-laundering programs to “cut costs and increase profits,” the government said in court filings.

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/hsbc-judge-approves-1-9b-drug-money-laundering-accord.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. you are so stupid and racist.

[uponit7771]

38. This is an uninformed and apologetic statement

[sabbat hunter]

10. that isn't what happens with

broken windows. They stop people who have already committed crimes, even minor ones like selling 'loosies' or spray painting walls, etc.

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. but they are focusing on blacks. White guys doing the same behavior are given a pass

[sabbat hunter]

40. actually that is not true

they are focusing on high crime areas.

unfortunately those are mainly minority areas. The police go to where the crimes are being committed.

I know people who jumped the turnstile (white ) and were given tickets as per the law.

[Liberal_in_LA]

42. you do understand that it's racist to enforce lawsfor one race and not the other?

You do understand that, right? To create "broken window" laws for the purpose of brutalizing blacks while giving whites a pass?

[AverageJoe90]

15. Perhaps you, yourself, may not be racist, Chief Bratton.

But I'm afraid that your department continues to have a very serious corruption problem.....possibly even surpassing that of the LAPD during the CRASH era.

[Rex]

17. Yes let us focus on behavior. So he says nothing about his force and their para-military behavior?

Or their out of control tactics? Typical CYA...I would have been more surprised if he would have admitted to racist profiling.

[TheKentuckian]

19. Anyone interested in some Idaho beachfront? Big discount over the coastal stuff!

[CBGLuthier]

20. Now that Robin Williams is gone, everybody thinks they are a comedian.

racist motherfucker can not even hear the racism in his own fucking words.

[PeoViejo]

31. "We Are Not A Racist Organization"

"We will whip anyone's ass and get away with it."

[Live and Learn]

33. Prove it, start using your "stop and frisk" powers on Wall Street.

Let's see how long those policies are allowed to stand when men in business suits get stopped on their way to work.

[sabbat hunter]

41. They aren't doing

stop and frisk any longer.

[KittyWampus]

37. "… but our social club only accepts white people and we wear white hoods…"

[uponit7771]

39. ...to protect our heads from the sun and stuff...