Law enforcement vs. black and brown Americans

The New York Daily News ^ | August 6, 2014 | Cornell William Brooks, President NAACP

[2ndDivisionVet]

New NAACP president: Garner's death is part of a terrible national pattern of violence against communities of color.

The tragic death of Eric Garner, an African-American man who died after a New York Police Department officer put him in a chokehold, is a grim reminder of our country’s broken, ineffective and unjust system of policing.

Garner’s death is not a symbol. His death is a heartbreaking symptom of the untested and overaggressive policing culture that has become commonplace from New York to California. In streets and avenues across this country, “broken windows” policing and police violence are distressing our communities.

We at the NAACP know all too well that the violence that led to Garner’s death and the prevalence of racial profiling in New York does not occur in a vacuum, but is part of a sequence of tragedies that have seared the names of Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Anthony Baez, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Miriam Carey and Rekia Boyd into our collective memory.

Too often, the indefensible fear of black and brown bodies and the abuse of power by those unlawful few in blue uniforms have produced fatal results.

To get a real sense of the depth and breadth of law enforcement’s excessive and deadly use of force, we need look no farther than the data. While many incidents of excessive force go unreported, a 2005 survey by the Justice Department showed that 4.4% of African-Americans, 2.3% of Hispanics and 1.2% of whites report having experienced use of force at the hands of police.

Without national standards on the use of force by the police, a national ban on racial profiling and effective state and local laws against these practices, law enforcement officers are free to engage in unchecked racial profiling and violence, threatening the very communities they swore to protect.

Our generation was supposed to be the first generation of black Americans to be judged not by our race or the color of our skin. Instead, we find ourselves to be the most profiled generation in the country and the most incarcerated on the planet.

In 2011, NYPD officers stopped nearly 800,000 people for alleged suspicious activity. Nine out of 10 were innocent, 99% did not have a gun and nine out of 10 were black or Latino. Furthermore, in 2011, black and Latino men between 14 and 24 made up 42% of those targeted by stop-and-frisk. That group makes up less than 5% of the city’s population.

New York is not the only city challenged by poor policing by the few. Many states are complicit in police departments’ excessive use of force. What we need are state and federal officials to pass national standards on use of force so that all police officers can be trained properly and uniformly and institute policies that ban the unfair and ineffective use of racial profiling by law enforcement. We must have common-sense guidelines that are proportional.

Our hearts go out to the family of Eric Garner, which has courageously demanded justice for his death. Their bravery is an inspiration to us and propels us to continue the fight for justice for this man and so many others who experience brutality at the hands of law enforcement.

And yet, it is not enough to bring individual perpetrators to justice. We must bring an end to unjust policing strategies and strive toward both individual culpability and collective responsibility.

Last week, we met with Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and the NYPD’s first inspector general, Philip Eure. Our message was clear: We look to them to ensure a full, thorough and timely investigation and that those responsible for the death of Garner are held accountable.

The NAACP and our allies will not stand down until accountability and justice in cases of police misconduct are served for Garner and the countless other men and women who lost their lives to such police discrimination. We also call on those we have elected to office to become our partners in the fight for equality and fairness. For now is the time to ensure that all communities can live safely — both safe from violence at the hands of criminals and at the hands of police.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I hear people talkin' bad
About the way we have to live here in this country
Harpin' on the wars we fight
An' gripin' 'bout the way things oughta be

An' I don't mind 'em switchin' sides
An' standin' up for things they believe in
When they're runnin' down my country, man
They're walkin' on the fightin' side of me

Yeah, walkin' on the fightin' side of me
Runnin' down the way of life
Our fightin' men have fought and died to keep

If you don't love it, leave it
Let this song I'm singin' be a warnin'
You're runnin' down my country, man
You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me

I read about some squirrelly guy
Who claims, he just don't believe in fightin'
An' I wonder just how long
The rest of us can count on bein' free

They love our milk an' honey
But they preach about some other way of livin'
When they're runnin' down my country, hoss
They're walkin' on the fightin' side of me

Yeah, walkin' on the fightin' side of me
Runnin' down the way of life
Our fightin' men have fought and died to keep

If you don't love it, leave it
Let this song I'm singin' be a warnin'
But you're runnin' down my country, man
You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me

Yeah, walkin' on the fightin' side of me
Runnin' down the way of life
Our fightin' men have fought and died to keep

Yeah if you don't love it, leave it
Let this song I'm singin' be a warnin'
And you're runnin' down my country, man
You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me

Merle Haggard - The Fightin' Side Of Me

[FlingWingFlyer]

Our generation was supposed to be the first generation of black Americans to be judged not by our race or the color of our skin. Instead, we find ourselves to be the most profiled generation in the country and the most incarcerated on the planet.

. The pinhead plays the race card in his farticle and then complains about the color of his skin being used against him. As for the incarceration thing, I can't help with that. "Do the crime, do the time". This clown is a blithering idiot.

[MarineBrat]

Quote from: http://humanevents.com/2013/07/19/black-americas-real-problem-isnt-white-racism/

"In New York from January to June 2008, 83 percent of all gun assailants were black, according to witnesses and victims, though blacks were only 24 percent of the population. Blacks and Hispanics together accounted for 98 percent of all gun assailants. Forty-nine of every 50 muggings and murders in the Big Apple were the work of black or Hispanic criminals.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirms Mac Donald’s facts. Blacks and Hispanics commit 96 percent of all crimes in the city, he says, but only 85 percent of the stop-and-frisks are of blacks and Hispanics."

So cry me a river ya crybaby punks. Watching these wussies hiding behind their mama's wasism skirts leaves me feeling like justice is being mocked every single day.

[vette6387]

“The pinhead plays the race card in his farticle and then complains about the color of his skin being used against him. As for the incarceration thing, I can’t help with that.”

The only thing that cops need to do is to apply the laws equally. That Blacks have a greater proclivity for criminal acts is a sad fact of their “community,” and Obama has seemingly said, because of “past injustices to Blacks who are long dead and gone, this “generation” should have “get out of jail free cards” as “compensation.” As if there is some imbedded “score that needs settling” on the backs of today’s non-Black citizens.

[trisham]

"Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes,
they just don't know where to look."

~Ronald Reagan

please click the pic
donate today!
Help support Free Republic

[Joe Boucher]

tell it to Maggie Sanger who alone is responsible for millions of negros death.

[Argus]

Yep, ghettos would be crime free if it wasn’t for those damn racist cops.

[Hugin]

You can’t turn around on FR without finding a thread on police militarization and abuse. If these clowns could refrain from making it about race, they might find some common ground with conservatives.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Of course there’s two sides to every story.

[Hulka]

“a New York Police Department officer put him in a chokehold, is a grim reminder of our country’s broken, ineffective and unjust system of policing”

Yup. . .should have beat the snot out of him, beat him until he was unconscious. . .much better.

[Hugin]

Well, unconscious is better than dead.

[EEGator]

[FrdmLvr]

Maybe those “communities of color” are resisting arrest too frequently.

[Sherman Logan]

Furthermore, in 2011, black and Latino men between 14 and 24 made up 42% of those targeted by stop-and-frisk. That group makes up less than 5% of the city’s population.

I would bet a large amount that this picked on 5% commits more than 42% of the crimes.

[Hulka]

Question is; how many times was the choke-hold done and didn't cause any harm at all, versus the the number of times a criminal that was fighting was beat into submission and hurt.

13 out of 13 times I used a choke-hold the guy woke up in the backseat of the patrol car, not hurt.

On the other hand, if I had to fight the guy, then he would have been hurt, and depending on how hard/dirty/unrelenting he fought, would have been hurt bad (if not dead. Can't lose that fight, think Zimmerman).

When a criminal wants to fight, he fights. Trick is to subdue safely and choke-holds work. Much like tazers, choke-holds subdue with a far less injury/death rate than if you have to beat the guy into submission. Common-sense and all that.

[Amagi]

"If you can't do the time
don't do the crime."