Makes sense. We pay our cops to apprehend law-breakers, to “catch crooks”, after all. Therefore they will stop those individuals they perceive are most likely to be law-breakers.
Why cops stop blacks with greater frequency is a question that has been discussed for decades, and with greater frequency since our first black president took office and introduced the concept of injecting presidential opinions and influence into local police/citizen incidents. Obama's elevating local interest issues to the level of national crises proves that you just can't take the community out of a former community organizer.
This legitimate question has become a burning and even lethal issue with some in the liberal and black community, and it is worthy of investigation. The obvious first response is that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime in this country, but should one have the temerity to offer that suggestion, one is quickly branded a racist. And we all know that liberals and race-baiters consider that charge a surefire argument-stopper, one that trumps whatever amount of statistical evidence one may produce to substantiate that blacks do indeed commit significantly more crime, proportionately, than whites, particularly crimes of violence.
A commenter on a piece I posted on another website gave a very succinct response to the question that substantiates the original claim while offering the sensible explanation that stopping blacks makes perfectly good sense from a cop's point of view, because it results in higher productivity in apprehending criminals and solving crimes. And just like most folks in the work force, law enforcement officers are measured by and rewarded for higher productivity. Increased work production often leads to promotion and higher pay – not unreasonable goals for cops, just like the rest of us, to have.
The law enforcement commenter gave an example: in just three vehicle stops of blacks in the first three hours of a shift, he found fifteen violations and sixteen outstanding warrants. That's the kind of job production that gets your shift commander's attention. Do that often enough, and the chief is going to recognize your name and give you a longer handshake while he fixes you with a thoughtful gaze. And most likely, while he's pondering your future in his department, he's giving absolutely no thought to the race of the perps you have busted – simply the numbers you have added to his look-good statistics, which in turn will appease his masters and perhaps increase his own pay. It's called getting noticed, and it's a very good thing for ambitious persons in a very large number of professions. Why should it be any different with police officers?
I know, I know – it's profiling in the worst kind of way. But you have to admit, for cops, it makes very good business sense if your business is enforcing the law and apprehending lawbreakers. And by extension, it makes good sense for our communities, because it removes their most frequent offenders. Whom do you want your police pulling over: citizens with clean records, or perps with a long list of priors and outstanding warrants? And is that racism, or the application of common sense to controlling crime in your community? It's just one more example of common sense colliding with liberal dogma.
You might call it another case of dogma bites cops.
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