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Are Cops Racist?

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We all decry racial-profiling, right? Only one problem: racial profiling does not exist.

The author documents how this myth began with black "leaders" complaining that too many blacks were being stopped for traffic violations. Liberal politicians quickly jumped on the bandwagon and demanded a study. With hysteria in full bloom, a federal study was produced showing that blacks were, indeed, stopped at a disproportionate rate for traffic violations along the New Jersey Turnpike. With the New Jersey Turnpike study in hand, President Clinton, then candidate G.W. Bush, and numerous governors were all out denouncing racial profiling and demanding reform. The hysteria then moved to the courts were numerous arrests were thrown out due to the claim that they were stopped because of their race.

Nobody ever asked the question: Are blacks being stopped at a disproportionate rate because they are committing traffic violations at a disproportionate rate. Even asking such a question usually resulted in charges of racism. To answer this question, however, the New Jersey Attorney General commissioned a study that employed radar to trigger a camera which snapped a picture of the driver whenever said driver exceeded the speed limit along points throughout New Jersey Turnpike. The report showed that blacks did, indeed, speed at a disproportionate rate, double that of whites. Needless to say, the politicians were shocked at the results. The DOJ continued to sidestep the study. The study was performed by the Public Service Institute for Safety in Maryland. The researchers even offered to submit the tests and methodologies to the National Academy of Sciences for peer review. In the end the media and politicians didn't contest the results, they instead chose to just ignore the study. Nobody wanted to tell black folks that they speed at twice the rate of whites and, hence, were ticketed at twice the rate of whites, especially after all the hoopla. The results were not politically acceptable.

The book debunks many other charges of racism such as that during the Cincinnati riots. We all heard about the white racist cops that were out of control and shooting innocent black folks in Cincinnati. Cincinnati suffered greatly during the riots with black "leaders" out front demanding reform to stop the racist cops and demanding more government social programs to appease the agry rioters. The facts, however, showed that of the 15 black offenders that were shot to death, four were shot by black officers. One of the offenders was shot after he hacked to death his girlfriend and was waving the axe at the cops. Another was shot after he dragged a black police officer to his death. In short, when the facts were examined, there was no evidence that the cops were racist and out of control.

After reading this book and books like "Coloring the News" one has to ask why is there so much manipulation out there designed to inflame black resentment against cops, against the government, and against whites in general. Why is there a constant stream of misinformation designed to keep black folks bitter and resentful against whites in general? First, many black "leaders" gain power and prestige and are rewarded financially with more government programs when racial tension is increased. Jesse Jackson, for instance, lives in a 16 room mansion. He obviously has benefited greatly by inflaming racial tensions against large corporations and against the government, and then offering to fix the problems for large fees. Second, the Democrats are beholden to a black constituency. 90% of the black vote went to Democrats. So the Democrats obviously have a stake in perpetuating myths that blacks need the Democrats to rectify the racial situation. Without the black vote the Democratic party would be dead. So there are many reasons for this.

As far as being stopped. I have been stopped numerous times-I am white. In each instance, I stayed calm, cooperated, and was usually sent on my way with a ticket. Nothing newsworthy.

I just finished reading "Are Cops Racist" by Heather MacDonald. As an African-American and newly minted "Black Neo-conservative," I commend the author for not only showing, though painstaking reseach, interviews and thoughtful analysis, the fictitious and politcally motivated accusations against cops of racial profiling, but also stressing how such nonsense (further propogated by a left-leaning media) will do more harm than good to law-abiding citizens - particularly African-Americans. As the old saying goes, "the truth hurts." This book should leave cop-bashers nationwide with a serious hangover for a long time.

Heather MacDonald's Are Cops Racist? maintains that opposition to racial profiling threatens to erode crime-fighting gains of the last decade. Chapters show how this profiling has led to increased insights on the demographics of crime and criminals - and chapters consider how anti-profiling lobbying produces harmful results for blacks and all peoples. An intriguing discussion.

Let me first state that I was a prior law enforcement officer on the state and Federal Level. With that in mind, Ms. MacDonald highlights some of the myths surrounding law enforcement and policing policies. I have experienced the political backlash from arresting prominent members of the community and the political workings behind the scenes to undermine and minimize the department's policing efforts. Law Enforcement is at times boring, thankless, an occasionly rewarding. I have witnessed firsthand the comments and bias placed on me when I was in uniform. I never pulled over a vehicle because of the ethnic profile of the driver. I was accused of it constantly, questioned by command (example: why have you pulled over # of hispanics this month? The command failed to mention that the jurisdiction was approximately 75% hispanic...a simple law of averages here....but I digress)
Ms. MacDonald highlights some of the recent police cases involving "profiling", especially the high profile case in New Jersey. She disects all of the politically correct charged placed against the police involved. This book is for someone with an open mind. Those that take the network news as gospel need not apply. In order to mend the very real racial divide in our culture, we have to honestly and objectfully look at how police are treated and characterized in the media. Like any large organization, there are bad officers. The majority of officers are hard working, non biased, and professional.

Great book looks at racial profiling from an officers perspective as well as from the non-criminal community eyes.

Heather does a great job of sifting through the media drama and finding out what the real issues are. I have a completely different view of this issue after reading this book.

This book is extremely informative. The police in America are not portrayed with honesty in American films.....here problems are revealed in our society that the public needs to know and appreciate. Ms. McDonald is extremely bright and writes a good book that is interesting....if you care about the truth and being informed, this book is for you!

I've always been careful not to believe propaganda from the left or the right. I like to think of myself as a "self thinker" and have always held dear, the idea of personal responsibility. My education told me that speeders get stopped and law abiding citizens have nothing to fear from police officers and smart citizens have nothing to fear from criminals.

The culture at my job is one where you have two general types of person. Car guys, who built performance racers as teens and watch NASCAR, and engineer guys who built computers and programming code as teens. I'm from the latter group. However, I get stopped far more often than my white co-workers, even the ones who drive more reckless than me and are hotrodders.

As a matter of fact the last time I was stopped I was frisked handcuffed pushed around and shouted non racial but "heated" names, while my car was being ransacked by police officers with drawn guns. All of this was done before the first question or statement came out of the police officer's mouth. I wasn't speeding, blasting Rap music, wearing my hat backwards, slouching in my seat, drinking while driving, or driving with a White girl in my car (most of which isn't illegal anyway). I was wearing my seatbelt, sitting at a red light wearing a close cropped haircut with clean shaven face. I wore a conservative dark suit and was in a clean moderately upscale car with no extra rims or adornments. I work for one of the "Big Three" auto companies and was driving a car with Manuf. plates which, since I was less than a mile from the Tech center, was very common. They took my wallet out of my pocket and began tossing the contents on the hood of the car while looking for my license, insurance cert. and registration. As a photo of my wife and daughter flipped off the car and landed on the wet pavement, one of the cops asked "is dem yo hoes?" "dat yo shorty?" in a poor attempt at "Ebonics". The other cops laughed.

One of the officers seemed genuinely angry that I had a passport. I vaguely remember him asking me why a vacation in Colorado "wasn't good enough for me" or something to that effect. After the third cop car pulled up and the contents of my briefcase, wallet and car console were splayed about on top and around the car on a wet windy night, they let me go. No ticket, no help with my belongings, no "Sorry dude, wrong guy" Not even a condescending "Have a nice day" They didn't even check my trunk but did empty my briefcase. At no time during this ordeal did I show anger or raise my voice to these people yet they still acted like savages.

Is it even possible that all of the instances that we have heard about and the thousands that we haven't are simply a vast attempt to fool stupid black people into voting a certain way, to feed animosity against the police, or a method by which to make whites feel guilty? It is actually possible that some of these people are telling the truth about profiling.
If it is human nature to fear that which you've been given reason -irrational or not- to fear whether you're a cop or not, then profiling is to be expected, even among those who we would expect to know better. This would be the same even if this country was majority Black/ minority White and it was White males complaining about profiling. The presence of Jesse Jackson doesn't negate the truth and you don't get a free pass to ignorance that quickly. The premise of this book denies basic human nature and placates those who'd rather keep heads in sand.

I was looking forward to reading this book. Heather Mac Donald's writing came highly recommended from a friend, and I'm sympathetic to her argument in this book. But sadly, I was very disappointed.

First, it should be noted that this isn't a book per se; it is a compilation of several articles she wrote for "City Journal". As such, it doesn't flow like a book, but more like a somewhat-related series of news and editorial clippings. Second, she is guilty of so much oversimplification that it smacks of intellectual laziness.

I knew something was amiss when I read in the first page of the introduction, "For the past decade, the press has been on a crusade to portray cops as brutal and racist...." Where to begin? "The press"? That's a pretty big group, of which allegedly she is a member herself. "Crusade"? Does she mean organized? And why "for the past decade"? Could it be because that's the decade that Bill Clinton was in office?

Mac Donald's book is full of anecdotal evidence and questionable leaps of logic that aren't satisfying. It's a real shame because she is doing a disservice to an argument that is probably right. But after seeing it so poorly defended, even I began to have doubts. She also doesn't help build confidence in her evidence or intellectual integrity by continuing the ad hominems such as "anti-police agitators and their journalist acolytes" throughout the book.

Mac Donald makes some good points and presents some interesting evidence, but unfortunately it is clouded by a lack of detachment and professionalism that would help make her argument more convincing, especially if she meant to preach to more than the choir. Real conservatives are some of the few people left with any good ideas, but sadly this is the kind of book the like of Al Franken will point out as conservative hysterics.

I've followed Heather Macdonalds wonderful writing in the city journal. This book is thorough researched and well argued and quite relevant to questions of ethnic profiling (what it is, what are the limits?) that will affect us all in the future.