In light of the recent terrorist activity that took place in London, I have been wanting to talk about this subject all week. Fortunately, I just came across this article that pretty much makes the same point that I wanted to make:
Such was the case last Tuesday when a powerful and tragic story was spread across the top of the Metro section. The headline said, “2 Killed, 2 Robbed in Prince George’s; Band of Four Men Sought in Attacks.” The story, by reporters Allison Klein and Philip Rucker, reported that one of the robbers shot and killed Herminio Moscoso, a 26-year-old father of two, as he came to the aid of his younger brother, who had a gun put to his head by one of the four men who had surrounded him. About 15 minutes later, the men fatally shot William Everette Miller, a 46-year-old mechanic, as he tried to get away from the robbers at a gas station where he had gone to get cigarettes. After the two murders, the four men committed two more robberies that same morning.
The story reported that: “Police are looking for the gunmen, described as being in their late teens or early twenties, driving a newer-model tan or light-colored sedan.”
The news release put out by the Prince George’s County Police Department was more specific. It said: “The four suspects are described as black males, possibly late teens or early twenties. One of the suspects is about 5′7″, 22-25 years old, wearing a gray long sleeve T-shirt, and cornrow hairstyle. The suspect’s vehicle is described as a newer model tan or beige/light colored sedan.” The Post did not report the race of the suspects or the details that were available on one of them.
When I asked editors about this, they cited the paper’s guidelines on race and relevancy. The guidelines say: “In general, race and ethnic background should not be mentioned unless they are clearly relevant. They are obviously relevant in stories about civil rights issues, the problems or achievements of minority groups, cultural history and racial conflict. They are also relevant and should be used in crime stories when we have enough specific identifying information to publish a police description of a suspect who is being sought.” (more…)
There are some out there who believe that I get some kind of personal thrill talking about the problems of black folks. I get as much thrill talking about our problems as I do eating a big bowl of slimy okra.
With that being said, I also do realize that if we do not learn how to “constructively” talk about what ails our community, our culture will be nothing more than a decaying junkyard surrounded by stage props that illustrate a false paradise called progress.
As a black man, I can tell you that I have made the fit of some police profile more than once (no I wasn’t the guy). These incidents took place during my more radical “fight the power” days, so needless to say I automatically interpret this action by the police as systematic racism. Nevermind the fact that I was living in a predominately black community at the time and the police were searching for someone who was obviously black.
I also realize that strictly racial profiling fueled by racism does exist. A family member of mine who has been a New Jersey state trooper for a number of years can tell you all the stories that support that claim.
Living in this age of terrorism, we have to kick the notion that profiling equals racism. If the person is black, white, whatever, and the person that they are looking for is not you, then call it for what it is. For black people, history easily tells us the origin of our distaste of profiling. But that same history also tells us that many of the crimes that take place in cities all across the nation are committed by us. It is this segment of our history we refuse to acknowledge without bringing up the “race hater” jargon. Eliminating “race” from a suspect description makes the job of police officers (who are usually underpaid for their daily sacrifice) that much tedious and aggravating.
Case in point, the city of New York is now conducting random searches of backpacks of all individuals in their subway system. If this action has been fueled by the recent incidents that have taken place in London (and it has), and those incidents have been caused by radical Muslims of mostly middle eastern decent, then why in the world are we searching 50 year old women? Why are we searching Asian men, young white women, etc.? In airports all across the nation, elderly people as old as 70 are subjected to strip searches only to discover that it was the metal from some hip surgery or a bra strap that was being detected. This is what you call “beating around the bush” while wasting taxpayer money—all because we do not want to offend.
So what is your suggestion, knucklehead?
For starters, we have to first realize that the term “racial” profiling is just part of profiling in general. There are other things to consider like height, weight, clothing, etc. Race is a much needed part of that equation. What if Amber alerts were given without race? How would you locate the missing child?
Next, we also have to realize that for every negative profiling case that gets covered by the media, there are hundreds of other cases out there where profiling has worked. Needless to say, activists only like to publicize the negative cases fanning the image that all police officers are racists.
Finally, for law enforcement individuals who do cross the line and can be proven in a court of law (not court of opinion), swift and hard penalties need to be executed. Some type of penalty need to also affect the precinct of the offending officer as well in order to give them an incentive to see to it that they hire officers who will uphold the law and genuinely care about the community. This will also give them incentive to provide officers with better stress management training and support.
What are your thoughts?
