Racial profiling by police is real

We cannot let the very legitimate protest movement calling for police accountability and reform get lost in the outrage over the slaughter of two New York police officers by a mad man.     That is a horrible end for two good men taking a break from work.   It adds to the real risk that police officers face as part of their work.

But it has happened before, and it will happen again.   And it has nothing to do with the other problem of what appears to be an epidemic of unnecessary killings by police officers of unarmed young black men.

The racial profiling, the biased assumptions about criminal intent and violent potential are real, and this has been confirmed by a survey done by Reuter's News Service, as written byMichelle Conlin:

"Reuters interviewed 25 African American male officers on the NYPD, 15 of whom are retired and 10 of whom are still serving. All but one said that, when off duty and out of uniform, they had been victims of racial profiling, which refers to using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.

"The officers said this included being pulled over for no reason, having their heads slammed against their cars, getting guns brandished in their faces, being thrown into prison vans and experiencing stop and frisks while shopping. The majority of the officers said they had been pulled over multiple times while driving. Five had had guns pulled on them. . . .

"The black officers interviewed said they had been racially profiled by white officers exclusively, and about one third said they made some form of complaint to a supervisor.
All but one said their supervisors either dismissed the complaints or retaliated against them by denying them overtime, choice assignments, or promotions. The remaining officers who made no complaints said they refrained from doing so either because they feared retribution or because they saw racial profiling as part of the system."

 All right, Giuliani and the police union, what about this?   The NYPD and the policeman's union both declined to comment to Reuter's about the article.

Ralph