re: #55 b_sharp

OT for this thread but I’m trying to parse the justification for stop and frisk.

People of colour should be watched and checked more frequently because they have a higher rate of arrest than whites. Sounds interesting.

People of colour have a higher rate of arrest because they are stopped and checked more frequently than their white counterparts. It has become confusing.

Why do I feel like I just spent time spinning around a bat in someones back yard while they filmed me for a video to be sent to America’s Funniest Home Videos?

I think there are two parts to the justification.

Part one is not racist - you can reduce the number of crimes if criminals know that there’s a significant probability that they’ll be stopped and searched, and possibly arrested if carrying a weapon illegally. So, a program of truly RANDOM stop-and-frisk would reduce the number of weapons wandering the streets, and thus reduce crime.

The second part - the implementation - is where the racism comes in. It’s not truly random, but heavily oversamples nonwhites.

And I’d also suggest that if it WERE truly random, so that everyone had an equal chance of being stopped, whites would suddenly find it is a hugely intrusive program that threatens their liberty, rather than seeing it as ‘common sense law enforcement.’