Racial Perceptions

Joan Walsh has an article at Salon attributing backlash over the December murder of two New York City police officers entirely to racism. I don't know what her race is, I'm guessing white, but whatever it is she has a lot of company. At the same time NYPD Commissioner William Bratton and George Kelling have an article in City Journal defending the "broken windows" policing that led to the arrest of Eric Garner last summer. If you haven't seen the video of three officers manhandling Garner down to the sidewalk you really haven't been following the news. Garner died of a heart attack shortly afterwards and the incident, along with an earlier incident in Ferguson Missouri, prompted wide spread protests, some of them violent. Walsh isn't really typical of those who consistently see racism where there is none, her language is softer, but I would count her among them. She clearly doesn't see the police point of view. She repeatedly insists that Garner was choked to death, he was not. Garner's rough treatment may well have contributed to his heart attack and it is reasonable to conclude that it did. But Garner was resisting arrest. Maybe the officers used excessive force but I would expect to be treated roughly if I were resisting arrest. Maybe too a petty crime like Garner's, selling loose cigarettes, shouldn't warrant an arrest. But he was selling them openly on the street. Turning a blind eye to petty crimes is an invitation to more serious crimes. That's what broken windows policing is all about. Walsh sees racism there too and throws out the red herring that New York's dramatic reduction in violent crime over the last two decades can't be attributed entirely to police work. I don't know who is making that claim. Bratton and Kelling certainly aren't. They also credit community leaders, regular town hall meetings, a willingness of neighbors to intervene in disorderly circumstances, and other things. But broken windows policing is part of it. Walsh also cites a cousin who avoids dangerous neighborhoods that happen to be predominantly black. She sees racism there too. But the lady was mugged three times and was once dragged into an alley, threatened, and robbed. What's racist about wanting to avoid that? Bratton and Kelling make a better case and they have a lot of company too. Bratton refrains from disparaging those who disagree with him but has rebuked police who turned their backs to Mayor Bill de Blasio. He and Kelling concentrate on defending their policing techniques and rebutting arguments against them. They have done their homework. Violent crime has come down significantly in every category on Bratton's watch. New York is a better, safer, more pleasant place than it was thirty years ago, especially in neighborhoods once among the most blighted. Bratton can take a lot of credit for that and racism has nothing to do with it. Our first black president was supposed to usher in a post racial society. That hasn't happened and he doesn't seem to have done much to help things along. He may well have set things back a bit. If anything he has contributed to the racist-behind-every-tree mindset that so dominates the public discussion. But as John Adams famously said, facts are stubborn things and the truth is there aren't nearly so many racists hiding behind trees as there once were. Precious few of those remaining are police. Meanwhile most of us have moved on. Joan Walsh and the people whose views she represents will continue to perpetuate the fraud that the increasing disparity in quality of life between the black community and other racial groups is entirely the result of racism. It's not likely to make our cities any safer, or the black community any more prosperous.

Police Work

I don't want to weigh in on whether recent police shootings of unarmed black men were racially motivated except to say if racism is involved I don't see it. I don't really know and except for the officers involved I doubt that anyone else does either. I believe however that calls for less policing are a mistake. I walk for exercise, usually on a pathway that runs along either side of a creek through my neighborhood. I consider it safe and my wife Lynne walks too, usually alone. We sometimes walk at night. We often see policemen (and women) and we find their presence reassuring. We do lock the doors and set an alarm when we leave the house but that, and locking car doors when driving, are the only precautions we find necessary. But several times recently I have visited the VA Hospital in South Dallas, just north of Loop 12 between I-45 and I-35E, not far from the zoo. That is a different neighborhood. Homes and businesses along that part of Loop 12 mostly have iron bars on the windows and I would be uncomfortable if I had car trouble there at night. If I lived there I would want to see a policeman at least as often as I do now. Many in that community do too. I know because several years ago they organized and lobbied the City Council for more police. They got them and saw a significant drop in crime over the next few years. More police do translate to less crime. Periodically they go back to resist budget cuts, so far successfully. New York City has always been a special place for Lynne and me because we met there on a blind date fifty two years ago. We were really sad to see the evident deterioration in mid-town Manhattan during the 1980s. We couldn't walk along 7th Avenue without being accosted, sometimes in an attempt to bait me by catcalling Lynne. The cleanup under Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg was real and heartening and not just in the tourist areas. Violent crime dropped all over the city, especially in the most blighted areas. Protesters not-withstanding I doubt most New Yorkers want a return to the bad old days of thirty years ago in a misguided attempt to address perceived racism by cutting back on police. The drop was directly attributable to sophisticated new policing techniques pioneered by Commissioners Ray Kelly and Bill Bratton. Those techniques are now under fire because they focus efforts on high crime areas and those areas tend to be predominantly black. Protesters are demanding Bratton's removal and they may get it. If they do it will be a sad day, and not just for New York. New York is a success story and a model for how to make our cities safer, more pleasant places to live. We should be careful about ill considered changes in the criminal courts too. Our grand and petite jury systems aren't perfect but the due process clause in our constitution protects us all from the demands of mobs as well as prosecutorial overreach. That is a good thing. I don't think we're in much danger of undermining due process in the courts though. The Supreme Court will see to that. Police work is another matter. Rightly or wrongly a large segment of our society believes that the police response to disproportionate crime rates in predominantly black communities is racist in nature. If the result is new policies with police turning a blind eye those communities will become more lawless and dangerous. As always, those who will suffer most are those who live there.