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.