 |
| New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opening the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
"The hosts of The Five tonight offered a rare defense of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg against charges that he made “racially charged” remarks when he lashed out at stop-and-frisk opponents last week. The hosts had a consensus on whether or not Bloomberg was being offensive (he wasn’t), but they were split when it came to the actual stop-and-frisk policy. Liberal Bob Beckel was very outspoken against it, while conservative Eric Bolling admitted he’s not sure about the constitutionality or effectiveness of the law enforcement practice."
{ the Mayor and his cronies reason that if 90% of those identified as murder suspects were Blacks or Latino then being Black or Latino is enough to make you a murder suspect.
illogical, like the old untrue syllogism: all grass are green things, therefore all green things are grass
my problem with this line of thinking, aside from its pure stupidity, hinges on the question: why was ANYBODY stopped and frisked (S&F)? if the S&F happened because those frisked were murder suspects, or rape suspects, or suspected of ANYTHING illegal then the Mayor's statistics and comments make perfect sense. because, many would agree that S&F on SUSPECTS is a valid tactic.
but of course, nothing could be further from what is actually happening here. what is happening is that Police Officers are given quotas and guidelines and based on the Mayor's numbers many of those subjected to S&F are targeted simply BECAUSE they are people of color.
in fact, many of of our youth are suspected of murder, stopped and frisked, several times in ONE day, EVERY day.}[ero]
...ero.
