Article

‘THE FERGUSON EFFECT’ IS TO RACE RELATIONS WHAT BLACK IS TO WHITE

0 0 votes
Article Rating

BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 11, 2016) — Nearly two years ago, police in Ferguson, MO, shot and killed Michael Brown. To explain this act, social activists from the extreme left created a metaphor that morphed into a national storyline, namely, that police departments across the nation are randomly and wantonly shooting and killing racial minorities, particularly blacks, for no reason. It’s a conceit author Heather McDonald calls “The Ferguson Effect.”

This article by McDonald was  published in The New York Post on July 9. McDonald is the author of War on Cops (Encounter Books). The piece is adapted from Summer City Journal.

——– 000 ——–

BY HEATHER McDONALD

SPECIAL TO PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

Since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014, the conceit that American policing is lethally racist has dominated the national airwaves and political discourse, from the White House on down.

In fact, this sentiment appears to be what fueled the slaying of five officers in Dallas after white cops shot black men in Baton Rouge, La., and Minnesota last week.

In response to this feeling, cops in minority neighborhoods in Chicago and other cities around the country are backing off pedestrian stops and public-order policing — and criminals are flourishing in the resulting vacuum.

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel warned in October 2015 that officers were going “fetal,” as shootings in the city skyrocketed. Residents of Chicago’s high-crime areas are paying the price.

Felicia Moore, a wiry middle-aged woman with tattoos on her face and the ravaged frame of a former drug addict, says: “I’ve been in Chicago all my life. It’s never been this bad. Mothers and grandchildren are scared to come out on their porch.”

Through the end of May, shooting incidents in Chicago were up 53 percent over the same period in 2015, which already had seen a significant increase over 2014. Compared with the first five months of 2014, shooting incidents in 2016 were up 86 percent. Shootings in May citywide averaged nearly 13 a day, a worrisome portent for summer.

Anti-police animus is nothing new in Chicago, of course. An Illinois state representative, Monique Davis, told a Detroit radio station in 2013 that people in her South Side community believed that the reason so few homicide cases were solved is that it was the police who were killing young black males. Davis later refused to repudiate her statement: “We can’t say that it is not happening.”

The “no-snitch” ethic of refusing to cooperate with the cops is the biggest impediment to solving crime, according to Chicago commanders. But the Black Lives Matter narrative about endemically racist cops has made the street dynamic much worse. A detective says: “From patrol to investigation, it’s almost an undoable job now. If I get out of my car, the guys get hostile right away and several people are taping [with cellphones].”

Bystanders and suspects try to tamper with crime scenes and aggressively interfere with investigations. Additional officers may be needed during an arrest to keep angry onlookers away. “It’s very dangerous out there now,” a detective tells me.

In March 2016, then-Chief of Patrol (now Superintendent) Eddie Johnson decried what he called the “string of violent attacks against the police” after an off-duty officer was shot by a felon who had ordered him on the ground after robbing him. The previous week, three officers were shot during a drug investigation.

This volatile policing environment now exists in urban areas across the country. But Chicago officers face two additional challenges: a new oversight regime for pedestrian stops; and the fallout from an officer’s killing of Laquan McDonald in October 2014.

In March 2015, the ACLU of Illinois accused the Chicago Police Department of engaging in racially biased stops, locally called “investigatory stops,” because its stop rate did not match population ratios.

This by-now drearily familiar and ludicrously inadequate benchmarking methodology ignores the incidence of crime.

In 2014, blacks in Chicago made up 79 percent of all known nonfatal-shooting suspects, 85 percent of all known robbery suspects and 77 percent of all known murder suspects, according to police department data.

Whites were 1 percent of known nonfatal shootings suspects in 2014, 2.5 percent of known robbery suspects, and 5 percent of known murder suspects, the latter number composed disproportionately of domestic homicides. Whites are nearly absent, in other words, among violent street criminals — precisely whom proactive policing aims to deter. Whites are actually over-stopped compared with their involvement in street crime.

Despite the groundlessness of the ACLU’s racial-bias charges, then–police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and the city’s corporation counsel signed an agreement in August 2015 allowing the ACLU to review all future stops made by the department. The agreement also created an independent monitor for police stops. “Why McCarthy agreed to put the ACLU in charge is beyond us,” says a homicide detective.

On January 1, 2016, the police department rolled out a new form for documenting investigatory stops, developed to meet ACLU demands. The new form, traditionally called a contact card, was two pages long and contained a whopping 70 fields of information to be filled out, including three narrative sections. The new contact card took 30 minutes to complete. Every contact card is forwarded to the ACLU.

Stops dropped nearly 90 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Detectives had long relied on the information contained in contact cards to solve crimes.

When 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was killed in January 2013, days after performing with her high-school band in President Obama’s second inaugural, investigators identified the occupants of the getaway car through descriptions of the vehicle in previous contact cards. Now, however, crime sleuths have almost nothing to go on.

Criminals have become emboldened by the police disengagement. “Gangbangers now realize that no one will stop them,” says a former high-ranking police official. And people who wouldn’t have carried a gun before are now armed, a South Side officer says. The solution, according to officers, is straightforward: “If tomorrow, we still had to fill out the new forms, but they no longer went to the ACLU, stops would increase,” a detective claims.

But a more profound pall hangs over the department because of a shockingly unjustified police homicide and the missteps of top brass and the mayor in handling it.

On the night of Oct. 20, 2014, a report went out over the police radio that someone was breaking into cars in a trucking yard in the southwest neighborhood of Archer Heights; the vandal had threatened the 911 caller with a knife.

——– 000 ——–

Heather Mac Donald is the author of the just released “War on Cops” (Encounter Books). This piece has been adapted from Summer City Journal.

To Be Continued Tomorrow on THE PLANET.

—————————————————————————————————

“… side by side on the piano keyboard. O Lord, why can’t we?” — from Ebony and Ivory, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The views expressed in the comment section or opinions published within the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not those of PLANET VALENTI or endorsed in any way by PLANET VALENTI; this website reserves the right to remove any comment which violates its Rules of Conduct, and it is not liable for the consequences of any posted comment as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and PLANET VALENTI’s terms of service.

 

 

 

CONCLUDE

0 0 votes
Article Rating
39 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Loody Chris
Loody Chris
7 years ago

Is Marshall Law on the Horizon?

Ron Kitterman
Ron Kitterman
7 years ago

Shaping up to be a hot summer, Heather McDonald has a lot of clips out there that you might want to check out. http://www.wtmj.com/shows/charlie-sykes/author-heather-mcdonald-says-president-obamas-war-on-cops-plays-part-in-rise-of-inner-city-crime http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/07/08/war-on-cops-big-lie-anti-cop-left-turns-lethal.html The following is excerpted from ‘The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe’ (Encounter Books, June 21, 2016).

The School committee
The School committee
7 years ago

Its been happening since the sixties when cities were being burned down all across this country.Im sure DV remembers these horrible times and drugs and violence always follow poverty and joblessness. Most of that was not filmed for immediate brodcast.

Pat
Pat
7 years ago

Why don’t these politicians get to the root of the problem? Poverty, drug abuse, lack of education are all fueling the problems in these areas of unrest. By trying to make it all about race issues, they are ignoring other issues that are feeding the anger in these communities. I never hear anybody talk about trying to deal with these serious issues in these communities. Trying to solve some of these problems would reduce interactions between police and citizens because crime would decrease, but the politicians don’t even try.

Voltaire
Voltaire
Reply to  Pat
7 years ago

Pat,

I’ve disagreed with u in the past, claiming arguments u made were based on political attacks… But on this issue I couldn’t agree with u more.

Voltaire
Voltaire
Reply to  Voltaire
7 years ago

The National Review has an interesting article and how the statistics are being manipulated to make the claim that Police are racist…. (December 2015)… To the point.. I’m starting an organization that ” Men’s Lives Matter”… statistically speaking police confront males in a more violent matter than they do females !!!!!

Dowager Hat
Dowager Hat
Reply to  Pat
7 years ago

Locally, city councilor, Pete White has stated that the proposed Walmart store on the PEDA site is indeed addressing these issues, by creating “100 new jobs, 350 construction jobs, eliminating a food desert, attracting and promoting additional development, and adding $1.2 million to the PEDA treasury and $300,000-$500,000 to the city tax rolls”.
White is an employment specialist with a social service agency and has extensive and esoteric knowledge of the root causes and remediation of modern social ills. He believes Walmart and the new high school are the cure all ” economic engines” Pittsfield needs.
Go Pete ! Wonder though,why White and council president Marchetti both recently moved out of and as far away as possible from Morningside and Tyler street. Nimby maybe ?

Thomas More
Thomas More
Reply to  Dowager Hat
7 years ago

They probably moved out because they wanted a house with a yard that better suits their needs and desires. Marchetti lived on Crosby place, across from the Post Office. That’s not Morningside.

heh heh
heh heh
Reply to  Dowager Hat
7 years ago

why does PEDA get so much more money than the tax rolls? What is up with that business? Back door dealing?

Really?
Really?
Reply to  heh heh
7 years ago

Really?

I think PEDA owns the land. Should be a one time hit for them.

City will collect taxes every year.

Maybe PEDA will do the right thing and spend the money to clean up other sites.

12 Gauge
12 Gauge
Reply to  Dowager Hat
7 years ago

Who would live in Morning side if they didn’t have too?

spagirl
spagirl
Reply to  Pat
7 years ago

Americans are beat down and Fed up. More and more is being taken from them, and they can’t get ahead. They can’t get a fair shake. Power, Money, Greed, and Corrupt has swept over the top of hard working Americans……..leaving them to drown.

Pat
Pat
Reply to  spagirl
7 years ago

I agree. I want the next president to care about the average person in this country. This person is working harder than ever to pay higher taxes and higher fees on everything. Electric rates are out of control. Cable has now joined the list of things that the average person will not be able to afford. Americans are beat down and Fed Up, I totally agree. We are going backwards in this country not forward.

southeast
southeast
7 years ago

We seem to ask the Police to be everything. We empty our mental institutions and the Police are de facto social workers and therapists. In Massachusetts, you can refuse treatment and even Judges have little discretion to force treatment.

If you don’t cooperate with an investigator, and you are the apparent victim (or a witness), the Police are blamed because they are feared. When they try to develop closer ties to minority communities, the Al Sharpton’s of the world refuse to offer help but are there to criticize and attack any bad outcomes. If the Police stand down because the same community that needs their help won’t help themselves through cooperation, the Police are called racist.

The situation seems to have no logical conclusion here. We want the Police to protect us, but we don’t want them to stop us. The media and politicians have decided that every police stop in a minority community is rooted in racism – yet these communities have 7-8-9X the rates of crime as non-minority communities., The Police are accused of being racist if they do their jobs and if they do not.

When the Police become victims of violence, some say they bring it on themselves. Yet there are few of us who interject ourselves into hostile and violent situations voluntarily as part of our jobs.

Who would even want that job?

Spider
Spider
7 years ago

Well said, Southeast!

C. Trzcinka
C. Trzcinka
7 years ago

I tried to post a like to Heather’s op-ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal after the Eagle’s story on Black Lives Matter and it was deleted. Here is the post:

“There are no facts that support the myth of Black Lives Matter. None. See http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-myths-of-black-lives-matter-1455235686

Thanks to the Planet for providing an open forum. The Boring Broadsheet is well named. It does nothing more than peddle the same tired, racist narratives.

C. Trzcinka
C. Trzcinka
Reply to  C. Trzcinka
7 years ago

Whoops I made a fat-fingered typo above, I tried to post a “link” not “like”.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
7 years ago

Heather McDonald, the comedienne, I am not so sure would be flattered by the citation.

However Heather MacDonald, the shilling mouthpiece for the Manhattan Institute, probably loves every mention of her name. MacDonald’s principal occupation is hustling her books to racist Neanderthals. Don’t think these articles are for the goodness of a cause or to benefit anyone but herself – she writes commissioned political hit pieces.

At least cite the correct hack!

Mike Ward
Mike Ward
Reply to  Shakes His Head
7 years ago

How ’bout we stop using Neanderthal as a pejorative term?

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
Reply to  Mike Ward
7 years ago

Primitive, unenlightened, or reactionary; culturally or intellectually backward.

Superb context.

Gene
Gene
Reply to  Mike Ward
7 years ago

Thank you Mike. It was uncalled for and inflammatory. The poster of this ridiculous comment makes it clear that the sterotype might have some basis namely that the progressive viewpoint loves free speech only when it agrees with their position. And I write this as a centrist who leans a bit left.

Ms. McCarthy raises valid questions and it has really made me think. Thanks to DV for sharing this.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
Reply to  Gene
7 years ago

I stand by my statement, you are welcome to disagree. Calling someone reactionary and intellectually backward is by far the least of the insults thrown around these here parts of this blog.

We should follow laws because they are the right thing to do, not out of fear of open murder by LEO’s.

Gene
Gene
Reply to  Shakes His Head
7 years ago

Agreed we can honorably disagree. But you used a pejorative term, not “reactionary and intellectually backward,” which would have made you point better.

What is LEO?

Steven andrews
Steven andrews
Reply to  Shakes His Head
7 years ago

Shh shows his arrogance and ignorance again

C. Trzcinka
C. Trzcinka
7 years ago

Regardless of who Heather McDonald shills to, or for that matter, who pays her, what exactly is wrong with her facts? She shows using many sources that Black Lives Matter’s claim of police brutality is a fraud. Guliani said the same thing yesterday on CBS and he’s prosecuted and convicted over 70 cops.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
7 years ago

She cherry picks “facts” to imply that correlation equals causation. This is not proving “fraud” but rather sensationalizing non-significant statistics.

Voltaire
Voltaire
7 years ago

I read an article on Huffington Post in support of Black Lives Matter.. It was entertaining to see how causation variables with statistics were added and removed to prove a point response to Guiliani’s comments over the weekend

The School committee
The School committee
7 years ago

I did not know that White and Marchetti fled the hood….Pittsfield is a pretty nice town once you get out of the hood….a 1 square mile area of tyler which has little or no meaning to a pittsfield gated housing with 5,000 square feet of luxury .Just raise taxes means councilors think they made it.
The more I think about it I too am all for the retired seniors paying through the nose for our well being. ….go white Marchetti and Tyer…also want to thsnk Amuso Connell and Mazzeo…you guys rock….stick it to Seniors month

Halo
Halo
7 years ago

Prison Unions in Upstate N Y are picketing, one of the reasons is kids are spitting at Prison Guards and nothing is being done about. it.

worried
worried
7 years ago

There should be a test for all individuals who run for public office in Pittsfield. The test should be able to identify that those who are running– have some minimum of nervous tissue in their skull. SEVERAL ON THE COUNCIL WOULD FAIL THIS TEST.

h
h
7 years ago

Kevin, Please see to it that the Mayor take a look at the Blight DOWN at the old Hess Gas Station, it could be a future economic engine. Hess is now known as Planet Gardens at Hess.

Dilly Dally
Dilly Dally
7 years ago

Keep your tarp on h, negotiations are on for the location for the Tarzan Sequel.

h
h
7 years ago

Good one Dan…Bring Goggles.

The School committee
The School committee
7 years ago

A person was shot sunday eve on the 2nd street bridge…nothing reported in The Berkshire Eagle which is why nobody buys it.
Also Walmart will add 80 jobs and after 6 months that will go to 20 jobs.

mi
mi
7 years ago

Kevin, I’m sure you are a good man who happens to be a Councilor in Ward Two,p You are also a Barber, and am very sure you are a good Barber as well. The Mayor, who campaigned on Blight, has been if Office for about seven months, and am sure she knows about Planet Valenti Gardens at Hess Forest. Now, with collaboration as the main theme in this Administration,and the Mayor’s concern about Blight and your own skills with Trimming, you two should be able to come up with some mechanism to clean up that Mess on Tyler Street, no?

The School committee
The School committee
7 years ago

Lets put the police over in the hood at morningside….real estate must be plummeting in the hood.Tatoos and boozing

NBI
NBI
7 years ago

The garbage burning plant on Hubbard ave is closing in March. Looks like 25 more jobs lost and we’ll get jammed to truck trash out of state. Maybe we could “dump” Walmart and just build a new trash mountain on the PEDA property? Probably save the citizens more than the tax revenue from Super Wally World. Maybe the police station can go on another parcel. Save gas and solves the area being a “Police Desert” all in one swoop!