NYPD Can't Hire African Americans Because "So Many Of Them Have Spent Time In Jail," Commissioner Says

“The people in this building are just as upset over that piss as you are.”

That’s what 22-year NYPD veteran Eric Adams told a rookie cop when the two entered an elevator in a New York public housing project. The puddle of urine in the corner prompted the new recruit to offer the following appraisal: “these people are all animals; they don’t deserve anything.”

Adams — who was a captain by the time he retired five years ago to pursue a career in politics — is African American and says police too often stereotype entire communities based on the offenses committed by a “numerical minority.” One might be inclined to view minorities' disproportionate share of lethal police shootings involving unarmed suspects as evidence of this dynamic.

Some suggest that hiring more African American police officers would help to ameliorate the situation. 

The problem, according to NYPD commissioner William Bratton, is simple: too many African Americans have spent time in prison. The Guardian has more:

What an officer does, in essence, can make or break community trust – and even keep black applicants away from the NYPD. Even as the NYPD is more diverse over all than it’s ever been, in late June the police academy will graduate one of its smallest percentage of black males since the 1960s..

While increasing numbers of Hispanics and Asians, especially men, are joining the NYPD, the future looks bleaker for black applicants. One number in particular is jarring: black males make up only 6.86% of the 2015 police academy recruit class that will graduate this month, with black females just under 4%, for a total of 10.86%, while black residents total about 22% of the city’s population.

For comparison, black recruits totaled 7.3 % in 1970 at the end of the Civil Rights Movement, almost all of whom were men.

Commissioner William Bratton is blunt about probable causes. “We have a significant population gap among African American males because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them,” he said in a 20 May interview. Because many black men have been convicted of a felony, they are automatically disqualified.

The irony, of course, is that one reason so many African Americans have spent time in jail and thus cannot become police officers is poor policing. 

A complicating factor is what Bratton calls the “unfortunate consequences” of an explosion in “stop, question and frisk” stops in the last decade that caught many young men of color in a summons net.

Those summonses are not automatic disqualifications. However, after passing the exam, a candidate moves to the more subjective background investigation, which includes criminal records. A pot arrest without indications of gang activity might not disqualify a candidate, but a series of summonses could. As a result, Bratton is concerned that the “population pool is much smaller than it might ordinarily have been”.

Bratton is often blamed for New York’s stop-and-frisk era – 4.4m stops; 92% non-white from 2002 until 2012. The controversial policy was struck down in 2013 by a federal judge, who called the practice blatant racial profiling.

Trevena Garel, a retired African American NYPD veteran of 21 years whose father was an NYPD detective, is not optimistic about the future for relations between police and African American communities. In fact, she tells her own son that if he is ever pulled over he should immediately place his hands on the steering wheel, refuse to say anything, and ask for an attorney. Here's her rationale:

“I may piss off my law-enforcement colleagues, but I want to keep my son alive. That’s something that, unfortunately, I have to do, and my white counterparts don’t have to do. That’s what America’s ugly history has taught.”

Needless to say, that rather grim assessment does not bode well for the future of race relations in America.

Comments

[Benjamin123]

It took me 10 years to learn how to be an open racist. I fondly remember when i believed in open borders and wished to make the world a better place. Surprisingly bad experiences with niggers played only a minor role in my conversion.

[cluelessminion]

You know, something has happened to this board.  I can't put my finger on it but something is different about this place.  I've been coming here for years and the tone and tenor of this board has changed.

To many posts like these.  It's like click bait.  Post an article about police brutality against blacks, or some other racial/class type of outrage and the comments take off.  Usually in the hundreds.  ZH knows what the posters like and complaining about the poor, black, jewish, etc are becoming the favorite buttons to push.  There are others but this one is obviously tailormade to attract interest/comments.

I don't know what to make of this but while you guys are howling to the moon about black people (who frankly have very little power in the country no matter how the media focuses on them), or jewish bankers, or whatever ZH has put before you to incite your outrage, something else is going on.  I know in my paranoid/schizo heart that the name of the game is to confuse people about whats really happening.  THe ZH posters have always struck me as an educated informed group of people with alot of experience in various fields and it bugs the heck out of me to see what's happening here.  But I have to be honest with myself.  I'm even entertaining thoughts that this place might just be another bread/circus type deal for the somewhat smarter person and posts like this are just distractions, theyhave no real bearing on anything.  Just something else for you to discuss.

[TalkToLind]

I think the formerly underground ZH is turning MSM.

[Government need...]

Agreed, I believe there is a great conspiracy to fundamentally transform our nation and the civilized world into something unnatural, totalitarian and intolerant of dissent.  I believe this consirpacy has achieved many victories in the past 6 years, supported by electred and appointed .gov personnel with both 'R' and 'D' in front of their titles.  I refuse to engage in the anti-Semitism frequently on display here @ ZH.  I do view blacks as a group having low IQ and low impulse control, accompanied by high athletic ability.  The conspiracy is using blacks, browns, and perhaps Jews (altho the ones pulling the strings are ultra-wealthy, and this group has a high overlap with being Jewish) to further its agenda.  'Diversity is good', 'gun control' 'speech control' and 'preferential treatment to groups designated 'special' are key tenets of those who seek to bring about the new world order.  Further, I believe these are tenets are NOT deeply held, but primarily/cynically used to justify the destruction of American exceptionalism and its Post-World War 2, post Cold War status quo.  Real religion (not Islam) must also be sacrificed to bring about the Brave New World.  I seek to expose the egegious lies involved in the 'diversity is our greatest strength' canard, and to put the agents of the conspiracy on notice that I will not go quietly.  To the extent I am an effective leader, I will do my best to encourage others to join me in resistance.  I believe this resistance will necessarily be long, costly, and desperate.  I will stand for freedom.  All the way. 

[Aubiekong]

You know those stop and frisk laws where they planted all the dope and guns on poor inocent black kids heading to church so they could throw them in jail.  Its almost like if these blacks haddnt been caught breaking the law and isntead got away with their criminal activity then no foul committed they would make fine police officers...