Tuesday, June 16, 2015

NYPD: Too Many Black Men Have Records..


I am a Black man from Brooklyn, and I know a lot of  Black men from Briooklyn who have criminal records. Those of us who still live in, and are from New York know that there are a significant amount of Black men who have been incarcerated. So when New York City Police Comissioner Williiam Bratton says "The NYPD has a hard time hiring black men to become police officers because too many have criminal records", we are we so surprized? Or are we? There is a time to object, there is a time to protest, and there's a time to fight. But most importantly there is a time to think, especially when someone outside of the Black community makes a comment about the Black community. Anger and outrage as a result of some absurd rhetoric is 100% warranted. But if an observation or comment has the "ring of truth", rather than focusing on the source and making them the object of our fury, we need to look at the validity or the statement and the facts. The thing is, it's always easier to get mad than to think analytically. 
 Bill Bratton said it’s a challenge to find hirable blacks because so many African-American men have been arrested.

“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,” 

Bratton put at least part of the blame on the NYPD’s use of the controversial tactic stop and frisk. He acknowledged the “unfortunate consequences (of) stop, question and frisk,” a policy that hit communities of color hardest.

So given the fact that Bratton acknowledges the fact that stop and frisk is a major part of the blame the influx of Black men with arrest records. Our primary focus should be how to fix the problem as opposed to taking issue with someone who admitts that there is one.

PR



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