What I've stated is a based on basic principles of statistics.
Arrests occur where there are more police and more crimes. If the people who live in those places tend to be a certain race, then they will tend to be arrested more.
Fuck it, forget statistics, this is basic common sense.
"The police go where crime is" is the basic premise of this argument, I believe. I find 2 major flaws in this line of reasoning:
1. If the law enforcement are physically concentrated in one geographic location, then they are naturally going to witness to more crimes occurring. This is not a case of police being called to an area... this is police posting up and actively
patrolling for crime. If I was paid to actively search any neighborhood for crime, I'd like to believe I'd find it. Especially, if all my homies were getting paid to be there, too... Regardless of the Socio-Economic Status of the particular neighborhood.
2. The "Crimes" we're talking about are "Blue Collar Crimes" which is not crime in it's entirety. Go to the worst neighborhood in your city and tell me how much embezzling, fraud, and insider trading are going on there. These are not only crimes but often times crimes with a much greater scope because the amount of money and lives involved is much higher. The embezzlement of money from the Federal Social Security, alone, affects everyone in the nation. For some reason, I don't think the people stealing that money live in "High Crime Neighborhoods".
According to the last updated census I read(around a year and a half ago) This country is still more than 81% white and yet the criminal justice system is overwhelmed by the amount of minorities which it processes and imprisons. In the country that has more prisoners than any other, the races of those prisoners are almost directly inverted to the proportion of the country's actual demographics. Very questionable to say the least.
I live in Indiana now but I have lived in New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Northern California, Southern California, and Kentucky as well and I feel that this is more than a "New York Thing". I'm also half-White and half-Black Latino and have no innate reason to point fingers when it's not warranted.
And swmo's comment about "Negro Dialect" is crazy as hell. Firstly, (linguistically speaking) there's quite possibly a greater range of variation in the speech patterns and colloquialisms of american blacks than any other racial group in the country despite them being less than 13% of the population.
As well as the concept that something as trivial as method of communication should justify improper treatment at the hands of law enforcement is nothing less than silliness in and of itself. The concept that "Negro Dialect" is wrong when communicating with people we pay to protect us is simply prejudice.
I alone can go from the most eloquent and "well spoken" young man with a vocabulary to challenge post-graduate students... to the hoodest nigga off in the east side of nap... in moments.
My closet has mad street fits as well as tailored suits. Should I make sure that I'm not wearing "Negro Fashion" the next time the police stop me to tell me that I "Fit a description" like they have done and continue to do?
I imagine "Negro Appearance" also qualifies as justifiable probable cause.
@ coldbleed - How many Blacks are on the Board of Directors at Pfizer, Roche, Lily or any of the other multinational pharmaceutical companies that sell more drugs worldwide than all the niggas in that same world combined?