Stop And Frisk: Part II
The problems are deathly real and the solutions must be targeted and effective
[NOTE: Please also read our earlier post, linked below, where we push the Left to address the crime issue, providing data to support our view. If black lives truly matter to Black Lives Matter, why are they not demanding better tactics to combat crime and murder?]
The BEC had the honor to speak on “Ringside Politics” Monday and I proposed to the listeners of Jeff Crouere’s radio show that we conservatives should support a robust policing tactic commonly called “Stop and Frisk.”
Before going further, allow me to describe the tactic as it is designed, because, as suggested by callers to the show, there are a great many misunderstandings about Stop and Frisk.
In a data-driven way, police target areas that are prone to high street crime. In New Orleans this would include the infamous Claiborne Avenue and First Street, for example:
Trained teams of plainclothes officers would sweep the area and stop, detain, and frisk people acting suspiciously or believed to be illegally carrying a firearm.
One caller suggested that he and his Vietnamese wife would be stopped merely for traveling to New Orleans East to enjoy some Vietnamese food. Another proposed “Neighborhood Militias” to deal with the problem.
Frustratingly, even conservatives seem to have consumed the Leftist talking point: “Stop and Frisk is only misapplied abused policing; it’s racist; it’s nothing but more racial profiling.”
It is not.
Friends, we have some stark choices to make and our options are created on the street, in reality, not in some ideological conversations or a talk over a beer.
For each side in this debate, we have hard choices to make, because the realities are encroaching on our lives… and fast, too.
The realities of crime cannot be denied, and they track closely with issues of race.
There is a 1 in 14 chance a young black man will be killed in New Orleans before he reaches the age of 35. Black people disproportionately suffer from crime:
So for the critics of Stop and Frisk who consider it a “racist” tactic, I present these choices:
Enduring a perception of racism and the chance of the very real inconvenience of being detained while innocent, should you be in a criminal hot spot.
A continuing unbroken stream of your sons and brothers and cousins and fathers shot dead on the streets.
For my conservative friends, these seem to be our choices:
Allowing the Left to control the narrative, as we have done, about Stop and Frisk, and also watching as they pass - as they eventually will - gun laws that restrict ownership and use of guns in lawful ways by law-abiding citizens.
Targeted policing tactics with a proven track record, removing guns from the hands of criminals on the streets.
There are complications about which I must plead ignorance: The Consent Decree under which New Orleans Police must operate might be a barrier to this; I honestly don’t know.
I also am unsure how “Constitutional Carry” will hinder the effort, and the Louisiana House just advanced Constitutional Carry and it’s moving over to the Senate side.
These are very real issues, of course.
I emphasized on Jeff’s show that I relish none of this… nobody is satisfied by the state of things. The car thefts and car jackings, the property crimes, the crimes committed with firearms, the targeting of mothers while their children watch their mother shot to death, the horrific dangers to innocent people.
And the strong Libertarian tendencies within me pull at me, too.
None of these options feel good… to anyone, let alone this writer.
But something has to give, and my vote is to empower police with the tools they need to target effective measures to pull evil people off the street who intend to do harm with the guns they carry on their person.
I welcome and encourage a continuing discussion about this in the comments section.
Thank you…
the bec
UPDATE: Till now, the bulk of objections I’m hearing presume police misbehavior, a presumption I’d expect from Leftists but not from my fellow Conservatives. I admit my surprise to this response.
Perhaps you differ with my framing of the choices we have before us? That would be quite valid and I welcome the discussion.
Please do also read my first post on this issue, directly below…
Thank you again.
I laid out many more facts and much more data in this first installment…
If Democrats - Especially Urban Black Democrats - Were Truly Serious About Solving "Gun Violence"...
Something deeply pathological is at work in our society. It manifests seemingly everywhere and it is inescapable. Whether a grocery store gets shot up in Buffalo, New York, or a night club in Orlando. Or an open-air concert in Las Vegas or a Christmas night get-together in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Along a Mardi Gras parade route or while traveling in your car along Interstate 10 in New Orleans East. Even while sitting at your desk at school learning the multiplication tables.
When I held a Louisiana CCW it was required of the permit holder to tell police he or she was armed and had the permit. Even constitutional carry should have the same requirement for the law abiding to be forthcoming.
I really enjoy the BEC. However stop and frisk is patently unconstitutional. Since it looks like Constitutional Carry is going to be law in LA. stop and frisk seems to me that law abiding citizens could be harassed. It only takes a few bad actors in Nola law enforcement to turn this sideways.