Reverend Dr. Wendell Anthony has been the president of the NAACP Detroit branch for over a decade and is a well respected community leader and authoritative figure in Detroit. He recently sat down with rolling out to give his expert advice and thoughts on the welfare of the Black community and its relationship with the police. Over the next few weeks, we’ll do a special series on “Talks with the Rev.,” that will cover topics such as the role of the NAACP in matters of social justice, police brutality and the Black community, and how the next generation should get involved in social justice advocacy. Read below for the first in the series, “Police Targeting 101.”
In your opinion, please tell us why are people typically targeted by the police, especially people of color?
Obviously there are a number of reasons why people are targeted. However, let me be more focused in the area of African American’s and people of color living in urban areas. We have seen cases where standing on the street corner, selling cigarettes, driving with a broken tail light, moving across a lane on a highway, or running away in a crowd, has sometimes led to being a target of police action. Police departments are often charged with focusing in on what is considered to be high crime areas, where drug trafficking, and in many cases poor people, happen to live. For many of us, it seems to be an over emphasis on control and containment, rather than cooperation and enlightenment.
Perceptions often play into how some police officers view certain communities and certain individuals. Misperceptions can often lead to unnecessary targeting of many of our communities. For example, the infamous New York City Stop and Frisk Law was overruled a few years ago, when the courts found the police had violated the 4th Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure, by stopping and in some cases frisking people not suspected of any crime. Judge Shira A. Scheindlin even indicated the practice “intentionally discriminated against minorities.” Judge Scheindlin indicated that a weapon was found in only1.5% of the 2.3 million frisks during the 8 years that she considered.
It is important to remember here that in New York in 2002, 97,296 persons were stopped by the police. 80,176 (82%) were totally innocent. In 2012, 532,911 were stopped by the police. Over 473,000 (89%) were totally innocent. 284,229 (55%) were Black. 165,140 (32%) were Latino. 50,366 (10%) were White. In 2015, 22,939 were stopped in New York. 18,353 (80%) were totally innocent. 12,223 (54%) were Black. 6,598 Latino 29%. 2,567 were White 11%.
The evidence is overwhelming that the majority of the people victimized by this process in New York were Black and Brown people, in the urban areas. Again, it is clear that issues of trivia can also lead to crisis and certain stops can ultimately lead to even more fatal crises.
