No one would justify the police discourtesy that Coriel Gaffney says she witnessed or heard about in Bedford-Stuyvesant. There's another side to the story, however, to one incident she said was the "worst."
She also cites statistics that in one instance are wrong, and in others distorted. It's important for New Yorkers to know just how well their police force does in fact reflect the racial and ethnic makeup of our city.
The increased diversity of the department in recent years is reflected in the fact that more than 52 percent in the rank of police officers are non-white. When civilians are included, such as traffic enforcement agents, school safety agents and 911 operators, the overall population of the NYPD is 59 percent non-white.
Contrary to the oft-repeated myth of a suburbanite-dominated force, most NYPD officers live in the five boroughs. The NYPD is the by far the most diverse police department in the nation.
Also, since his second tour leading the department began in 2002, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has increased through discretionary promotions the number of blacks and Hispanics in ranks above captain by 40 percent, with similar improvements in lower ranks. In fact, blacks and other non-whites comprise the majority of the recently graduated police officers Ms. Gaffney decries.
As to her proposal that the police "better match" the neighborhoods they protect, the NYPD in fact reflects the city's diversity. In Bedford Stuyvesant, the patrol force is 62 percent non-white. We're not about to resort, however, to the long discredited practice among police departments, especially in the South, of assigning black officers only to black neighborhoods.
She restates the tired and distorted statistic that 90 percent of suspects shot by police were black or Hispanic without reporting that so were more than 90 percent of the suspects who shot police and others. Similarly, she conveniently omitted the fact that blacks and Hispanics also comprise 90 percent of the victims of violent crime, and that their descriptions of suspects comport with police stops.
If police shootings and stops were to mirror the general characteristics of the city's population, as she suggests they should, more than 50 percent of suspects shot or stopped by police would be women. Of course, they are not.
The shoddy distortion of statistics by those she cites constitutes the worst kind of race-baiting, and only aggravates the tensions that have historically plagued the police and minority communities that both have worked earnestly to diminish.
As an acknowledged newcomer to the neighborhood, Ms. Gaffney may be forgiven her apparent ignorance of the depth of the crime fighting that has made Bedford Stuyvesant vastly safer for its long-time residents, as well as those, like her, in the vanguard of gentrification.
Crime overall is down in Bedford Stuyvesant by 15 percent from last year, down 28 percent from 2001, and down 70 percent from 1994.
Her passing lip service to the crime decline indicates she may not be aware that so far this year in Bedford Stuyvesant, police officers have made three arrests for murder, seven for rape, 22 for car theft, 35 for grand larceny, 41 for burglary, 114 for robbery, and 168 for assault.
