Here We Go Again

The NYPD is sued for searching blacks and Latinos almost as disproportionately as they shoot each other.

There are some simple but extremely useful lessons we ought to learn about crime in the United States and how to fight it. But we don’t learn them permanently because they touch upon uncomfortable truths about race, which polite society looks down upon articulating.

Unfortunately, what is unspeakable tends to become unthinkable, so we’ve gone through two cycles in my lifetime of rising and falling crime rates. The first involved the vast liberal revolution of the 1960s, which led to the near-destruction of America’s great cities.

Crime peaked during the crack wars of the early 1990s.

Then it fell, until rise of Black Lives Matter at Ferguson in August 2014. Have we learned our lesson?

Probably not because that would require us to spell out what lesson we’ve learned, which is forbidden. So eventually we will acquiesce in the demolition of our cities once again.

Hence, from the New York Times news section:

N.Y.P.D. Searches Target Black and Latino Drivers, Lawsuit Says

The New York Civil Liberties Union accused the Police Department of discrimination in a federal lawsuit that calls for an end to the practice

By Maria Cramer

Jan. 28, 2026

New York City police officers have pulled over tens of thousands of Black and Latino drivers and searched their vehicles without probable cause, stopping people in those groups at a far higher rate than white drivers around the city, according to a new lawsuit.

The suit, filed on late Wednesday afternoon by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Bronx Defenders, says that of the more than 74,400 vehicles the police searched from Jan. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2025, more than 84 percent of the drivers were Black or Latino while fewer than 4 percent of the drivers searched were white. Fewer white drivers were searched even though they comprise a larger share of people traveling by car, the lawsuit stated.

“There is no explanation for these disparities other than intentional discrimination against Black and Latino drivers by the N.Y.P.D.,” the lawsuit says.

How about disparities in murder rates? Here’s the NYPD’s official report for 2024 issued by Mayor Mamdani’s police supremo Jessica Tisch:

Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter

Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter victims are most frequently Black (52.5%) or Hispanic (34.7%).

White victims account for (7.0%) of all Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter victims while Asian/Pacific Islander (5.8%) victims account for the remaining portions of Murder and NonNegligent Manslaughter victims.

The race/ethnicity of known Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter suspects mirrors the victim population with Black (53.3%) and Hispanic (35.8%) suspects accounting for the majority of suspects. White suspects account for (7.0%) of all Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter suspects while Asian/Pacific Islander account for (3.9%) Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter suspects.

The Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter arrest population is similarly distributed. Black arrestees (55.8%) and Hispanic arrestees (36.0%) account for the majority of Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter arrestees while Asian/Pacific Islander arrestees (2.2%) and White (5.5%) arrestees account for the remaining portions of the Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter arrest population.

So, 84% of those pulled over and searched in NYC were black or Latino, while 89% of those arrested for murder were black or Latino?

Back to the NYT:

The complaint echoes accusations the organization made in 2008, when it sued the Police Department for its “stop-and-frisk” measures. In 2013, a federal judge agreed that stop-and-frisk policies had violated the constitutional rights of Black and Latino men.

The New York Civil Liberties Union says the department is still violating those rights, but it’s now using traffic stops to search Black and Latino drivers disproportionately in an effort to find illegal firearms or drugs.

“These fishing expeditions almost never turn up weapons or contraband,” the lawsuit says.

But of course that would also be true if …

Paywall here.