National Latino officers’ group criticizes study of New York police’s stop-and-frisk policy
NEW YORK — A national Latino law enforcement group last Thursday blasted a report claiming New York City’s police does not discriminate in its stop-and-search policy, saying the study’s findings are little more than “endless excuses.”
The 59-page report by the RAND Corp. found that the New York Police Department demonstrated no clear racial bias in the stop-and-frisk policy that resulted in more than 500,000 stops of pedestrians last year, most of whom were black or Hispanic.
The report “presupposes that all stops are recorded and justified,” said the National Latino Officers Association of America, and confirmed what the group already knew: “You get exactly what you pay for.”
“This study is comprised of endless excuses [and] statistical justifications,” the association said, and African Americans and Hispanics are categorized “as statistically insignificant.”
“The report draws conclusions that have no basis in reality. If left unchallenged, it is the justification for racial profiling, abuse and discrimination,” the group said.
The department has long denied allegations of bias, and officials have said the report was an independent review.
“Not surprisingly, this statement is riddled with inaccuracies and exposes Miranda’s deep ignorance of the statistical process employed by RAND, a nationally respected nonprofit, which subjected its research to rigorous peer review,” police spokesman Paul Browne said in a statement referring to Anthony Miranda, the association’s executive chairman.
The majority of the people stopped last year, 53 percent, were black; 29 percent were Hispanic and 11 percent were white. Researchers for the report said they found only “small racial differences in the rates of frisk, search, use of force and arrest.”
The study, released last Tuesday, acknowledged that black pedestrians were stopped at a rate 50 percent greater than their representation in the Census. But the report claimed that using the Census as a benchmark was unreliable because it did not factor in higher arrest rates and more crime suspect descriptions involving blacks and Hispanics.
The report recommended that, because 90 percent of the people stopped were never arrested or ticketed, officers needed to better explain reasons for the stops.
“This report did nothing but disregard community complaints and suspicions,” the Latino officers’ group said.
E-mail scam uses N.C. NAACP head’s name to solicit cash
DURHAM, N.C. — Authorities are investigating an e-mail scam that uses the name of the executive director of the North Carolina NAACP.
Amina Turner says the letters bearing her name are unnerving. The e-mails have gone out to people in Turner’s address book and say that Turner is stuck in Africa without money.
The notes ask the recipient to wire $2,900.
The hoax is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) computer crimes unit, federal investigators and the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The SBI says the scam is the first of its kind that the agency has investigated.
Turner says she is not aware of anyone who fell for the scam.
U.S. attorney’s office: Snipes’ claims he can’t get a fair trial in Ocala, Fla., are baseless
ORLANDO, Fla. — Federal prosecutors said there is “no basis in reality” for Wesley Snipes’ claims that he cannot get a fair trial on tax evasion charges because of racial prejudice in Ocala.
In recent court filings, Snipes’ attorney called Ocala, where the January trial is set, “a hotbed of [Ku Klux Klan] activity,” and alleged prosecutors chose it to get the best chance at an all-white jury.
“Defendant Snipes’ motion hurls scurrilous and baseless accusations at the prosecution and citizenry of Ocala in an overwrought attempt to have this case dismissed or transferred to another venue,” U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill wrote in a filing.
An October 2006 federal indictment charges Snipes with fraudulently claiming refunds totaling almost $12 million in 1996 and 1997 for income taxes already paid. The 45-year-old star of the “Blade” trilogy and other films also was charged with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004.
Snipes’ motion sought to have the case dismissed or the trial moved to New York.
The alleged misconduct happened in Florida’s Lake County. The case could be handled in either Orlando or the Marion County seat of Ocala, located about 80 miles north of Orlando, but prosecutors said Ocala is appropriate because more of Snipes’ alleged crimes happened in that district.
Death prompts Maryland NAACP to call for Taser ban in Frederick County
FREDERICK, Md. — Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins says his department will continue to use Tasers, despite the protests of the local NAACP chapter.
A 20-year-old Frederick man died Nov. 18 soon after a corporal from the sheriff’s office shocked him with a Taser twice during a fight. Jarrel Gray’s death came just weeks after a Taser was used to stun a Tuscarora High School student.
Black leaders at a rally last Tuesday called for the department to ban Tasers, at least until there is a clear policy on how they are used. The NAACP says it appears the sheriff’s office is using Tasers routinely, rather than as a weapon of last resort.
The NAACP is asking for the U.S. Department of Justice and the state attorney general’s civil rights director to begin an independent investigation into Gray’s death.
