Are the New York police racist?

Well, I can't cast any light on the New York police record yet, but this paper is helpful.

It's entitled The Effects of Suspect Race and Situation Hazard on Police Officer Shooting Behavior and is authored by Andres Inn, Alan C. Wheeler, and Cynthia L. Sparling.

Here's the abstract (if you've got a spare $39 you can read the whole thing):

Shooting incidents involving patrol officers are examined for the effect of suspect race and degree of hazard in the number of shots fired and hits made on suspects. Additional tests examine frequencies of shooting incidents among Blacks and Whites with respect to city population and various measures of police-citizen contact. Finally, fatalities are examined with respect to involvement in shooting and arrest rates. The results suggest an effect for degree of hazard; however, there was no evidence to suggest police bias against Blacks.

The problem with this work? It's now nearly 30 years old. Has the situation changed since then? Are police killings racist now, when they weren't then.

One indicator that things have deteriorated might be the strength of feeling in the African American community. But it is worth noting that at the time (1977), in a separate study, the authors recorded that the view of the police held by African Americans sharply diverged from that held by white Americans. They believed, then, that police actions were racist.
 

Comments

[Derrick Hill]

No, no;unless you're determined to believe the NYPD are racist because, hey, that's the thing any right-thinking person believes, right? read Heather Mac Donald's "Are Cops Racist? How the War Against the Police Harms Black Americans" Pub. Ivan R Dee 2003. (Amazon.com, Natch).
The rest as Plato would say, is pants.

[Roland from New York City]

No I do not believe the youngmen who join the police department at the age 21 are racist.

What I do believe, however, that once on the job the older officers inculcate in the younger ones this 'tough talking' exterior, the 'des and does guys'. It is a manner of hard speak.

Probably hiding their innate fear of the unknow. Of course whites,black, do not Know each other, by and large.

I have had many black officers tell me they themselves can feel the hatred of some of the older memembers.

Esentially the 'on the job' was Irish Americans way up out of the slums of the l930's. They came to view the job as 'theirs', their turf.

They had very little contact with urban blacks, many living in outlying counties of New York State. So when coming to work in the concrete city from their small homes in L.I. they began to view themselves as the saviours of the city.

Blacks where the crimminals. Of course they were the street thugs. The white gangs were usually the preview of the Federal Government, the RICO cases that made Guilliani's record.