The War on Drugs criminalizes activity that some think should be legal among adults, thus giving police a portfolio of powers to accost blacks and others that legislators never should have granted. And, of course, there are some white cops who pick on black citizens because they dislike their skin color. But the one thing almost holistically absent from this national discussion is the notion that black criminals bear any responsibility for driving their law-abiding brethren into police dragnets. Indeed, black offenders are one of the root causes of racial profiling. Mfume, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., would excoriate the police in this situation while uttering nary a syllable about the young, black hoodlum behind the initial armed robbery and the suspicion it consequently casts on decent young men who resemble him.
Facts are stubborn things.
The ongoing debate about racial profiling and law enforcement in America s black communities would benefit from less chest-beating and more facts about the direct and indirect victims of black criminals stubborn and unpleasant though these facts may be. Va. Click here for reprint information. Email this article to a friend. Return to top of page. Jump to home page.