When It's OK To Be A Racist 1

Our chattering classes have been at great pains to promote the idea that there's no possible crime worse than racism.  For years and years, accusations of racism made otherwise-capable executives and politicians cower in repentance.  That's broken down somewhat as people realize that race-baiting is just another political scam.  Despite dawning understanding, however, horror at racism real or imagined marches on, even in the area of law enforcement.

TSA is Racist!

We've written much about the folly and futility of the TSA - X-ray devices that can't find the type of explosive the Panty Bomber used, patting down 80-year-olds, and much, much more.  Imagine our surprise to find out that the TSA actually tried to do something effective against terrorists.  USA Today told us about a new "chat down" program which is supposed to reduce the need for more intrusive "pat downs":

The chat-down program at Boston and Detroit airports is at the fore of TSA's effort to focus security on the riskiest passengers, rather than treating all travelers the same.

Under the year-old program, officers pose casual questions to all passengers before they screen their carry-on bags to look for deception or hostility that could lead to more interrogation.

What a concept!  Having a law enforcement agency screen people and focus their attention on those judged more likely to be about to commit a crime.  Sounds sensible to us.

We were also told about a serious "problem" with the program:

The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that the department's inspector general will examine the complaints that Middle Easterners, Hispanics and blacks have been targeted in the program.

Hmm.  Who's most likely to be planning terrorism?  No less an authority than Abdelrahman al-Rashid, managing director of al-Arabiya satellite TV, put it very plainly:

It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.

This statement has been attacked as scandalously politically incorrect.  It can be ignored; it can be excused, but it can't be denied.  Not only is Dr. al-Rashid's statement true, it's so true as to be not merely a stereotype, but a truism.

We were encouraged to find that the TSA is finally focusing its efforts in a productive direction, but alas - 'tis not to be:

"If any of these claims prove accurate, we will take immediate and decisive action to ensure there are consequences to such activity," the TSA said in a statement. "Profiling is not only discriminatory, but it is also an ineffective way to identify someone intent on doing harm."

Tut, tut.  Mustn't be racist, even if essentially all airborne terrorists are found in one particular demographic group.

The New York Police Department is Racist!

To everyone's joy and delight, violent crime has dropped pretty much across the board, except for Democrat-led cities such as Chicago and Detroit.  The drop has been especially pronounced in New York City which isn't run by a Democrat.

Years ago, the NYPD began a program of having a computer plot where crimes had been reported.  Based on where crimes were concentrated, the police anticipated where crimes were likely to occur and flooded those neighborhoods with police.  The police stopped and frisked people whom the offices had reasonable cause to believe were acting suspicious.  Crime went down, but the police are being accused of racism.

The reason the police are being called racist is obvious from the facts on the ground.  The New York Times pointed out that minorities commit more crimes than whites do:

Blacks are only 23 percent of the city’s population.  Whites ... make up 35 percent of the city’s population.  ...

Based on reports filed by victims, blacks committed 66 percent of all violent crime in New York in 2009, including 80 percent of shootings and 71 percent of robberies. Blacks and Hispanics together accounted for 98 percent of reported gun assaults. And the vast majority of the victims of violent crime were also members of minority groups. [emphasis added]

Non-Hispanic whites, on the other hand, committed 5 percent of the city’s violent crimes in 2009, 1.4 percent of all shootings and less than 5 percent of all robberies.

Blacks are 23% of the population but commit 66% of the violent crimes; whites are 35% of the population and commit 5% of the violent crimes.

Where does this simple fact lead?  Blacks commit most of the crimes.  The Wall Street Journal reports that 94% of black crime is directed against other blacks.  Since blacks commit most of the crimes and most of their crimes are committed against other blacks, most crime happens in black neighborhoods.

Ergo: if the cops plan to go where the crimes are, they'll be in black neighborhoods.  If they're going to talk to suspicious people and try to persuade them not to commit crimes, they'll be spending most of their time talking to black people just as the TSA will spend most of its time talking to Muslims.  Duh.

You'd think this would be noncontroversial, but no.  Most of the people whom the police stop aren't guilty of a crime, at least not at that moment.  The New York Times asks, "How is crime prevented by violating the rights of innocent people?"  By reminding people that cops are around, that's how, just as the all-seeing eye of God used to remind people not to commit crimes.

Crime is down, particularly in black neighborhoods, but it's racist for the cops to interact with more blacks than with whites, despite the obvious fact that based on the Times's own reports, any given black is black is twenty times more likely to commit a violent crime than any given white person.

Arizona is Racist!

Then there's the state of Arizona.  The state have been plagued with swarms of illegals entering across the Mexican border.  Despite having taken an oath to enforce the law, Mr. Obama regards them as undocumented Democrats; the federal government hasn't been doing all that much about them.

In frustration, Arizona passed a law allowing Arizona police to demand that people be asked for papers to prove their citizenship.  The feds challenged the Arizona law and took it to the supreme court, which upheld the "show your papers" part of the law.

Nevertheless, a federal judge has temporarily stayed that part of the law because it might lead to "racial profiling" of Hispanics.  Duh again!  Just about all the illegals in Arizona are Mexican citizens.  Any law that affects illegals either way will have a disproportional effect on Mexicans.

So our ruling elite's prejudices are clearly documented for all to see.  It's not right for the TSA to identify potential terrorists if they should happen to identify more terrorists in one racial group than another.  It's not OK for the NYPD to stop people who might be about to commit crimes and remind them that the police are on the ball if they should happen to stop more blacks than people of other groups.  It's not OK for Arizona police to focus their investigations of illegal entry into the US on Mexicans, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of illegals are Mexican.

The next article in this series discusses exactly the opposite form of elite racism: the one area in which our elites not only claim that it's OK to be racist, but argue that our government hasn't been racist enough.