Or think of a city where, although whites make up over 50 percent of the population, they're just 8 percent of those arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession, while nearly 90 percent of such arrests are of black and Latinos. (And studies show whites and blacks smoke marijuana at the same rates.)
And think of a city where 81 percent of the 7.3 million people hit with tickets for petty infractions between 2001 and 2013 were black or Latino. Or just go down to Manhattan's crowded summonses court, and see who's standing in line:
This, of course, is all done in the name of public safety. It's NYPD Commissioner William Bratton's "broken windows" theory of policing -- the idea that, by aggressively targeting low-level crime in high-crime neighborhoods, police can deter more serious crime.
But in reality, targeting petty crimes in this way inevitably means targeting minorities. As such, broken windows policing creates two cities. And in one of those cities, an uncle and a nephew playing dominoes outside on a cool autumn night are criminals.
"I think they just want us, basically, to stop coming around or stay in the house," Stroy told DNAinfo after getting his ticket, adding that he'd been playing dominoes outside in the neighborhood "for years."
And he's right: That is what broken windows is designed to do. (Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has basically said as much.)
It's not only in New York. It's in Ferguson. It's in Baltimore. Across the country, white Americans enjoy a privilege when it comes to policing that, for minorities, is still far away.
And think of a city where 81 percent of the 7.3 million people hit with tickets for petty infractions between 2001 and 2013 were black or Latino. Or just go down to Manhattan's crowded summonses court, and see who's standing in line:
This, of course, is all done in the name of public safety. It's NYPD Commissioner William Bratton's "broken windows" theory of policing -- the idea that, by aggressively targeting low-level crime in high-crime neighborhoods, police can deter more serious crime.
But in reality, targeting petty crimes in this way inevitably means targeting minorities. As such, broken windows policing creates two cities. And in one of those cities, an uncle and a nephew playing dominoes outside on a cool autumn night are criminals.
"I think they just want us, basically, to stop coming around or stay in the house," Stroy told DNAinfo after getting his ticket, adding that he'd been playing dominoes outside in the neighborhood "for years."
And he's right: That is what broken windows is designed to do. (Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has basically said as much.)
It's not only in New York. It's in Ferguson. It's in Baltimore. Across the country, white Americans enjoy a privilege when it comes to policing that, for minorities, is still far away.
