"Repugnant Lies"

Of the 21 NYPD officers shot to death since 1994, 18 were killed by blacks and/or hispanics. So how DO you think cops are going to respond when there's a car full of blacks and someone shouts "Gun"?

"New York cops do confront blacks more than they do whites. But that's because blacks are disproportionately involved with crime - both as victims and as perps.

Even the Rev. Jesse Jackson admitted that, in walking city streets, he worries more about groups of black youths than white ones.

Two decades ago, then-Police Commissioner Ben Ward - who was black - made the point more bluntly (even citing the very area where Bell was killed): "Young, black men," Ward said, "are ripping off the neighborhoods. They are doing the shooting out in southeast Queens and killing innocent people."

Crime's way down since then, but the racial breakdowns haven't changed much. African-Americans, about 25 percent of New Yorkers, account for 60 percent of the city's crime victims so far this year, according to an NYPD analysis last month. And more than 60 percent of perpetrators in murder cases were black (93 percent were male).

For each of the past three years, NYPD records show, nine of every 10 crime victims citywide were either African-American or Hispanic.

So were a similar percentage of perps.

With police responding to more crimes involving blacks, there are more opportunities for police abuse of blacks - including (rare) accidental police shootings.

(Again, blacks also benefit disproportionately when cops do their job; the vast drop in New York City homicides over the past decade has saved the lives of mostly blacks and other minorities.)

Let's face it: To fight crime, cops must go to the areas where it occurs. A disproportionate number of police operations, like responding to calls, take place in minority communities.

The Kalua Cabaret, for instance, where the Bell tragedy started, is in a largely black neighborhood - and is heavily patronized by blacks. NYPD officials note that cops were called to the scene 26 times in the past 12 months."

...

"How unfortunate that racial activists mislead folks about the reasons for confrontations - insisting that police actions are often not just ill-motivated, but illegal.

If black leaders really want to cut down on wrongful killings in their community, one idea might be to focus more on stanching crime.

Steering more young black men into legal, productive lives would not only give these youths more hopeful futures, it would also reduce the number of interactions with cops and, thus, the opportunities for disaster.

Of course, curbing crime means helping cops - not attacking them.

A first step might be to stop calling them "murderers."

Stearing black men into productive lifes means losing them as a consituency. Black "leaders" as well as white politicians like them right where they are. Weak, angry, and voting democratic.