Recently, the New York City Council overwhelmingly voted (42-9) to overturn Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of two bills: Intro 586-A, a bill that requires the NYC Police Department (NYPD) to document all investigative encounters, and Intro 549-A, a bill to ban solitary confinement in city jails. Supporters of both bills leveled charges of institutionalized racism at the Police Department and Department of Corrections (DOC) and misused crime and incarceration statistics to justify their decision to overturn the mayor’s vetoes and pass both bills into law.
Misinformation
For example, on January 25, 2024, the NYC Council, dominated by “progressive” members, posted the following on Twitter/X:
97% of the stops made by the mayor’s new NYPD unit [anti-gun unit] were of Black and Latino New Yorkers, despite the fact that they make up less than half of NYC’s population.
The #HowManyStopsAct will provide the transparency needed to protect New Yorkers and improve public safety.
During a hearing on the day of the vote to overturn the mayor’s vetoes, NYC Council Members, such as Lincoln Restler, echoed those talking points:
“I am deeply disturbed by some of the comments I have heard on the floor today. I have news that I’d like to share, racism exists. About 90% of the people on Rikers’ Island are Black or Latino. This is urgent. This is necessary.”
After the NYC Council overrode the mayor’s vetoes, Speaker Adrienne Adams said:
Today, the Council answered decades-long calls from communities most impacted by police stops and the harmful legacy of stop-and-frisk, to deliver much-needed transparency to policing and advance true public safety for New Yorkers.
Debunking Misinformation about the NYPD
While it is accurate to say that 97% of stops made by the NYPD anti-gun unit were of Black and Latino New Yorkers and they comprise 49.4% of NYC’s population, the bill’s supporters omitted the crucial fact that 95.2% of shooting victims and 97.5% of shooting suspects are Black and Latino, thus it only is reasonable that 95.7% of people arrested for shootings were Black and Latino New Yorkers. (Source: NYPD Crime and Enforcement Activity 2022, credit Reza Chowdhury)
The race baiting performed by the City Council and encouraged by Speaker Adrienne Adams and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, misleads the average reader to the false assumption that the NYPD are racist white supremacists when they are in fact 49.9% people of color, while also omitting the fact that 95.2% of shooting victims are also people of color. Mayor Eric Adams is a Black New Yorker and Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban is a Latino New Yorker. Black and Latino New Yorkers comprised 49.4% of NYC’s population in 2022, while 49.9% of police officers were Black and Latino. Currently, 51.8% of police officers are Black and Latino. Thus, the NYPD reflects the population makeup in NYC.
In truth, this is a story about a minority-majority police department that many far-left politicians are purposefully misrepresenting as racists for their efforts in trying to save the lives of Black and Latino New Yorkers. Another crucial factor at play is that the suspects in these crimes are overwhelmingly identified by their victims, a process that only confirms that the strategy being conducted by the NYPD is working.
Below is additional data I compiled on NYC crime demographics and NYPD personnel for 2022, the latest year where all the relevant numbers are available. Black and Latino New Yorkers were 74.3% of violent felony victims, 89.4% of violent felony suspects, and arrested for 87.5% of violent felonies, while 88.4% of people stopped, questioned, and frisked by the NYPD were Black and Latino New Yorkers. The stop, question, and frisk numbers closely correspond to the number of suspects and arrestees.
Debunking Misinformation about the DOC
In making their case for banning solitary confinement, the NYC Council issued a press release and said:
In New York City, these disastrous effects are felt almost exclusively by Black and brown people, who make up over 90% of all people in city jails.”
If there is institutionalized racism at the NYC Department of Corrections, there will be large disparities between the race/ethnicity of people arrested for violent crime, the inmate population, corrections officers, and supervisors. However, during 2022, 87.5% of people arrested for violent felonies are Black and Latino New Yorkers, while 88.1% of inmates in Rikers Island were Black and Latino New Yorkers. 84.6% of corrections officers and 88.3% of their supervisors were Black and Latino. In addition, Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections, is a Black New Yorker.
Note: I used DOC demographic statistics for 2022 to properly compare them with the 2022 NYPD crime demographic numbers (which are the latest full year numbers that are currently available). Currently, the inmate population at Rikers is 88.7% Black and Latino New Yorkers, while 84.8% of corrections officers and 88.4% of supervisors were Black and Latino, like 2022.
Most NYC politicians are using misinformation and race baiting as a tool to divide us to further their agendas and compromise public safety. The above numbers speak for themselves. There is no institutionalized racism in the NYPD and DOC. The bills passed are not necessary and in fact will hinder the NYPD and the DOC from doing their job and making NYC safe again. Unfortunately, the 42 members that voted for the bills have not learned the lessons of other cities (San Fransico Portland, and Chicago) that have driven their cities into the ground and made them havens of crime.
Written by,
Sam Antar
© Copyright by Sam Antar. All rights reserved.
Suggested reading: Experts Are Misusing Crime Metrics to Make the NYC Subway Appear Safer Than It Is