Minorities searched most: Civil rights advocates say data show racial profiling
Let me just state for the record that I am shocked- SHOCKED- that there is racial profiling going on in Houston. Whoda thunkit??
When Houston police officers stop a person, they are three times as likely to conduct a search if the person is black than if he is Anglo, according to Houston Police Department statistics.
While the picture for Hispanic is bleaker than for Anglos, civil rights activists said the statistics -- compiled for the state to detect patterns of racial profiling by police across Texas -- show that blacks have cause for concern.
"We're hearing about it everyday in our police complaint center," said Yolanda Smith, executive director of the NAACP in Houston. "I'm just glad to see the statistics finally prove that."
HPD contends the figures may show officers have a greater presence in "economically deprived communities" that have high rates of police calls. But the report does not include locations of stops....
The report showed that Houston police stopped 191,066 blacks in 2002 and searched 24,937, some by consent and others for probable cause. Of those, 26,723 ended in arrests.
By comparison, 158,874 Hispanics were stopped and 12,783 were searched, while 15,897 were arrested. For Anglos, 172,533 were stopped, 7,393 were searched and 10,560 were arrested.
The report shows a pattern of police behavior toward Hispanics, said Johnny Mata, spokesman for the League of United Latin American Citizens in the Houston area.
"The bottom line is the numbers are high and it's basically in the minority community," Mata said.
Houston's population consists of 25.3 percent black, 37.4 percent Hispanic and 30.8 percent Anglo.
Of course, the numbers tell only one part of the story, but it will be interesting to see how the various groups with axes to grind will interpret this. Now the argument will become all about who can spin the numbers to their advantage most effectively. Having a meaningful, low-volume discussion about race in Houston is about as likely as the city balancing it's budget- but that's another story.
Please try to keep in mind, though, that it's not easy being a member of the oppressing class.
