Could poor Black neighborhoods be safe without racial profiling?

I remember when stop and frisk was in full force in the NYC streets. All day long in hoods across the city, Black men and boys would be lined up against the facades of buildings and D’s(undercover cops) would be frisking all over their bodies. I thought it was the most humiliating thing ever and it is why I give credence to the often touted, “gay guys get stopped less or never” because it didn’t happen to me as a young teenager. And statistics say that it should have ;being a Black boy , being darkskin and living in a poor neighborhood. Stop and frisk was never something that I could applaud even for its’ so called preventative measures because it was inherently discriminatory and immensely invasive. Stop and frisk made Black boys and men automatically criminals just by virtue of their sex and race. Stop and frisk was in violation of the much loved Constitution and the right to protection against unwanted search and seizure. Stop and frisk illuminated the lack of full citizenship that Black males possessed, was humiliating and often ventured into full-on sexual assault. Cops were regularly digging their hands in boys and mens’ genitals and rectums. They were violating hard and often came up short. Funnily enough , they never seemed to be around when all the random shootouts would occur. So how effective was massive stop and frisk? And how come those boys and men most likely to shoot up schools, malls and concerts were never stopped and frisked? How come their genitals and rectums weren’t being probed by random, non uniformed self identified cops?

I don’t have faith in the “just-us” system. I don’t respect law enforcement as an institution. Police violence against my community is something I have come to expect. Police violence is endorsed by a culture that regularly denies full personhood to all of its’ people. Some people are not seen as people at all. Which is why the violence perpetuated by law enforcement is not seen as violence at all but law and order. It is perhaps the most blatantly racist institution still in operation in this country . And it thrives off the subjugation of Blacks, Hispanics and poorer people of all creeds. But Black people get the asterisk because of course why not? We funnily enough have the longest interaction with these systems, themselves remnants of the slave catcher systems of the 1800s. How could an institution built off racism and dehumanization be anything but true to its’ roots?

Which brings me to my current point, is it possible for poor , Black communities to be safe without racial profiling? Is it possible for poor , Black people to be stripped of the consequence of the stigma attached to us which is to be profiled and unprotected? Studies after studies and think piece upon think piece point to the correlations between poverty and crime. Simply put the poorer people are the more likely they are to be victims and perpetrators of crime, often low level things like shoplifting or possession of narcotics. Investments by the federal and state governments into poorer communities could offset the crime rate substantially. Amazon gets a horrible rap and maybe this is a shitty example but I love to see so many young Black men working for them. I love that so many young Black guys are working for many of these delivery services. These guys will not fall into those generational set ups of street crime and street economies to survive. Which decreases their susceptibility to getting felonies on their records. Which would potentially lead to a stronger crop of not only Black males but Black females as well through stronger family units not destroyed by mass incarceration. Through more Black men being allowed to live on the outside like everyone else and not caged in penal colonies across this country whose sole purpose is to provide employment in poor, rural mostly white areas. Ain’t that something? The jailing of poor Black men allows for poor white people in rural areas to have jobs and pensions.

So to answer my question, I don’t think policing will ever be bereft of a racial profiling component. I believe that the masses of the population which includes many Black people especially senior citizens feel that it is all ok the way the current system works. Fear is paralyzing that way. It condones and encourages the mistreatment of others. And it’s amazing those most likely to profess a belief in God and forgiveness are the most hell bent on punishment and inequality of treatment before the law. I guess that’s just how things work sometimes. “Long as it don’t affect me, I could give a fuck about thee.” God Bless America!

Blackthelma 2023