Recently, I briefly discussed on my online journal New York City's aggressive "stop and frisk" policy, ostensibly to reduce "gun violence," but I think the subject is worth a more thorough treatment.
When I describe the policy as "aggressive," I mean exactly that, with a staggering 130,000 "stop and frisks," just in the third quarter of 2009. That's a pace, in other words, for over half a million per year. So much for the people being "secure in their persons . . . ."
Oleg Volk photo (click on photo to enlarge)
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I can't, in fairness, particularly blame Bloomberg for this utter contempt for the Fourth Amendment--New York City is far from the first jurisdiction to ignore this right, and the courts have upheld law enforcement's power to do so. Expecting Bloomberg to not exploit that opening would be akin to expecting . . . well, a deranged killer to respect a "No Guns" sign.
What is drawing criticism--criticism not limited to gun rights advocates--is the apparent blatant racial profiling associated with the searches.
Over the quarter, police stopped and interrogated 137,894 people, 93 percent of whom were men, and 58 percent were black.
Hispanic men made up 31 percent of those who were stopped and frisked, and white men were stopped just 9 percent of the time, according to the report.
Under the Stop and Frisk program, officers can stop, question and pat-down people they deem suspicious.
Evidently, "walking while dark-skinned" constitutes sufficient grounds to be deemed "suspicious" in New York City.
The connection between restrictive gun regulation and racism is far from new. Racial bigotry could, in fact, be reasonably considered the root of "gun control" in America. From Reconstruction Era "Black Codes" mandating disarmament of freed slaves, to bans of "Saturday Night Specials" (favored at one time by African Americans because they were affordable), to New York's own Sullivan Act (intended to disarm Italian immigrants), etc., the Racist Roots of Gun Control are a shameful part of our nation's history. Even more shameful is the fact that it's part of not only our history, but our present, as well.
Actually, with McDonald v. City of Chicago pending in the Supreme Court, this is probably a good time for a reminder that significant motivation for passage of the Fourteenth Amendment after the Civil War was the need for protection of freed slaves' right to keep and bear arms, state laws notwithstanding, as 19th Century Senator Jacob Howard argued during Senate floor debate (pdf file) on the amendment.
To these privileges and immunities, whatever they may be – for they are not and cannot be fully defined in their entire extent and precise nature – to these should be added the personal rights guaranteed by the first eight amendments of the Constitution; such as the freedom of speech and of the press; the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances, a right pertaining to each and all of the people; the right to keep and bear arms . . . (Emphasis added.)
The Klan--perhaps the first domestic terrorist organization in the U.S., exploited onerous "Black Code" gun laws to keep freed slaves unarmed, and thus ripe for lynching. One intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was to end that.
These days, adding insult to (fatal) injury, the forcible citizen disarmament lobby often implies that their advocacy of draconian gun laws is intended to help African-Americans, and that opponents of such laws are the bigots. I have to hand it to them--it takes truly Orwellian chutzpah to sell oppression as salvation.
Atlanta: Ed Stone | Austin: Howard Nemerov | Boston: Ron Bokleman | Charlotte: Paul Valone | Cheyenne: Anthony Bouchard | Chicago: Don Gwinn | Cleveland: Daniel White | DC: Mike Stollenwerk | Denver: Dan Bidstrup | Grand Rapids: Skip Coryel | Knoxville: Liston Matthews | Los Angeles: John Longenecker | Minneapolis: John Pierce | National: David Codrea | Phoenix: Douglas Little | Seattle: Dave Workman | St. Louis: Kurt Hofmann | Wisconsin: Gene German
Comments
What's more alarming is that this policy is blatantly SEXIST !
NYPD is still trying to figure out how to keep its uniformed officers from shooting their own black undercover collegues. That "Black Man With Gun" does not equal "Fleeing Perp Target" is too difficult for some of New York's finest.
Q: Is this a "law"? Or just a NYC "policy"?
Could one refuse to be stopped by a police officer to be questioned and frisked? Especially without due process and a warrant. If one DID refuse to stop, and just kept on walking about their business, what would be the immediate consequences? It would be interesting to have someone unlawfully detained by the stormtroopers, without their permission, and then have this brought to court.
It would also be interesting to have an ad hoc protest, where for one day (or a week, or . . )a group of NYC citizens refused to obey the "policy".
The act of being stopped and frisked is a legitimate reason for self-defensive actions. I will not grieve any thugs who die while committing these assaults.
Mayor Bloomberg is a poster boy for what the founding fathers knew Americans needed to be armed against: tyrants within America's own government. I just can't fathom how New Yorkers continue to elect this nightmare from Hitler's hell, along with Chicago's Mayor Daley, and Gov. Ed Rendell, and others like them. If America's citizenry won't oppose tyranny, then maybe that's what they deserve.
Kurt; thank You for having the courage to tell the truth about the racist roots behind gun control!
I wish more of the Examiners had the courage to pound this message in the minds of the people.
Ever since the 1831 Turner rebellion the effort to disarm Blacks as been in full force, the case Baron vs. Baltimore that claimed that the Bill of Rights didn’t apply to the State was an attempt to restrict Free Blacks from claiming a 2A right.
Dred Scott was another such case to limit the rights of Blacks in the name of gun control.
The Slaughter House case was another attempt to weaken the immunity and privileges clause of the 14th amendment.
Even the 1968 GCA was tool to disarm Blacks as was the Illinois FOID card.
Today Illinois is one of 2 states remaining clinging onto their Jim Crow law!
Yet gun rights groups refuse to point out that Daley is clinging onto laws that have there foundations in Jim Crow Law
Madashell, thanks for reading, but I really don't think the other Gun Rights Examiners lack the courage to write about racism and its relationship to restrictive gun laws. In fact, several of the links beneath the picture are to articles on that very subject, written by National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, and Austin Gun Rights Examiner Howard Nemerov--and I made no effort to assemble a comprehensive list.
This makes me so angry I just want to spit! Who the hell do these tyrants think they are? And Dred Scott just makes you sick when you read it.
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