Haire of the Dog

I must be smoking the same lint - I actually agree with something this guy wrote. To paraphrase Jackie Gleason, "what in the HELL is this world coming to?????"

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Chris: This column is built on either a deliberate or sloppy mis-characterization of Scott's and Darby's comments. Neither said there were no black people in Chicora-Cherokee. Nor does the presence of black drivers and pedestrians prove that the area has no problem with profiling.

What would possess someone to write a column like this? Why not try a journalistic approach? Spend some time talking to black pedestrians in the area. Talk to the police. Demand public records. Report. This is a perplexing and mediocre hatchet job.

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Mario, you haven't been paying attention. EVERYTHING Chris writes is smart-ass. Backtrack through his columns and read for yourself. Once in a hile he makes a salient point, but always smart-ass - it makes him cool. Didn't you know smartasses are chick magnets?

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That website just wasted five minutes of my life.

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Rev. Joe should honor the SC Boycott and move back North...

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I hope you see the absurdity of your headline and apologize for the insulting tone of your article.

If you read the article you cite above it substantiates Darby's and Scott's concerns: "North Charleston police have pulled over black drivers at a disproportionate rate over the past two years, with black men twice as likely to be stopped as their white counterparts, police statistics show." So, black drivers in N. Charleston are pulled over in cases not involving tickets at a dramatically higher rate than white drivers.

Moreover, the police don't deny these facts, but argue this is part of a strategy to lower crime (though of course they cannot demonstrate a correlation between the tactic and the crime rate): "Police officials insist it's a reflection of a strategic, zero-tolerance crackdown on crime in several troubled neighborhoods where the population is predominantly black and where blacks commit the majority of crimes."

Scott and Rev. Darby report that this is dispiriting and humiliating to many African Americans--that it's a significant concern among them. Another hidden cost to being black in America.

That doesn't strike me as absurd, that black people would be troubled in 2010 by being targeted by an agency that has historically inflicted a good deal of pain on African Americans in this state. Even erasing the historic racism of law enforcement in South Carolina, there would still be a concern if a state agency treated a group of citizens differently based on their race, or religion, or gender, etc.

So, I draw two possible unsettling conclusions to the question I raised earlier as to why you wrote your column: You are either suggesting the statistics are wrong or that African Americans are not entitled to their feelings, which even the North Charleston police would acknowledge are rooted in a statistically provable lived reality.

Should it be the former, I can only ask that you provide data to call into question the state's figures. Should it be the latter, I might conclude generously that you were sloppy and careless, or that you were articulating an unacknowledged need to discipline black people who say things that white people don't want to hear and marginalize black leaders by painting them as misguided or delusional.

Apologize to Rev. Darby, Scott and yourself. I think you're better than this.

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Zumalt said, "I would think some of these folks would be a little more excited that the number of young African-American males killed went down last year considerably."

You'd think.

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Mario, by the way, is selectively using statistics to support his argument.
He states that "black men (are) twice as likely to be stopped as their white counterparts, police statistics show", while ignoring the fact that they're also god only knows how much more likely to kill one another. Dot, Darby, and, yes, even Mario, should be grateful that someone is trying to save these lives. Because Dot and Darby certainly haven't proven to be helpful in that regard.

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I see. So you were making an ass of Darby in order to save him from racists who would attempt to make an ass of him. I'm sure Darby, the NAACP, and all of black Charleston, appreciate your good efforts.

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and no, I don't see anything absurd in Darby's comments. I suspect it is well within the realm of possibility that black drivers avoid areas in which they feel they run a higher risk of being racially profiled.

Apologize rather than digging yourself deeper, or do better and join the Charleston Branch NAACP.

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At the risk of prolonging, here is my argument broken down into its basic elements in the following statements that I put in quotes:

"Black drivers are pulled over in N. Charleston for stops that do not involve infractions at a higher rate than white drivers." It is a matter of public record. We both agree on that, though I might call that racial profiling and you might prefer some less pejorative description.

"People the world over (and in N. Charleston) expect and struggle to be treated equally by law enforcement, other state agencies, businesses, and one another. A desire for fairness is a human impulse and something to strive for." I suspect you would not disagree with that.

"Some black people, including Rev. Darby and his family members, have expressed frustration at being stopped by the N. Charleston police at higher rates than white drivers in cases not involving infractions." This is a matter of public record. We have no disagreement here.

"African American drivers in N. Charleston have a right to feel frustrated at being stopped at higher rates than white drivers in cases not involving infractions as it serves as a painful reminder of the historic legacies of white supremacy." I agree that this frustration is a rational response to unequal treatment. You seem to suggest that black people have no right to those feelings--either that they are imagining discrimination or that their humiliation is a small price to pay for lower crime rates. If your argument is based on the former--it contradicts the evidence as profiling in N. Charleston is statistically measurable. The police do not debate the numbers. If your argument is based on the latter--I would only counter that there is no measurable link between the increased traffic stops and the crime rates, and more importantly that I think it is dangerous and offensive to disregard a group of peoples' experiences as delusional or absurd, especially given what we know of the state's history and police behavior.

Holding public figures accountable for their statements and actions is a good thing, and it is the role of a robust press to ask tough questions. In attempting to discipline Rev. Darby and Dot Scott, you misfired terribly and in the process you took your place in a long and shameful line of Charleston journalists and civic leaders who have attempted to dictate to black people how they should feel and who they should follow. No, this is not the lynching of Denmark Vesey or even on a par with the firing of Septima Clark from her teaching position, but the dynamics and goals are the same.

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Half of those who complained about police harassment had previous criminal records, including three with multiple arrests for drugs or violent crimes, state records show.

"All I said was 'Hi, excuse me officers, can you tell me what he's been arrested for?' " she said. "I wasn't even yelling."

Video shot from a police cruiser shows Euland screaming, cursing and yanking her arm away from officers while her fiance yells for her stop.

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Call the chief of police and tell him to keep the cops out of the area. You don't need them. Inform the racist NCPD that the citizens in that area can handle the thugs themselves. I'm sure the outstanding members of that community would never call or ask for help from the racist police force. Sometimes there is a simple solution.

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