Thursday, November 21, 2013

If you're black, you are almost 25 times more likely to be shot in New York City than a white person — and you are also more likely to be arrested for pulling a trigger, alarming new NYPD statistics show

Data collected during the first six months of 2013 reveal that 74% of the city’s 567 shooting victims were black. An additional 21.5% were Hispanic. Less than 3% of shooting victims were white, according to the report. Blacks also accounted for the majority — about 70% — of the 222 people arrested for shooting someone during the first half of 2013, according to the NYPD’s Crime and Enforcement Activity report. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has used similar statistics to defend stop-and-frisk, pointing out that police stop more people in minority communities not because of their racial makeup, but because more crimes happen there. “Last year, 97% of all shooting victims were black or Hispanic and reside in low-income neighborhoods,” Kelly recently said as he lashed out against Judge Shira Scheindlin’s decision that stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional and appointed a monitor to oversee the program — a reform put on hold after the city appealed. “There were more stops with suspicious activity in neighborhoods with higher crime because that’s where the crime is.” The six-month report shows that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be the victims of murder, rape, robbery, and assault — and to be arrested for committing those violent felonies — than whites. Blacks compose 25.5% of the city’s residents, according to the 2010 census. Non-Hispanic whites make up 33.3%, while Hispanics and Latinos make up 28.6% and Asians 12.7%. The only crimes that saw more whites victimized were larcenies, both grand and petty, which include pickpocketing, credit card fraud and theft of more than $1,000 in property, according to the report. Yet about 50% of the people arrested for grand larceny and 45.8% of those charged with petty larceny were black, the report shows. Blacks also account for more than 55% of those who police stopped and frisked, the report said. Hispanics constituted 29% of those stopped and frisked.

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