I have to do this because Charlamagne won’t.
DJ Envy earned himself “Donkey of the Day” Tuesday for defending the NYPD’s outlawed “stop and frisk” policy during a segment on The Breakfast Club. The topic came up during a talk about Monday’s presidential debate, when Donald Trump suggested implementing “stop and frisk” as a solution to Chicago’s homicide epidemic.
Charlamagne and the debate moderator both mentioned the fact that “stop and frisk” had already been ruled unconstitutional in 2013. But Trump and Envy were both sure that randomly searching citizens for weapons is a long-term solution for violence.
“They got a lot of guns off the street,” said Envy of the NYPD’s failed program. “The way the NYPD was doing it was unconstitutional. They didn’t do it the way that it was supposed to be done. That’s why they pulled it from New York.”
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Envy’s statements are shocking even if you know he comes from a family of law enforcement officers. As soon as the comments aired, Envy began trending on Twitter. So does he really agree with Trump’s description and prescription for cities struggling with urban violence? Does he agree that laws should be made to keep guns from away from, as The Donald put it, “people that are bad people and should not have them?”
Is Envy really co-signing this ideology? Does he actually believe that the NYPD’s version of “stop and frisk” only failed because they didn’t racially and geographically profile New Yorkers specifically enough? Charlamagne and Angela Yee questioned how factual Envy’s statement that it “got a lot of guns off the street” was. And Charlamagne even referenced data that showed the practice was only 3-percent effective.
“Of 2.4 million stops by police between 2009 and 2012, the stops resulted in a 3 percent conviction rate and just 0.1 percent of the stops went on to a violent crime conviction.” Charlamagne
Our words have power, especially on a platform as massive as The Breakfast Club. Envy isn’t wrong for feeling how he does, especially given the recent robbery attempt he survived. But I don’t think he really does. I hope he was just talking and got caught up in his words, then got caught when he didn’t have the facts to back them up. It happens to all of us. But you gotta hold your L and play the donkey when it does.
https://twitter.com/mynameisjamel/status/780775240561467392
It is possible that Envy’s family ties, money and skin tone have protected him enough from the injustices of our justice system to believe in the same sort of law and order Donald Trump is pushing. But it’s more likely that he slipped up and made an ignorant statement that he was too proud to back down from. Whatever the case, Envy probably already regrets his comments. Hopefully he sticks to the introductions and leaves the ridiculous comments to Charlamagne from now on. Pray for him until then.
PHOTO: Getty
