In the midst of all the chaos happening in New York, a divide in the NYPD force has occurred between black and white cops.
Numerous NYPD cops, both on and off duty, are stepping forward and voicing their experiences on racial profiling. Reuters reports:
Reuters interviewed 25 African American male officers on the NYPD, 15 of whom are retired and 10 of whom are still serving. All but one said that, when off duty and out of uniform, they had been victims of racial profiling, which refers to using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.
The officers said this included being pulled over for no reason, having their heads slammed against their cars, getting guns brandished in their faces, being thrown into prison vans and experiencing stop and frisks while shopping. The majority of the officers said they had been pulled over multiple times while driving. Five had had guns pulled on them.
A retired sergeant in the 41st Precinct in the Bronx by the name of Desmond Blaize went into detail about how he got stopped while jogging once:
I had my ID on me so it didn’t escalate. But what’s suspicious about a jogger? In jogging clothes?
Blaize later sued the NYPD for being racially harassed.
We can only hope that things don’t escalate any further.
SOURCE: Reuters | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
