Police, Race and Friendly Fire

by Matt Kelley

categories: police, Racial Profiling

Published May 31, 2009 @ 11:04AM PT

The tragic shooting death of 25-year-old New York City police officer Omar Edwards on Thursday has raised anew questions of racial profiling and the use of deadly force by police officers. Edwards was off duty and drew his gun while chasing a suspect, his fellow officers saw the gun and shot. The investigation is ongoing and there's no way to say whether anyone is at fault in this horrible scenario. When officers see someone with a gun in their hand, they often must act quickly. Perhaps they acted too quickly, perhaps they had no choice. It's too early to say, and may be unproductive to place blame amid such terrible circumstances.

But there's no getting around it - this case treads in racially charged territory. Edwards was black and the officer who shot him was white. Whether it was a factor in this case or not, racial profiling is alive and well in our county. I would argue that an African-American police officer has a greater chance of being shot in circumstances like this than a white officer. And that's something we need to change.

A column by Errol Louis in the New York Daily News questioned why we rarely see the headline "Black Cop Shoots White Cop':

It's true that Edwards may have violated Patrol Guide procedures by wheeling around with a weapon in his hand instead of instantly freezing and dropping his gun when ordered to do so.

The officers who killed Edwards may have violated policy, too. We don't know what kind of warning was shouted, and the fatal bullet reportedly entered Edwards' back, raising questions about why and when he was seen as a deadly threat.

But even before the evidence is in, what every New Yorker can do is acknowledge - and battle - the malicious myth that most black men are up to no good and likely to commit criminal violence.

The New York Times yesterday explored the paradox of the deadly peril faced by black officers on a police force that is more diverse than ever before. Although training has improved and deadly force is used less often, officials agree that there's a risk for minority officers.

“This is the most Shakespearean aspect of policing,” said State Senator Eric Adams of Brooklyn, who is black and a former police captain. “Your greatest fear is to be shot and slain on duty, and that’s only matched by your fear of shooting another officer.”

He added, “If you speak with nine out of 10 officers of color they would tell you that when they hear sirens, in their head they are thinking: ‘I hope these cops know that I’m one of the good guys.’ ”

That worry comes embedded in a paradox: The New York Police Department never has been so diverse. A majority of the cadets in the last rookie police class were members of ethnic and racial minorities, offering a rainbow cross-section of the city itself. Over all, 47.8 percent of the city’s officers are white, 28.7 percent Hispanic, 17.9 percent black and 5.4 percent Asian.

Even if this tragic shooting was completely accidental and unavoidable, racial profiling is an issue that should be addressed in our nation's police forces, as our society on the whole continues to address and battle the stereotypes that underlie profiling. My thoughts are with Mr. Edwards' family this weekend, as well as with the officer who fired the shots, who was most likely doing his job - which is to make split-second decisions that protect a city.

But cases like this provide an opening for dialogue on racial profiling, and that's a discussion we desperately need to have.

Both stories via The Crime Report, a great resource from the John Jay Center on Media, Crime and Justice. TCR is doing excellent work to dig into crime stories and examine the way we cover crime and punishment in the U.S. Check it out here.