I Was a Racial Profiler: Ex-Cop Says He Used Skin Color to Make Arrests

I’m retired now after a wonderful career with the New York City Police Department, and I have a confession to make.

I used a person’s race to initiate investigations and make subsequent arrests. In fact, according to the definition bandied about by those on the left who have no idea what they are talking about nor a clue when it comes to police work, I was–yes–a racial profiler.

{snip}

In November 1992 I was transferred to Manhattan North Narcotics. We covered the precincts north of 59th St. but rarely did enforcement south of 96th St.

{snip}

I spent a lot of time in Washington Heights during those years, working narcotics in the confines of the 30th Precinct. It was a busy place with loads of illegal drug activity–dealing on the street and in residential buildings outfitted and barricaded as drug spots. We made arrests, thousands of arrests, and here is one of the ways the white cops and Hispanic cops and black cops did it.

We looked for white people.

That’s all you really had to do. Cruise Broadway or Amsterdam Ave. or Riverside Drive in an unmarked car, spot the white guy driving the vehicle with the Jersey plate slow and deliberate, watch him park and shuffle to the sale location, watch him walk back to the vehicle with the pep in his step shortly thereafter and bingo. Most times you had a collar.

That’s what you were paying us for, wasn’t it? The good people of Washington Heights have a right to live in a neighborhood free of cretins driving over the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan for the sole purpose of buying drugs, don’t they?

Is that not good police work? Of course it is.

So please, ponder this for a moment. Who do you think is terrorizing the black community? Who do you think is raping and assaulting young black women? Who do you think is pulling out the nine and shooting young male blacks on the corner over a bag of Cheez Doodles and a Philly blunt?

Pause and ask yourself why do you think more blacks and Hispanics are stopped? Because, you guessed it, they are the ones committing the crimes and fitting the description. The Police Department is not making this up. This is the horrible truth. The carnage is appalling, and rather than address the real issue, liberals and civil rights leaders make excuses and ignore the facts.

{snip}