In a city in which it is not a crime to shoot Sean Bell fifty times or Amadou Diallo 41 times, where black and Hispanic young men are stopped and frisked vastly in excess of their proportion of the population, it should not be a surprise that blacks & Hispanics are arrested for marijuana possession vastly more than whites (even though marijuana use is equal across ethnic groups). The surprise, as I see it, is that decent people don’t spit at Mayor Bloomberg and his police Commissioner. How often will NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Public Misinformation, Paul Browne, say things like the NYPD doesn’t engage in racial profiling without his nose growing from Police Plaza to City Hall? (I hate it when Mayor Bloomberg’s race policies make me write as though I were Al Sharpton.)

Rocco Parascandola of Newsday reports on a study released by the New York Civil Liberties Union:

The NYPD arrested more than 350,000 people for misdemeanor marijuana possession over the past decade -- a tenfold increase achieved by systematically targeting young black and Hispanic men and stopping them without cause, a report released Tuesday charges NYCLU,

The NYCLU press release, is here

SIBRO Civic (Staten Island and Brooklyn Civic) and South Beach Civic are sponsoring an Anti-Bloomberg Congestion Pricing Plan Forum, Sunday, April 6th at 7 PM in Xaverian High School, 7100 Shore Road,Brooklyn, NY 11209.

Speakers include Democratic Congressional Candidate Steve Harrison (NY13th CD, Staten Island/Southwest Brooklyn) and Queens City Councilman Tony Avella. One very prominent elected official is also trying to make it, but doesn't want his name released in case he can't it.

Councilman Bill de Blasio and Vinnie Gentile will send representatives.

There may also be speakers on behalf of the People with Disabilities community, who would suffer under the proposed congestion pricing.

Steve Harrison opposes Bloomberg's Congestion Plan, but not congestion pricing in theory.

For more information on Steve views on congestion pricing visit steveharrisonforcongress.com

Back and forth, up and down, three ways to Sunday: Michael Bloomberg has been teasing City and nation for over a year with hints he might be willing to offer his services as President, provided there was an ideological opening in the race.

Problem is, over the last year, the race has been turned entirely on its head. Instead of Clinton and Giuliani, the nominees will now most likely be Obama and McCain. Instead of hyper-partisan division, we have two nominees that appeal beyond their party's respective bases. In part as a result, Americans have consistently told pollsters that they're happy with their choices in this election (a satisfaction far more pronounced on the Democratic side, obviously).

Today, Mayor Mike drew the inevitable conclusion and announced he would not enter the race.

More, over the fold.

NYPD, it turns out, is not color blind. Sunday’s New York Daily News I-Team has wonderfully researched, well written article by Tina Moore, Benjamin Lesser and Greg B. Smith in which they show (definitively, in my opinion) that NYPD’s practice of Stop & Frisk on NYC subways is aimed at Hispanics and Blacks and unrelated to law enforcement purposes.

Because NYPD practices here are so outrageous, Mayor Bloomberg and his Police Commissioner must be held accountable for their vastly disproportionate racial impacts. As you may recall, NYPD has made every effort to hide the racial data generated by their stop and frisk program. Some of it has leaked out, (See, my earlier report with links here if you want further background).

New York City Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey had a meeting with Bronx County GOP Leader Joseph J. Savino on January 27, 2006. This meeting occurred while Kevin Sheekey was on city payroll time as listed on his schedule that was just FOILed by members of the press. The purpose of this meeting was for Mr. Savino to get the endorsement of Mayor Bloomberg for Mr. Savino to run later in 2006 for the state senate seat in the 34th district against incumbent State Senator Jeff Klein in which Savino lost in. A New York City employee cannot do any sort of political campaigning on city payroll time. Mr. Savino did get the endorsement from Mayor Bloomberg. Mr. Savino is also currently the target of a criminal probe being conducted by the New York City Department of Investigation. Some of Joseph J. Savino’s close friends and political associates are also being investigated for political campaigning on city payroll time. Inside sources have told me that Mr. Savino has confirmed that he did have a meeting with NYC Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey on January 27, 2006 at City Hall to discuss the political endorsement of Mayor Bloomberg for Mr.

A friend, who counsels food pantry customers, tells me that – as the winter progresses – she has noticed increasing numbers of desperate, hungry and homeless “nouveaux poor.” They are formerly middle-class and working people who are have become surplus. They bring to mind the powerful Phil Ochs song There But For Fortune because, like many of us, they were just one illness, one job, one drink, one cop from disaster. (To see Phil Ochs sing his song in a time-warp 1967 Bitter End Video click here , or, for a somewhat downtempo take by Peter, Paul & Mary (1982), here.)

In this context, are you disturbed to see Mayor Bloomberg media boosters cranking out copy concerning his miserable skirmish on poverty? Tuesday’s New York Times, for example, features an editorial Mayor Bloomberg Tackles Poverty praising efforts which, to my mind, are microscopic, half-hearted and feeble.

In your State of the City speech that you made this past week. You said that you are going to reform the New York City Board of Elections. Click on hyperlink:

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c70...

You mentioned in the State of the City speech that 2008 is the 130th anniversary of the death of Boss Tweed. Let's also make it the year we finally put to rest his style of politics.

So Mayor Bloomberg click on this hyper link and read this article:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0624,robbins,73514,5.html

My question to you is when is this going to happen. At this point my advice to you, Mayor Bloomberg is “ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS” You have been talking about this since 2004. Certain employees at the Board of Elections are abusing the integrity of our electoral process. Click on hyperlink:

http://www.nycivic.org/MediaArchive/BloombergSpeech041110.html

The subject of this post is simple and incredibly complex at the same time. Is it the standard practice of NYPD to stop, frisk and/or search blacks in NYC much more frequently than they do whites? The simple answer is yes. The complex answer is no. The complex answer was produced by the Rand Corporation under contract with an NYPD-entity ( The NYC Police Foundation.) Do you believe the Rand Corporation? I have a bridge in Brooklyn for you.
(Some background materials with links have been added long after the jump)

NYPD officers stop New Yorkers all the time; we’re pulled over for broken tail lights, for riding a bike without a bell, as we stand on the street. How those police stops break out racially is not the subject of this post – even though I personally suspect that were those stops ever studied, there might well be a disparate racial impact noted.

However, sometimes the way in which Police stop New Yorkers is more intrusive than others.

Because spin, data manipulation and misleading statements seem so crucial to Mayor Bloomberg’s policies and practices, it’s as shocking as an ice cold shower when the NYC shifts to realistic data collection for policy planning. Evidence-based planning, absent elsewhere in Mr. Bloomberg’s universe (about which I will post shortly), is being introduced by NYC’s Center on Economic Opportunity. . It galls me to say it, but, Mayor Bloomberg and his Deputy Linda Gibbs deserve praise for this effort. Update: Late December New York Times report is here .