They're just trying to save lives
by digby
... by conducting a racist harassment campaign against all young men of color:
During an interview for “This Week,” New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly warned that the ruling by a federal judge declaring the way his department carries out its “stop-and-frisk” policy unconstitutional risked reversing the downward trend of violent crime in New York City.
“What we’re doing – and what we’re trying to do — is save lives,” Kelly told ABC’s Pierre Thomas.
“Things are going right here in New York. And this decision certainly has the potential of overturning it,” he said.
If it weren't for the old-fashioned notions of probable cause and presumed innocence, we could let Ray Kelly lock up every male in New York between the age of 16 and 30. You'd be shocked to see how much less crime there would be. Now obviously, a whole lot of innocent men would be caught up in that net, but that's the breaks, right? They've got a job to do.
Today it's clear that many people in this country have unilaterally decided that the government's only job is to "protect" us from people who want to do us harm. Apparently, by any means necessary. And that could be anyone. So that old Constitution and the principles underlying it, have the wrong priorities. If we want to save lives, we're going to have to give the government free rein to harass, taser, and imprison anyone it sees as a potential threat. Even ourselves. It's the only way to really ensure they can get the job done.
Only then can we feel safe.
.