Unequal treatment of African-Americans by Tampa police has
not received much national publicity, probably because, unlike Ferguson,
Cleveland, New York, Waller County and Arlington, Texas, Cincinnati, Charlotte
and elsewhere, there have been no reported killings in Tampa. But the situation
in Tampa symbolizes how deeply racism has infected the criminal justice system
across the United States.
Tampa police have issued
more than 2,500 tickets to bicycle riders over the past three years, more tickets
for bicycle infractions than were written in Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando and St. Petersburg combined.
And who are all these hell-on-two-wheel menaces
to the road who seem to congregate on Tampa streets?
Funny (no not funny, sad and absurd!)—80% of
the bicycle scofflaws in Tampa are African-American, despite the fact that blacks
only represent 25% of the city’s population. A recent National Public Radio report on the Tampa police says that some residents complain of being
stopped on the bicycles multiple times a day.
Evidently in Tampa, BWB (bicycling while black)
has joined DWB (driving while black) as a crime.
Unless you subscribe to the racist theories of
Charles Murray, these facts produce, as the Latins used to say, “Res ipsa loquitor,” a thing that
proves itself. The obvious conclusion in
this case is that the Tampa police are going out of their way to give tickets
to African-American bicyclists. Tampa police are engaged in an organized effort
to discriminate against one group—to stop that group more often for trivial
offenses and to write up those offenses more frequently. Keep in mind that almost by definition, an
infraction on a bicycle is minor, because there isn’t much damage bicyclists
can do to anyone but themselves. Tampa thus joins Ferguson and hundreds of
other municipalities across the country to kill two birds with one stone: raise
revenues and harass minorities.
Some may say that in the context of police
killings elsewhere, Tampa’s obvious discrimination against African-American
bicyclists is trivial. But the very triviality of it is what I find so
offensive, and so indicative of how deep and widespread the poisonous roots of
racism have burrowed in this country.
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