[do you need statistics from white folks to validate your existence or is your own personal experience enough?] Justice Dept "Finds" Systematic Bias in Baltimore Police

[knowledge (information) vs. Knowing (your experience/being)]. The NYT writes, "As a black man and a lifelong resident of this city, Ray Kelly has been stopped by the police more times than he can count. And as a community organizer who tried to document police bias after the death of Freddie Gray, Mr. Kelly, 45, had always expected that an investigation by the Justice Department would uncover a pattern of racial discrimination.

Even so, the department’s findings — a scathing indictment that includes detailed data on how Baltimore police officers have for years systematically stopped, searched and arrested black residents — gave him a jolt. “Hearing the actual numbers, like on the traffic stops, is blowing my mind,” Mr. Kelly said. [nigger please]. 

In one stark statistic after another, the department’s report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times on Tuesday, has helped validate the experiences of Mr. Kelly and countless others in poor African-American neighborhoods who regard the police as an occupying force. The report, over 160 pages long, was to be made public on Wednesday at a news conference at City Hall.

In Baltimore, a city that is 63 percent black, the Justice Department found that 91 percent of those arrested for discretionary offenses like “failure to obey” or “trespassing” were African-American. Blacks make up 60 percent of Baltimore’s drivers, but they account for 82 percent of traffic stops. Of the 410 pedestrians who were stopped at least 10 times in the five and a half years of data reviewed, 95 percent were black.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the police commissioner, Kevin Davis, appeared Wednesday morning with Vanita Gupta, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, to discuss the findings. The report will form the basis for the first steps toward reaching a negotiated settlement, known as a “consent decree,” in which police training and practices will be overhauled under court supervision. 

Wait for Change Niggers. At the news conference, Mayor Rawlings-Blake said the city would move as quickly as possible to make changes in the department. But meaningful change, Mr. Davis said, will take time, commitment and trust. [MORE]