Bouie comments on the Washington Monthly piece examining how black drivers are pulled over at much higher rates than others:
[T]his racial disparity can spark community distrust of law enforcement, to say nothing of the fact that regular police contact comes with the risk of violence—as with “stop and frisk” in New York City, confrontations are inevitable when you’re confronting large numbers of people on the basis of perceived criminality, and not actual offense. The main point, however, is that “driving while black” is a real phenomenon that can be observed and measured—another example of the routine racial bias that still pervades American life.
Kilgore’s take:
[B]road-brush practices like investigatory stops (along with similar “zero tolerance” policies towards minor infractions) are often confused with the community policing philosophy that arose in similar times and places in reaction to the crime boom of the 1970s and 1980s. In some respects, they actually point in opposite directions, since the linchpin of community policing is to reclaim crime-prone areas as worthy of positive attention and reconstruction, where police are viewed as allies rather than as part of an army of occupation. More to the immediate point, violent crime rates nationally are at the point where there is no longer any “emergency” rationale for crossing the line that treats citizens as respected equals so long as they are going about their business without providing probable cause of malfeasance. Strolling the wrong sidewalks of New York, and “driving while black,” should no longer be activities that merit a high risk of official hassling.
The Dish 