Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The New York Times math whiz...


New York City police officers made more than 170,000 stops of people on the streets in the first three months of 2009, the most for any quarter in the eight years since the department began reporting the data, according to a report made public on Tuesday.

The percentage of the stops that yielded arrests or summonses, however, has remained consistent at a little more than 10 percent.
Absorb this warped percipience from CHRISTINE HAUSER of the NY Times.

Consistent at little more than 10 percent. So, where are the cudos to the NYPD. If they stopped 170,000 people, and arrested 10 percent of those folks...they nabbed (drum roll) 17,000 people in violation of the law.

Good Job!!!

The devil is in the details...

The report, released to the City Council on May 1 and made public by the New York Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday, says officers made 171,094 stops from January through March of this year. That was an 18 percent increase over the previous record for a quarter of 145,098 in the same period in 2008, according to an analysis of the data by the civil liberties group.
Oh Ho....actually, the phrase was "more than 10 percent" so they arrested more than 17,000 individuals. And, the NYCLU says there were over 171,000 stops.

Now, they also say that last year, the number of stops in the same time frame was 145,098. That means the total number of arrests in 2008 from those stops was just over 14,510 arrests. In other words, the NYPD arrested more than 2,500 more people for violation of the law. Where's the beef here?

Again, NICE JOB, NYPD!!!!

The group also charged that the report shows that a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos were among those stopped.
Uh huh...yeah...well, the percentage of arrests staying consistent regardless of the number of people stopped suggests that the NYPD can do better. When the percentage of arrests drops in proportion to the increase of stops, then the plateau has been reached. In the interim, the Latino and Black communities are absolutely documented in this report twisted by the New York Times to be a bigger part of the crime problem if the number of arrests exceed their percentage make up of the city's ethnicity.

Good Gosh!!!! Did The Worm actually just say that? Sure...the numbers don't lie. Statistical fact indicates that the NYCLU is complaining because that the crack down on crime is bagging a comparatively higher percentage of those minorities who are claiming victim status. It's like weighing yourself down underwater with a concrete block and complaining about the choppy seas.