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COMMENTARY: Racial profiling remains a daily dilemma for LAPD New report cites evidence of police bias

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Whites are caught with illegal drugs more often. However, according to the new analysis, Whites were more likely to be found with drugs, weapons and other illicit articles, at 20 percent of all searches, whereas Blacks were only at 17 percent and Latinx at 16 percent. The count included both pat-down and vehicle searches. The “Brothers, Sons, Selves” coalition’s manager, David Turner, remembered when his father told him to fear the cops, but didn’t understand why until an officer held a gun to him during a random traffic stop.

Published

7 years ago

November 3, 2019

Oakland Post

Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA

By Isabell Rivera, OW Contributor

Although crime in Los Angeles has somewhat decreased over the years, certain areas—such as South Los Angeles—have witnessed an increase. And with high crime comes high police activity.

The issue

Since racial diversity between Whites and persons of color is practically non-existent in certain neighborhoods, the targets of police detainments/arrests are mostly people of color. Being at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and wearing the wrong colored clothes, or just being in the car, waiting for the traffic light to switch, or having broken headlights, might all be reasons to be stopped by the police. However, the color of someone’s skin might just be enough of a reason to look like a suspect.

According to a new LA Times analysis, more than 20 percent of vehicle stops that involved African Americans were for equipment violation, such as a broken taillight or tinted windows were the reasons, compared to 11 percent of Whites who were stopped. Those types of violations can serve as a motive for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to look for more that isn’t as obvious at first glance. Those so-called “pre-textual traffic stops” are legal but are taken with a grain of salt; since critics say that it gives law enforcement too much freedom to decide based on instinct versus evidence.

Metro Division under scrutiny

One division of the LAPD has been under scrutiny: the elite Metropolitan (Metro) division. They are trained to perform various tasks in regard to diverse crime-fighting duties, such as surveillance, counter terrorism, as well as crowd control. Recently, they’ve been assisting the South Bureau to help fight crimes associated with gangs and drugs.

“We’re trying to stop drive-by shootings,” Capt. Jonathan Tippet of Metro told the LA Times. “If we’re not here, it’s going to have a negative impact and allow people to go back to committing crime. If we’re not here to keep the peace, we’re going to have bloodshed.”

The problem is that the “stop-and-frisk” procedures mostly happen to people of color. In a city that is just 9 percent Black, 49 percent of the drivers stopped by the Metro division were Black.

“African-Americans were not the quote-unquote target. And that’s my concern with the data point and how it’s being interpreted — that we just went out looking for African Americans,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore said. “That’s not what crime suppression was involved in.”

Statistics of other races that were stopped by Metro: Latinx at 44 percent, account for 49 percent of the city’s population. Whites on the other hand, accounted for less than 4 percent of the drivers stopped but are 28-percent city population.

Whites are caught with illegal drugs more often. However, according to the new analysis, Whites were more likely to be found with drugs, weapons and other illicit articles, at 20 percent of all searches, whereas Blacks were only at 17 percent and Latinx at 16 percent. The count included both pat-down and vehicle searches. The “Brothers, Sons, Selves” coalition’s manager, David Turner, remembered when his father told him to fear the cops, but didn’t understand why until an officer held a gun to him during a random traffic stop.

“We’re watching all these movies, all these things that glorify law enforcement, we’re thinking they’re cool, but my dad [told me] ‘We need to be afraid,’” Turner said in an interview. “This is because of the things he experienced here as a Black man in Los Angeles. That trauma he had, he passed to my sister and I.”

According to the LA Times, the LAPD’s former constitutional policing advisor, Arif Alikhan, said that the conducted analysis doesn’t account for the difficulties a police officer has in gauging the situation.

“We don’t pull people over based on race. We’re not supposed to do that,” Alikhan said. “It’s illegal. It’s unconstitutional. And that’s not the basis [on which] we do it.”

Alberto Retana, president of Community Coalition, wasn’t surprised by the data, and gave a statement on behalf of the social justice coalition PUSH-LA, which stands for Promoting Unity Safety & Health Los Angeles, that advocates to reform policing.

“To communities of color across Los Angeles, the article’s data is unfortunately unsurprising and verifies what we know to be true about the racial profiling happening by the LAPD. These vehicle searches are just the tip of the iceberg as the LAPD also has a long track record of aggressively searching the homes and schools of people of color,”
Retana said. “This clear evidence of racial profiling has many harmful implications for Black and Brown families, including emotional and material impact when they get unjustly tangled in the mass incarceration system.

Activists demand ‘real reform’

“The LAPD’s response that they don’t pull over and search people based on race should be met with heavy skepticism, especially given that of the 385,000 stops analyzed by the Times report, three quarters of them involved Black and Latinx people,” Retana continued. “Our community members in South LA and other overpoliced communities are terrified of the police and don’t feel protected or served. We want real reform and
the PUSH LA ‘Reimagine Protect and Serve’ coalition will be sending a letter to Mayor Garcetti and Chief Moore with three key demands.”

The purpose

The first mission that’s on the LAPD’s agenda is the prevention of crime—especially gang-related crimes. In 2015, Mayor Garcetti and then-Chief Charlie Beck executed the “traffic stop and search” method to combat gang violence – mostly shootings – in South LA.

And since most gangs in South LA are Black, people of color become a target automatically. However, Metro said, it’s hard to determine what skin color the drivers have when it’s dark outside and the division only stops drivers if there is a reason for it, such as paper license plates, parking violations or broken headlights. However, if the colors of their clothing indicate gang association, they’ll continue to search the vehicle and passengers for weapons and drugs.

It’s a fine line between following procedures and following instinct, but because the Metro Division has been scrutinized just like the New York City Police Department (NYPD) a few years back when they introduced the stop-and-frisk, Mayor Eric Garcetti wanted to pull them back completely, which resulted in fear in the South Bureau that
crimes will rise – which they did. Shootings in South LA have increased, even before the fatal shooting of rapper Nipsey Hussle (Ermias Asghedom). According to news outlets, the month of March accounted for 26 shootings and 10 homicides.

‘Picking up the pieces’

“That’s 36 families left picking up the pieces,” Moore said via Twitter. “We will work aggressively with our community to quell this senseless loss of life.”

The “stop-and-frisk” tactics in New York City resulted in 50.6 percent of Blacks being stopped, although Blacks only accounted for 25.6 percent of the city’s population. The Latinx population of New York City accounts for 23.7 percent but 33 percent of Hispanics were stopped. Again, Whites had the lowest percentage: accounting for 43.4 percent of the city’s population, yet only 12.9 percent of those who were stopped randomly, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The “stop-and-frisk” procedures have since been reduced, as a result of a federal lawsuit in 2013, which former federal court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled to be unconstitutional.” Scheindlin said in an interview that those tactics weren’t effective and that didn’t stop crime.

Deputy Chief Dennis Kato said in an interview that Metro officers stop a large number of Black drivers because many violent crime suspects are Black, the LA Times reported.

Kato told the LA Times that if Black gangs are involved, Metro officers will use traffic violations to stop, “African-American males ages 16 to 24 who dress or look like gang members.”

Social Biases

When it comes to racial profiling—although most of this might just be subconscious—it is deeply embedded in most of society and has something to do with the fact of how people have been raised.

According to researchers at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, racial bias forms in infancy. Studies found that infants as young as six months old feel more comfortable around the same race if being overwhelmingly exposed, and therefore favor people who look like them. However, the studies also point out that infants who are exposed to people who look different, develop deep-rooted discomfort.

According to the ACLU, in a study conducted by the University of California and the University of Chicago that “recreated the experience of a police officer confronted with a ‘potentially’ dangerous suspect,” the results were interesting.

In the study, “participants fired on an armed target more quickly when the target was African American than White and decided not to shoot an unarmed target more quickly when the target was White than when African-American. Participants failed to shoot an armed target more often when that target was White than when the target was
African American. If the target was unarmed, participants mistakenly shot the target more often when African American than when White. Shooting bias was greater among participants who held a strong cultural stereotype of African Americans as aggressive, violent, and dangerous.”

Chief Moore responds

“There is a conversation… that the current presentation of data we are talking about is having a terribly corrosive effect on people of color, particularly African-Americans, and that concerns me as a chief,” Moore said. “I hear and feel the trauma this has reignited,
the injury, the concern that somehow [the] LAPD is slipping back into its old ways.”

Retana and Moore met in March to discuss the removal of Metro. “What we’re finding is that African-American residents are afraid of police officers, and that break of trust undermines public safety,” Retana said, as the LA Times reported.

Regardless of crime prevention resulting from the “stop-and-frisk” procedures in South LA, for many Blacks who reside there insist that “driving while Black” is a grim reality confirmed by statistics.

“Many police practices may be useful for fighting crime — preventive detention or coerced confession, for example—but because they are unconstitutional, they cannot be used, no matter how effective,” Scheindlin said in the plaintiff against New York City, in the 2013 lawsuit.

Change in sight

After the LA Times investigated and reported that the random traffic stops performed by Metro were considered “bias” at most, the LAPD said to cut back.

Moore issued a statement and told the Times the vehicle stops performed by Metro were not proven successful, accounting for one arrest per 100 cars stopped, as it was adding more stress and tension to drivers who felt like being selected depending on their race.

Officers of the Metro Division, who number approximately 200, will focus on wanted suspects for violent offenses instead, and use other methods besides traffic stops to make arrests.

The new changes will take place in late November of 2019 and were directed by community leaders who criticized the Metro Division’s “stop and search” methods.

Retana told the LA Times that the stop and search methods by the LAPD have caused quite the distress on the Black and Latinx community in South LA.

“These changes to Metro’s policing style in South Los Angeles vindicate what our community has been saying all along about the highly imbalanced use of pre-textual stops on Black and Brown people,” said Retana, on behalf of PUSH LA coalition.” We need to ensure that there’s proof that the stops by Metro are in fact ending, which means
the LAPD must be transparent in its release of real data in regular reports.”

‘Reimagine Protect & Serve’

In 2017, the number of cars stopped and searched by Metro rose from a few thousand cars prior to 63,000, which are about 12 percent of all LAPD traffic stops.

Opponents of the LAPD, and its divisions, criticized Metro saying it reminds of the crucial times of the past where the police targeted mostly minorities.

Moore said in a statement regarding the Times’ analysis that it didn’t cover all aspects, but that the report raised concerns he will take a closer look at.

“We’re aware that the disparate impact on communities of color, particularly in South Los Angeles, raises concerns about trust and confidence that this is a department that’s sensitive to what our interaction with them are,” he said. “I think…what traffic stops
represent is a small area of what our work is. Our work is in many different fronts in regard to public safety, including prevention and intervention efforts.”

Community Coalition, ACLU work in tandem Since the ACLU and CoCo were among the only local social justice organizations that demanded Mayor Garcetti to pull Metro back from South LA completely, or at least cut back on random traffic stops and searches, vehicle stops have been down by 11 percent by all LAPD officers in comparison to the same period last year. In a statement issued by Garcetti to the Times, he said, “I look
forward to our Police Commission and department leaders using this information to improve best practices, and I expect the department to work consciously and evenhandedly to earn the trust of every Angeleno, every day, with every interaction.”

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COMMENTARY: Jim Crow 2.0 at the Pentagon

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The American people are expected to believe that one extraordinary officer after another suddenly fails to meet some undefined standard of excellence. We are expected to ignore impeccable service records while accepting that political appointees alone possess the wisdom to determine who is worthy of advancement.

Published

1 week ago

August 3, 2026

bpusa-syndication

Pete Hegseth insists that he is restoring “merit” to the United States military. But after months of dismissals, blocked promotions, and ideological purges, the evidence tells a different story. His campaign against so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has become something far more dangerous: an assault on equal opportunity that falls with particular force on African Americans, while also targeting women, Latinos, gay Americans, and transgender service members.

The latest example is both troubling and infuriating.

Once again, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly blocked the promotion of an exceptionally qualified woman—Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt. Bauernschmidt is no ordinary officer. She became the Navy’s first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, one of the most demanding leadership assignments in the world. Her career reflects decades of exemplary performance, operational excellence, and leadership under extraordinary pressure.

Yet once again, a distinguished military career appears to have been subordinated to an ideological agenda masquerading as “merit.”

I call BS!

The American people are expected to believe that one extraordinary officer after another suddenly fails to meet some undefined standard of excellence. We are expected to ignore impeccable service records while accepting that political appointees alone possess the wisdom to determine who is worthy of advancement.

The pattern has become impossible to ignore.

General Charles Q. Brown Jr., only the second African American to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was dismissed despite a career that placed him among the most accomplished military leaders of his generation.

Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman ever to serve as Chief of Naval Operations, was removed despite decades of distinguished command experience.

Reports have documented interventions that blocked or delayed the promotions of Black officers and women selected through the military’s rigorous promotion system.

Now Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt joins the growing list of highly accomplished officers whose careers have been derailed for reasons that have never been persuasively explained.

Where is Congress?

Its silence has become deafening.

Congress has an independent constitutional responsibility to oversee the armed forces. Instead, too many lawmakers have watched silently while one of the nation’s most respected institutions is subjected to ideological litmus tests and political interference.

This is not military reform. It is testosterone-fueled performative masculinity disguised as a philosophy of military excellence.

The irony is impossible to miss. Hegseth repeatedly invokes “merit,” yet his rhetoric begins with the assumption that Black officers, women, and other historically excluded Americans must somehow justify their achievements in ways that white male officers are rarely required to do.

That is not meritocracy. It is prejudice wrapped in patriotic language.

No one is asking that anyone be promoted because of race or gender. Americans simply expect that promotions be based on demonstrated competence, leadership, integrity, and service. The officers being targeted have already proven themselves repeatedly under one of the world’s most demanding evaluation systems.

Their records speak for themselves.

The attack on African American military leadership has been especially pernicious.

For generations, Black Americans fought in segregated units, earned decorations while denied equal treatment, and repeatedly demonstrated loyalty to a nation that often failed to extend them full citizenship. They broke barriers not because standards were lowered but because excellence finally overcame institutional discrimination.

Today’s campaign against “diversity” threatens to revive old assumptions under new slogans.

The implication that Black generals and admirals somehow owe their success to affirmative action rather than extraordinary performance echoes some of the ugliest stereotypes of the Jim Crow era. Yesterday’s segregationists claimed Black Americans were inherently less qualified. Today’s culture warriors simply employ more politically acceptable language while inviting the same suspicion about Black achievement.

That is why Hegseth’s campaign increasingly resembles Jim Crow 2.0.

The targets may now wear stars on their shoulders instead of military patches on segregated uniforms, but the underlying message is hauntingly familiar: Black excellence is presumed suspect, while white excellence is presumed earned.

America’s military became the finest fighting force in history because it opened its doors to talent wherever it could be found. It grew stronger after President Truman desegregated the armed forces. It became stronger when women assumed greater command responsibilities. It became stronger when every qualified American was given the opportunity to serve to the fullest extent of their abilities.

Diversity is not a concession. It is a strategic advantage.

The nation’s adversaries do not fear an American military because it is racially homogeneous. They fear it because it draws upon the talents of more than 340 million Americans whose diverse experiences, perspectives, and abilities make our armed forces unmatched anywhere in the world.

Every politically motivated dismissal of a distinguished officer sends a chilling message throughout the ranks: excellence alone may no longer be enough if you belong to the wrong demographic group.

That weakens morale. It weakens recruitment. It weakens retention.

And ultimately, it weakens national security.

Pete Hegseth has every right to pursue military readiness. He has no right to redefine merit in ways that repeatedly cast suspicion upon the accomplishments of Black officers, women, and others who have devoted their lives to defending this nation.

America deserves better. The men and women who wear the uniform deserve better. The Constitution deserves better.

And unless Congress finds the courage to exercise meaningful oversight, history may well remember this period not as a restoration of military excellence, but as the moment political ideology attempted to resurrect, in modern form, the old poison of exclusion.

Jim Crow did not strengthen America. Jim Crow 2.0 will not strengthen America’s military. It will only diminish it

Wade Henderson
Strategic Advisor
Civil and Human Rights
wade@wadejhenderson.com

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New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial

By Emilie St. John (Contributor) Karmelo Anthony will return to court next month in his first step to overturn his murder conviction. Anthony was found guilty last month in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison. His new legal team has filed motions seeking the recusal of State District […]
The post New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 31, 2026

Oakland Post

By Emilie St. John
(Contributor)

Karmelo Anthony will return to court next month in his first step to overturn his murder conviction.

Anthony was found guilty last month in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison. His new legal team has filed motions seeking the recusal of State District Judge John Roach Jr. from overseeing the appeals process.

Two hearings have been scheduled on the motion for Aug. 9 and 10 in the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas, according to Fox4 News.

On July 14, Senior Judge Sid L. Harle of the 226th District Court was assigned to preside over the defense’s motion to recuse Collin County Judge John Roach. The assignment took effect immediately and authorized Harle to handle all matters related to the recusal request, the filing read.

The Collin County District Attorney’s Office continues to defend its handling of the case by issuing a statement to NBC 5 DFW.

“The defendant’s new lawyers have filed a motion containing several inaccurate characterizations of the trial proceedings. The entire prosecution team and I conducted this trial ethically and in full compliance with the Court’s rulings and any agreements with defense counsel. We look forward to addressing these claims thoroughly in a Court of law in the coming weeks. The jury heard extensive evidence over the course of the trial and returned a unanimous verdict. We remain confident in that verdict and the fairness of the proceedings.”

Anthony’s new legal team, made up of appellate, civil rights, and criminal defense attorneys, was retained following Anthony’s conviction.

“Our responsibility is to determine whether a legal error occurred and to ensure that every issue supported by the record is fully and vigorously presented on appeal,” the team said in a statement.

“We recognize the profound loss suffered by one young man’s family and the uncertainty facing another, and we extend our respect to everyone whose lives have been forever changed by these events,” the release reads.

Anthony was charged with the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf during a track meet in Frisco, Texas, April 2, 2025. Anthony has long maintained it was an act of self-defense.

The attorneys are representing Anthony pro bono. The nearly 200-page notice of appeal seeks a new trial because his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated.

“The cumulative and practical effect of these provisions was to exclude members of the public from proceedings at every stage,” the filing reads.

The filing also focused on an alleged “handshake deal” that kept Anthony from taking the stand in his defense.

The defense filing said the agreement was that the jury would not hear that Metcalf and his twin brother had been accused of racism and bullying in the past. In exchange, they also would not see Anthony’s cellphone records or his school disciplinary record, according to court documents reported by the Dallas Morning News.

Anthony’s former defense attorney, Mike Howard, said the defense relied heavily on that deal. The team chose not to ask certain questions of witnesses or call on a separate expert witness based on that agreement. It also abandoned plans to introduce testimony and evidence about the allegations against Metcalf and his brother.

Appellate attorney Russell Wilson is now handling post-trial proceedings and Anthony’s appeal. He recently sat down for an interview, stating, “The court committed multiple errors during the June murder trial, preventing him from receiving a fair trial.”

“You know, we file motions that we expect to prevail on, but we understand that there’s two sides to every story. And at the end of the day, it’ll be a judge that has to make these decisions, but we feel confident in the positions that we’re taking,” Wilson said during an interview with WFAA. “There were substantial issues that we thought a reviewing court needed to look at. We thought these were constitutional irregularities, and we could have them addressed now. And so, we put them into a motion for a new trial.”

Bree West, a former Dallas County Assistant District Attorney, found it startling that so little time was given to Anthony’s team for such a serious “life or death” situation.

“I do think that it’s really challenging that potentially a court decided that you have 10 minutes to make that level of decision when it has the potential of being life-altering,” said West during an interview with Fox 4 News.

Judge Harle is no stranger to high-profile cases, having presided over the prosecution of a police officer charged in connection with the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

Anthony was convicted on June 9 of the murder of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The post New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump!

WESTSIDE GAZETTE — The author criticizes Donald Trump’s rhetoric, noting his use of terms like “Dumbocrats” and “Communist” to describe Democrats and democracy. The column asserts that Trump’s current strategy involves creating doubt about midterm elections due to a lack of Republican agenda.
The post COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump! appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 31, 2026

Oakland Post

Frankly Speaking

Wow! Wow! Wow! The swamp drainers have truly stepped down to new levels of stupidity. You remember Weapons of Mass Destruction? We now have Weapons of Mass Distraction. Trump has introduced Dumbocrats and Communists into the conversation about Democrats and Democracy.

Trump lies so much, and his current strategy is to set up doubt about midterm elections because he and Republicans have no agenda!

He has no “Trump “ card, but Iran has a strait! He called it a skirmish; it’s now a War. He said five days; now it’s five months. He said few casualties; now it’s 18 deaths. He knew nothing about Project 2025 but hired its architects! Trump lies about the lies and often forgets these little inventions called cameras and phones

We see and hear and then see and hear the inconsistencies.

I didn’t like 45 and dislike 47 even more!

The post LSMFT! Lord Save Me From Trump! appeared first on The Westside Gazette.

Based on reporting by Westside Gazette.

The post COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump! appeared first on BlackPressUSA.