Profiling

You have just taken the job as Police Chief in a midsize town and the people complain that there is too much drug traffic. You recall some years back in your previous job that you set up a road block to check for safety features on cars and in the process arrested a number of drunk drivers. This could be used to determine if there is a drug problem so you set up such a test. You cannot stop all cars as this would result in a traffic jam so you send your assistant up the road and tell him to randomly select cars and radio you which to pull over. He knows that the purpose is to look for possible drug dealers so he sets up to observe the cars. The first car is a Lincoln Town Car with and elderly couple. The second is a Volkswagen with two nuns. The third is a van with mom and dad and four small children and the forth is a Mercedes with a young man wearing a gold chain. Your assistant tells you to pull over the Mercedes. Take a moment to think this over and then see if your thoughts on the plan change when I tell you that the driver of the Mercedes is black. Does anything change in your thought process? You are the new Police Chief in town and the people complain that crime is on the rise and want you to take action. You check the police records and discover that 40% of the crimes are committed in an area that represents only 10% of the city. With that in mind you put 40% of your officers in this area and soon you are making lots of arrest and the crime rate begins to drop. After several months it is pointed out that almost half of the people arrested are black even though the black population of the city is only 10%. Do these statistics prove that you are discriminating against blacks. In this day of political correctness can statistical facts be used to prove discrimination? If I say that 40% of men in prison are black, and blacks represent 12% of the population is that a prejudicial statement. If statistics show that 50% of murders are committed by blacks and 95% of these are black on black, is that a prejudicial statement? The question I am posing has to do with what the listener hears. If I make a statement of fact and the listener feels that it shows a bias, should I refrain from making such statements out of concern for that other person. If I answer yes to this question then I have to get inside the head of the listener to try and understand where he is coming from. As a responsible person who is concerned about the feelings of others is this something I should do?