By Mansfield Frazier
Back in the mid-’70s, gun crimes were getting out of control in New York City so the police decided on a strategy to get weapons off the streets. Their solution was elegant in its simplicity: In the late evening and early morning hours (when most gun crimes occur) they selectively stopped cars, searched for guns, and confiscated them when they were discovered, but they did so in a unique manner.
They would pull over select cars cruising through certain neighborhoods, and, in an almost apologetic manner, they informed the occupants they were only looking for weapons, nothing else. They didn’t ask for IDs; they didn’t check drivers’ licenses; they didn’t detain citizens while they search databases for outstanding warrants; and they paid no attention to any drugs that might have been in the vehicle. They had one mission, and one mission only — to get guns off the streets.
Were they violating the Constitution by selecting which cars to stop? Probably. But the cops knew what they were doing and narrowed the way in which they did it so their actions really didn’t cause any of the people who were searched (or any civil rights organizations) to get up in arms.
The reason was simple: These stops didn’t turn into testosterone-driven encounters where officers felt they had to exercise their authority by dogging people out. No one was made to lay out prone on the ground while the vehicle was being searched, and none of the officers assigned to the detail attempted to take anyway anyone’s manhood under the color of authority. The encounters were as cordial as they could be … considering you were being jacked-up by the rollers.
And, in the instances where a gun was discovered in the vehicle, it was simply confiscated and the occupants were allowed to go on their merry way. No attempt was made to ascertain whom the gun belonged to … the driver or one of the passengers … they didn’t care; their mission was simple, clear and they stuck to it. And it worked — gun violence decreased in the city.
However, the third time I was stopped in my shiny new Cadillac — as I cruised down Eighth Avenue at 3 am with my road dog, leaving a nightclub and heading to an after-hours joint — I did finally protest: “Damn, dude,” I said to the officer, “you’ve stopped me three nights in a row, if you didn’t find my gat on the first night, do you think you’re going to find one in my car now … knowing that you guys are cracking down? Do I really look that stupid?”
The plainclothes officer smiled and allowed me to go on my way, sans another search. No harm, no foul was the way we both saw it.
Now, if the police were to utilize such a tactic here in Cleveland (provided of course that officers could be trained to carry out the mission without stepping off in everyone’s ass) would there be howls of protests and lawsuits filed? Get real, by whom? With killings approaching a crisis, something dramatic has to be done, and if done right even opponents of the tactic would soon calm down and the result would be fewer guns on the streets.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.