Defunding the police is not the only way to degrade, demoralize, and hamstring a police force. Politicians have the power to regulate them into ineffectiveness, to prevent them from using entirely constitutional investigative tools. To convince officers if they dare contact–or horrors–arrest members of Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) identity or favored perpetual victim groups, they’ll lose their careers and face arrest, bankruptcy and prison. Through these methods, and constantly public denouncements, police officers can be forced to abandon proactive policing, to appear to do their jobs but to do little or nothing.
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Graphis: New Jersey State Police, Public Domain
Unsurprisingly, in such blue places, crime rates skyrocket, which causes culpable politicians to deny the obvious and to blame the police ever more loudly. Such a place, circa January, 2025, is New Jersey:
New Jersey State Police were facing accusations of racial profiling before a report revealed a sharp decline in traffic stops that coincided with a rise in crashes, some of them fatal.
Now they’re facing a special counsel investigation from the state attorney general’s office, leaving troopers in a difficult position as they try to protect the public as well as their own careers amid intense scrutiny that advocates see as anti-police.
That’s because it is. While no one likes getting a ticket, reliable science—trustworthy science–has proved effective, fair traffic enforcement substantially reduces accidents.
State troopers were accused of profiling minority drivers in a report from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability that looked at stops between 2009 and 2021. Then they were told by union leaders that every stop they made would go under the microscope, according to a New York Times report. For months, they made fewer stops than normal.
A subsequent drop in traffic stops coincided with an 18% increase in crashes, some of which took lives, according to the paper, citing public records. The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I suspect an unbiased review of those accusations would indicate a “disparate impact” conclusion. If NJ has a 13% black population, but 17% of stops turn out to be black drivers, D/s/c thinking is the only reason for that statistical disparity must be police racism. That blacks nationally, and particularly young black men, commit crimes far out of proportion to their population numbers is, to D/s/cs, irrelevant and must be hidden.
Days after the Times report, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced an investigation into how the matter “was orchestrated” and vowed accountability.
Platkin pretended the NJ State Police were purposely not enforcing the law and also pretended not to know why that might be so. He appointed a former Obama U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara to investigate the NJSP. [skip]
The state report, which analyzed traffic stops between 2009 and 2021, accused troopers of “enforcement practices that result in adverse treatment towards minority motorists.”
[National Police Association Spokesperson Betsy] Branter Smith, however, downplayed concerns of profiling leading to the stops. More than 60% of the people pulled over were White drivers. Just under 19% were Black and around 13.5% were Hispanic.
According to the US Census, these are New Jersey’s population figures:
White: 70.4%
Black: 15.5%
Hispanic: 22.7%
Yes, that adds up to 108.6, but it’s government, so what do you expect? The proportions are likely relatively accurate, and considering black propensity to commit more crimes, easily within the statistical margin of error. Apparently, New Jersey Hispanics are uncommonly law abiding, at least in terms of traffic offenses, and so are white people. If there’s no statistical disparity, from where do claims of racial profiling come?
Officers making traffic stops can virtually never determine the race of drivers until after they’re stopped and the officer approaches their door, which makes claims of profiling politically suspect.
Branter Smith concluded:
“The public knows this, undoubtedly, that the police have been cut off at the knees,” she told Fox News Digital. “This is just a very soft way to be anti-police. It’s almost a way to defund the police without defunding, without talking about defunding them, without making anti-police statements publicly.” [skip]
“The most ridiculous part of this is the criminal investigation,” she added. “The most horrific part of it are these additional accidents.”
Exactly. Call the police racist, subject them to investigations by anti-police D/s/cs, convince them lawfully doing their jobs will result in discipline, firing, even prison, and they’re going to do what any rational person would under those circumstances: as little as possible.
In New Jersey, the public, who keep voting for D/s/cs, are seeing and feeling the inevitable result of hobbling their police. Through ignorance, inattention or malice, Americans get the police and politicians they deserve.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
