Not Everyone Thinks Stop and Frisk Is Racial

Our reader survey suggests racial and gender gaps when it comes to thoughts on police and profiling. http://www.theroot.com/views/stop-and-frisk-survey-results

The majority of those who took our survey are on the side of Sunday’s marchers: 86.5 percent believe that stop and frisk is not an adequate crime deterrent, 75 percent believe that police unfairly target certain racial groups and 89 percent believe that stopping and frisking innocents is a civil rights violation. And about half, regardless of race, said that their parents had talked to them about what to do if stopped by police.
When it came to identifying the factors that might affect a person’s likelihood of being stopped and frisked, race was the most popular answer across the board, but blacks were more likely to choose gender as a factor than whites were, while whites were more likely to choose clothing as a factor.
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The Root’s reader survey results lead me to believe that a plurality composed of black and white respondents believe that race is a predominant factor in stop-and-frisk activity. But separately, neither group sees race as a predominant factor. That supports an element of my OpEd yesterday that law-abiding residents support the tactic and want the criminal element dealt with.
Michael Benjamin