BALTIMORE's elected leaders who support a "zero-tolerance" policy toward minor criminal offenses should stop for a moment and study the experiences of New York City and its extremely aggressive police force.
Many police brutality incidents there -- including the shootings of unarmed citizens, all nonwhite, and sustained complaints by minorities of unrelenting harassment by policemen -- has created an explosive racial climate.
New York's predicament was ignited by a racially incendiary mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose constant egging on of his police to step up their normal swagger, made a bad situation much worse.
The two most stunning and shameful incidents were the death last month of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Guinean immigrant street peddler who was the target of 41 bullets fired by four white officers, and the attack two years ago on Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was sodomized and tortured by white police in a New York station house.
Mr. Giuliani is now the object of an outraged citizenry from all communities. He was booed at the funeral of Mr. Diallo, whose family refused offers of help from the city. The Republican mayor has been under siege by steady protests in New York and other cities. Such racial unrest does nothing for his ambitions for higher office, except among extreme right wingers.
There have been many other less dramatic incidents -- although they surely were dramatic and traumatic to the victims -- and less-publicized assaults on the New York area's young, immigrant and minority communities.
Across the river in New Jersey, state troopers last April fired 11 shots at four unarmed minority youngsters on their way to a basketball tournament. The van the four were riding in was stopped for some unexplained reason; the victims charged racial profiling -- placing people under suspicion because of their race. The case remains unresolved.
The continuation and indulgence of despicable police acts are signs that something is awfully wrong; perhaps the downward spiral of race relations is not abating as some Americans claim.
For black Americans, zero-tolerance campaigns are a reflection of the times, of impotent political power and influence. Mr. Giuliani eggs on his police department, whose policies are devastating to minorities, simply because he can get away with it. He has the support of most white New Yorkers, though even many of them are outraged by the Diallo killing.
People are disturbed because the four policemen accused of killing Diallo have been protected by departmental rules that allow them to not file a report about the incident with the department.
Many New Yorkers fear the four officers -- in the clutches of their attorneys -- will concoct a uniform story, obscuring the facts. Mr. Giuliani won't force the men to talk and the black community can't. This is the kind of police-state mentality the mayor has boosted.
Historically, the police were the enforcers of rules that kept the races apart. Modern police are the heirs to that tradition and are not helped by continuing racial divisions, their own misplaced phobias and self-separation (many police live far from the communities they patrol).
These factors compound the tense relations between inner-city residents and the police. There is little argument that respect is lower and mistrust higher than they should be between the two sides.
As the Baltimore mayoral race heats up, zero-tolerance policing is likely to be a key issue. Last fall, the City Council passed a resolution renewing the call for Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to adopt a "zero-tolerance" policy in dealing with the rising number of open-air illegal drug markets in the city, long considered a cause of the high murder rate.
When you hear such comments, remember: If a New York-style, zero-tolerance policy is what Baltimore wants, then it should be prepared for the New York-type consequences.
Paul Delaney is co-director of the Center for the Study of Race and Media at Howard University in Washington.
Pub Date: 3/05/99