Marable weighs in

[Carl Remick]

>From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com>
>
>>Sorry to be a vulgar empiricist, but how many people did El
>>Salvador's death squads kill, and how many have the NYPD killed? The
>>ratio's something like 10,000 to 1, no?
>>
>>Doug
>
>Good estimate. The death squads in ES killed maybe 300,000 people in the
>1980s. The NYPD has probably killed no more 50 people in the last decade,
>and--sorry Art--some of them with reason. I mean, the cops actually do
>sometimes have to deal with real bad guys who are actually shooting at 
>them.
>Say that half the people killed by NYD were Diallos, unjustified killings. 
>I
>bet that is too high, but Art will think it is too low, so for the sake of
>compromise say half. That gives a ratio of 12,000:1. jks

Has it come to this then, clapping the NYPD on the back because it has a 
better human rights record than some Latin American death squad?  As a 
middle-aged, white commuter in NYC I have stood little chance of getting 
bounced around by Rudy's uniformed thugs.  But there is no question that, 
during Rudy's reign, the NYPD assumed an air of swaggering arrogance that 
took a real toll of the city's quality of life for everyone.

Carl

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