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Dear Editor:
When WISH-TV broke the news that traffic ticket data showed blacks are 18 times more likely to be ticketed by Carmel police than are whites, the official reaction was appalling.
Instead of admitting what the facts showed and presenting a plan to correct matters, the mayor changed the subject.
Blacks constitute less than 3 percent of Carmel’s population. The mayor said that figure doubles when black workers commute to Carmel in the daytime.
He cited no data to support that. The TV reporter went to Census Bureau data that suggested a 6 percent black population in daytime.
Even so, doubling the black population doubtless is paralleled by an increase in white commuters to the city as well.
So, the 1-to-18 ratio might be less – or more. But, that is hypothetical speculation. As Charles Eppes, distinguished professor in the Kansas University School of Public Affairs, pointed out, the numbers show a huge disparity that is not inevitable but can be fixed. This logic escaped the mayor.
But, it shouldn’t escape Civil Rights leaders, the FBI (which funds Carmel police activities), religious leaders or ordinary taxpayers, whose trust in local government took another body blow.
Fortunately for the mayor, WISH-TV failed to include Carmel Police Department Annual Report figures showing a drop in all warnings of 50 percent since 2014 and a drop in citations (tickets) from 10,000 a year to about 6,000.
Fewer tickets, but 18 times more likely to be issued to black Americans than white. It’s time the mayor leaves fantasyland and faces reality.
Bill Shaffer
Carmel