The Justice Department provoked controversy last week when it demoted the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in an attempt to downplay a study showing disparities in the treatment of minorities during traffic stops.
The newly released study revealed two important conclusions:
1. Black, Hispanic, and White drivers were about equally likely to be stopped by police. (This looks good.)
2. Black and Hispanic drivers were significantly more likely to be searched, arrested, handcuffed, beaten, maced, or bitten by dogs. (This looks very, very bad.)
As is its custom, the BJS prepared a press release to announce the findings of this congressionally mandated study, identifying the above conclusions as its most notable findings. The Justice Department intervened, insisting that BJS not publicize that nasty part about minority drivers being more likely to be searched, arrested, handcuffed, beaten, maced, or bitten by dogs.
A conflict emerged in the course of which BJS Director Lawrence A. Greenfeld was removed from his post. His attempt to provide the media with an unbiased summary of his agency’s findings was apparently too much for his superiors at the DOJ. Ultimately, no press release was sent out, and the study was unceremoniously posted in the bowels of the BJS website.
Perhaps this is as close as we’ll ever come to seeing Bush’s Justice Department actually admit that they’re “concerned” about racial profiling. Granted, they show their concern by burying important studies and firing statisticians who are unwilling to politicize empirical data, but at least they noticed that the numbers look bad.