By Dylan Borne
Recent reporting in the Times Picayune by Chelsea Brasted has dug up some disgusting, but not surprising, statistics about the NOPD’s treatment of Black bicycle riders.
Based on information from the “Regional Planning Commission’s 2015 New Orleans Pedestrian and Bicycle Count Report” and the New Orleans Municipal and Traffic Court: Black people make up only 26% of overall cyclists while whites make up 69%. Yet Black cyclists get hit with 63% of the fines for biking violations while whites only get 32%.
In other words, cops are over 5 times more likely to give citations to Black cyclists than white ones.
Most of these violations are totally harmless, and the ones that can cause problems don’t merit a huge fine of hundreds or thousands of dollars (a penalty that can suck working class people into debt traps and deepen poverty).
These fines are just another example of the laws being on the books for the purpose of the police using them to attack black working class communities. In this respect, it’s no different than how the police in Louisiana are three times more likely to arrest black people for marijuana than white people (Southern Poverty Law Center), or how black teenage boys nationally are 21 times more likely to get killed by police than white ones (ProPublica).
It’s also a way of raising revenue for the city without stepping on the toes of the rich. Instead of taxing hotels, casinos, and restaurants that profit from the workers of New Orleans, the city government taxes ordinary working people through these fines.
These fines, just like traffic cameras do not make us safer, just more desperate. The city can provide free education to all riders and car drivers, rather than further impoverishing them with another oppressive fine.