He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.
-P.G. Wodehouse
I loathe Washington Post columnist Richard, but not just because of his lack of intelligence, as the Wodehouse quote above alludes to. But because he thinks he is very intelligent, despite his writing and analysis being so poorly constructed that it would garner an "F" from my alma mater, Vassar College—a school that rarely dispenses such a grade.
This evening Cohenaccused opponents of Stop-and-Frisk of enabling an environment where "guns will remain on the street and more people will die." He also writes:
The same holds for racial profiling. The numbers are proof not of racism but of a lamentable fact: Black and Hispanic men are disproportionately stopped because they are disproportionally the perpetrators of gun crime. The four persons a day that have not been killed by guns are statistically not white. They are black or Hispanic.
No one is disputing the fact that black and Latino men commit crimes at a higher rate than white men. Poor folks, no matter where one is, are more likely to engage in criminal activity given their economic conditions. But not all black or brown men are responsible for the criminal actions of a few, no more than all white men like Richard Cohen are responsible for the criminal antics of those on Wall Street. I would not endorse stopping all the white men who enter JP Morgan's headquarters, just as it shouldn't be okay for the NYPD to stop and harass black and brown men solely because of their skin color. And yet these obvious contextual examples don't stop Cohen from advocating for the racial profiling of black and brown men.
The columnist went onto assert that crime has dropped in NY at a more dramatic rate than any other city, even though some statistics show that San Diego has seen an even larger decline. Nevertheless, Cohen has no way to prove that Stop-and-Frisk is the reason behind NY's drop in crime. He just says so because he, like many liberal elites, worships at the alter of that egomaniac Mike Bloomberg who Cohen applauds for doing "a bang up job".
We shouldn't be surprised by Cohen's racist rants. This is a man who has written the following comments:
I also can understand why Zimmerman was suspicious and why he thought Martin was wearing a uniform we all recognize.
For most Americans, race has become supremely irrelevant. Everyone knows this. Every poll shows this. Maybe the Supreme Court will recognize this.
Cohen also, in an infamous 1980s column, defended racist NY jewelry store owners who refused to admit black patrons.
This man clearly believes that black and brown crime is pathological. He has no understanding of the factors behind the criminal antics of impoverished peoples. Instead Cohen, who is Jewish and the descendant of a group that was profiled and branded with a yellow star in Nazi Germany for no reason other than their ethnic identity, is now advocating for the same bigoted policies on the opinion pages of the Washington Post. Cohen ended his screed by insulting those who disagree with his support of racial profiling by calling them simplistic. But of course a man who sexually harasses women and then argues it wasn't sexual harassment would say such a thing.
Cohen, like most entitled wealthy, white men, doesn't believe his behavior is racist or sexist. He thinks that's just the way life is. But for those not white and/or possessing a penis, Cohen's world isn't our world. My walking down the street and being stopped by a cop just because I'm black isn't constitutional or moral. Perhaps, Cohen would better understand this perspective if he got off his fat ass and stepped foot in the real world. America's segregation has not only sustained white supremacy but it also allows for a lack of compassion of empathy. Bloomberg said today that if he had a black child it's possible he would feel differently about S&F; and to this I say: Of course! Herein lies the problem with Cohen, Bloomberg and company: they don't understand life outside their privileged circles. Bloomberg, I think, may be genuinely committed to stopping crime, but Cohen is a filthy bigot who does a poor job of hiding it with his dreadful writing on the equally dreadful opinion pages of the Washington Post.
His musings on the Post's pages are indeed a train wreck. But worse than putrid writing is the sort of thinking, exhibited by Cohen, that allows the continuation of reactionary and racist policies that do nothing to improve the relationship between police and black and brown communities. He is worse than Jennifer Rubin because he truly thinks he is an enlightened liberal thinker.