It’s interesting how news stories and public debates about the police procedure of carding lose track of that thing called crime. Instead, the writers always find plenty of evidence that the police aren’t seeking to detect crime but are instead out to harass black kids. Even people who should know better, like former mayor John Sewell, was saying the other night on CP24 that carding is about police finding black youth and carding them. That might hold water except that the statistics show carding is done where the crime occurs. It is important that police can justify carding as useful in solving crime. It’s also important to understand that carding, no matter how honest and sincere, will always be the subject of complaints. Those who complain may feel harassed but it is the incendiary accusation that our mixed race police department is racist that offends. The whole city must decide whether the inconvenience of being carded — that is, being stopped and talked to — is more than we should ask in order to keep people safer. Chief to outline ideas to reform “carding”
