My man Y. Fame over at Beats Ryhmes and Food Stamps put me on to this new scam being run by the NYPD. I missed it, but apparently the NY Daily News ran an article last Wednesday about how NYPD has been conducting a new “experiment” to see what people would do if they saw something valuable left unattended on a train platform. Now we’ve seen these types of experiments on hidden camera segments of midday talk shows. You know where an actor drops a dollar in the street and they try to see who picks it up and returns it. But this is the cops we’re talking about.

In the article it discusses one case where a middle aged Hispanic man picked up a bait wallet and was detained by police moments later while trying to board a train. Apparently the man was not arrested.

Now Fame takes the stance that he feels this is, by design, going to target young minorities by causing them to fall victim to the trap. It is his belief that the contentious relationship between young minorities and the white Irish/ Italian American police force majority will cause a clash if this experiment is allowed to continue.

I will take it a step further however. Lets do OUR OWN experiment. Person A is a 42 year old White Male who makes $200,000 per year, works on Wall Street and is dressed in a suit. Person B is like me a 28 year old Hispanic/ African American male who lives in BedSty, Brooklyn and is dressed in a hoodie, jeans and Timbs. First of all the rich white majority wouldn’t NEED to pick up the wallet while the poor minority might HAVE TO. Now lets have 2 white male, plain clothes police officers approach each suspect. By default subject B will probably run because history shows us that the police will often fail to adequately identify themselves and if they do he’ll assume he’s going to get shot. On the other hand, the white male suspect would probably be mildly approached, would never be assumed armed or dangerous and would be lightly frisked…maybe cuffed. The minority might be approached with guns brandished, would be restrained at best and aggressively checked.

All and all this idea is flawed by design and by historical evidence. We know although the police may not intend to arrest either subject, because of the design of the experiment and his historical references, the situation will cause the minority subjects to respond in a way that WILL BE perceived as criminal activity probably resulting in their arrest. CUT IT OUT NYPD!