From Chad Rogers’ Dead Pelican comes the link to this story:

Lee drops idea of targeting black men in high crime areas

09:11 AM CDT on Friday, October 27, 2006

Ben Lemoine / Eyewitness News Reporter

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee said he is abandoning an idea he had to stop and possibly search young black men in high crime neighborhoods after complaints from the NAACP.

“It’s history,� said Lee in an interview with WWL radio Friday morning. “I’m not thinking about it any more.�

Now, I know you all are thinking that this is one of those EVIIIILLLLL southern sheriffs, but there’s a problem with that: Harry Lee is of Chinese ancestry.

And why is he even thinking of going after those black youths?

In an interview on WWL-TV Thursday night, Lee said the main reason behind the escalating murder rate in Jefferson Parish is black on black crime involving drugs.

He said that the overwhelming majority of victims of the murders in Jefferson Parish this year have been black, as have the majority of the suspects.

Yep! The murder rate in his area of responsibility is, in his estimate, rather high. No, make that alarmingly high. And being as how he sees the requirement of his office is to fight crime, of which murder is one, he’s going after it. And, being a thinking member of the human race and feeling responsible for getting the biggest bang for the taxpayer buck, he heads straight to the source of the statistics.

“The white community is not the problem. The black community is the problem,� said Lee. “I think in the last few months now, the black community is recognizing it, and they’re willing to say, the sheriff is right. The problem is in the black community and we have to start doing things differently than we did in the past.�

Lee said that he wanted to confront groups of young black males congregating in the high crime areas, search them and possibly do background checks.

Of course, that’s not a smart thing to do in the politically charged climate of the black community.

Local NAACP chief Dannatus King, whose organization accompanied Lee on a recent trip to Boston to look at their crime fighting techniques, called the comments “saddening.” King said the comments threatened the goodwill that Lee and the NAACP have exchanged.

So let me get this straight: Sheriff Lee is trying to lower the murder rate in black neighborhoods, but the NAACP is fighting him.

Lee said that after viewing Mr. Kings’ comments on WWL-TV, that he will call him and say, “you win.�

Ol’ Harry Lee knows a losing battle when he sees one, so he backed off that plan fast…

In Friday morning’s radio interview, Lee said he understood that some people might have problems with his plans to target young black men and that he has no problem stepping back from the idea, one he said he hadn’t even discussed with his staff, much less implemented.

“If they say that they don’t want to do that and that they’ll accept the consequences, that’s okay with me,� he said. “I did not think that stopping blacks from killing blacks would be objectionable to blacks.�

Oh, Mr. Lee is learning a lesson here: Blacks aren’t supposed to kill each other, but when they do, we’re not supposed to catch them, either.

Lee was also told that a couple of web site polls showed high support for his plan, but Lee said that support was likely coming from people who wouldn’t be affected.

He said it is easy for someone whose child is not likely to be stopped to be okay with having other people checked.

Yeah, i guess so. You see, if you factor out the murders in those areas populated by Mr. King’s constituents, Sheriff Lee’s parish doesn’t have a murder problems. White folks only kill each other in very low numbers per capita. Apparently, white folks’d like to see the crime rate down,a nd don’t mind if Sheriff Lee’s deputies roust black youths who fit the crime profile to do that. The NAACP does.

Lee added that he harbors no ill will nor has any problem with the NAACP for its criticisms of his idea.

“All I’m trying to do is to save some black kid’s life.�

And so Sheriff Lee will tell his deputies to NOT roust black youths. When crimes are committed, they will dutifully show up, gather evidence, take reports, and return to the office and file them, knowing that they are fighting a losing battle, and that the spokeman for the black community, Mr. King, eyes their presence there with suspicion.

And black kids will die. And Mr. King will walk around wearing expensive suits and NOT fighting crime…