Thomas Tracy, NY Daily News, November 19, 2013

If you’re black, you are almost 25 times more likely to be shot in New York City than a white person — and you are also more likely to be arrested for pulling a trigger, alarming new NYPD statistics show.

Data collected during the first six months of the year reveal 74% of the city’s 567 shooting victims were black. An additional 21.5% were Hispanic. Less than 3% of shooting victims were white, according to the report.

Blacks also accounted for the majority — about 70% — of the 222 people arrested for shooting someone during the first half of 2013, according to the NYPD’s Crime and Enforcement Activity report.

Black community activists said the frustrating statistics, which have barely fluctuated since 2009, tell the stark stories of economics in poorer neighborhoods and the NYPD’s laser-like focus on communities of color.

“It’s all a battle between the haves and the have-nots,” said Tony Herbert, president of the National Action Network’s Brooklyn East Chapter. “In the end, it’s survival of the fittest, and there are some who want to bring weapons into the mix. That’s what it comes down to.”

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has used similar statistics to defend stop-and-frisk, claiming cops stop more people in minority communities not because of their racial makeup, but because more crimes happen there.

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The six-month report also shows blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be the victims of murder, rape, robbery, and assault — and to be arrested for committing those violent felonies — than whites.

Blacks compose 25.5% of the city’s residents, according to the 2010 census. Non-Hispanic whites make up 33.3%, while Hispanics and Latinos make up 28.6% and Asians 12.7%.

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Blacks also account for more than 55% of those who cops stopped and frisked, the report said. Hispanics constituted 29% of those stopped and frisked. {snip}

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