When James Comey was named the head of the FBI, I was very happy.

Comey had distinguished himself during the Bush administration when he literally stood by an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft when Ashcroft refuse to sign an executive order that would have expanded national security powers in a way that did more damage to civil liberties than it did to help law enforcement.

But I was very disappointed when Comey made a statement about interactions between police and African-Americans.

Comey opined that increased scrutiny of law enforcement treatment of African-Americans has contributed to a decrease in effective law enforcement and a consequent increase in the crime rate. The New York Times story that reported these remarks noted a clear divergence between that and various statistics. And Comey acknowledged that he had no data to support this.

Given this absence of evidence, it is all the more surprising to me that he made the statement he did, which is a damaging one on several counts. First, it will strengthen the resolve of people – many but not all within law enforcement itself – to resist the establishment of mechanisms that seek to improve police behavior by instituting some system by which complaints of misbehavior can be processed. Only people who think that no police officer ever makes a mistake should be opposing this, but a statement by the head of the FBI that there is a direct correlation between monitoring police activities and an increase in crime undercuts efforts to do this.

Even more striking is the extent to which Comey’s remark is a serious attack on law enforcement itself – not quite as damaging as those who unfairly accuse most police officers of being racist, but nevertheless one that strongly impugns their ability to do the job which they are sworn to do.

It is important to remember that almost no incidents have come to light within the past year in which police officers have been unfairly attacked for reasonable enforcement activities. With one exception, every incident is one in which police misbehavior was clear.

That one exception was the one that touched this off: the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by Officer Darren Wilson. Having read everything that is available on this and having spoken with a number of people about it, I believe that Brown was in fact the aggressor in this case, that he initiated the physical altercation and that Wilson was more justified than not. On the other hand, even in this case it is undeniable that the investigation into law enforcement in the Ferguson area uncovered a pattern of great unfairness toward African-Americans, particularly with regard to the use of fines for low-level offenses for people without the ability to pay them.

All the other cases – the shooting of a 12-year old with a toy gun in Cleveland; the murder of a man running away from a police officer in North Carolina; the strangulation of Eric Garner; the death of Freddie Gray from excessively rough handling in the back of a police van without any sign he was resisting; the violent slamming to the ground of tennis pro James Blake who was entirely innocent either of any crime or even the slightest example of resistance – are examples of serious police misbehavior of a grave sort. While there were punishments meted out in a couple of these incidences, in others, even in cases of entirely unjustified death, no penalty whatsoever has been applied to the police officers.

It is true that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has, with the close cooperation of Police Commissioner William Bratton, curtailed the policy of widespread stopping and frisking young African-Americans who were guilty of nothing whatsoever other than being present in front of a policemen.

That policy, it should be remembered, was strongly supported by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and this is one of the reasons why I am among those thoroughly disenchanted by the notion of his saving the country by running for president. It was an absolute abuse of New York state’s own law on marijuana, under which possession of marijuana was only supposed to be penalized if the marijuana was in plain sight.

What the police were doing with Bloomberg’s acquiescence was to stop young African-Americans, insist that they empty their pockets and then, if the contents of those pockets included marijuana, subsequently arresting them because it was now in plain sight.

We need to keep in mind the inherent dangers of a police officer’s job: the fact that we ask these men and women to confront people who are sometimes violent and occasionally armed. But we must find a way to do that within a framework that minimizes abuses. No system will be foolproof, but the pattern of behavior over the past few years with regard to African-Americans clearly shows many more cases of unpunished police abuse than of officers being unfairly treated because of their actions.

That is why Comey’s remarks were so discouraging. He has validated the views of those who believe that our police departments are incapable of doing their job in an appropriate manner, so that society is forced to choose between tolerating a pattern of widespread police abuse of minorities or of ending this only at the cost of effective law enforcement.

I not only believe that this should not be true; I am convinced that it isn’t.

Transitions are often difficult. Instituting procedures in a police department that had previously been too lax in enforcing fairness may require a period of adjustment, but I reject the notion that the men and women who have joined law enforcement, who are overwhelmingly well-motivated and sincerely interested in protecting the public, cannot adapt to a set of rules in which all people of all races are treated fairly.

One of the saddest aspects of the recent controversies has been the extent to which some police officers have themselves engaged in a demagogic denunciation of people trying to make our policing fair and effective at the same time. In response, Bratton was legitimately critical of some of the union leaders, who were irresponsibly characterizing the entire Di Blasio administrations as “anti-police.”

Sadly, the comments from a man who is as respected as Comey will fuel that irresponsibility.

He is capable of better than this.

Barney Frank is a retired congressman and the author of landmark legislation. He divides his time between Maine and Massachusetts.

Twitter: BarneyFrank

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