ANN COULTER: Would it kill you to hire more black cops? (Yes).

In a massive, detailed 2000 study of the effect of court-ordered affirmative action plans on police departments, economist John Lott found that the more minorities on a police force, the higher the rates of murder, manslaughter, violent crime, robbery and aggravated assault will be. Violent crime increased by a minimum of 3.3 percent every year after affirmative action policies went into effect — and the spike in crime was highest in black neighborhoods.

The problem was not with black cops, Lott’s study showed, but rather with the lowering of standards across the board, resulting in less-qualified officers of every race. . . .

About a decade into a federal consent decree requiring the Los Angeles Police Department to hire more minority officers, the LAPD’S Rampart division was employing gang members in uniforms.

Training officer Jim Peasha told investigative reporter Jan Golab that he left his unit because of the preposterous recruits being sent to him as a result of affirmative action. “I had some fantastic minority recruits,” Peasha said. “One black kid was the best I ever had.” But he also had “one guy who I knew was on drugs and I couldn’t get him out. He wound up getting caught working as a guard at a rock (cocaine) house. An off-duty cop!” . . .

By the time of the Rampart scandal, two dozen black police officers in Los Angeles were suspected of gang activity. Most were forced out. Four officers were proved to have been engaging in criminal acts — including a bank robbery and an attempted murder. All were black and Hispanic.