The main Democratic aspirants to succeed Mayor Bloomberg gathered in Harlem this week for a candidate forum hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
When City Council Speaker Christine Quinn reiterated her wish — should she become mayor — to reappoint Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the remark elicited an array of spontaneous boos from the predominantly African-American audience.
That made the news. More interesting is what hasn’t made the news. This week’s Quinnipiac University poll shows New Yorkers overwhelmingly praise Kelly.
The top cop’s approval rating is a whopping 75 percent to 18 percent among city residents. No surprise there.
The less noticed point is that black New Yorkers approve of the job Kelly is doing 63 percent to 27 percent. Among Hispanics, it’s 76 percent to 18 percent.
Separately, support for the NYPD is running 56 percent to 37 percent among African-Americans and 67 percent to 23 percent among Hispanics.
That’s the equivalent of a resounding standing ovation for a dedicated public servant who has delivered on his primary responsibility — keeping New Yorkers safe.
After all, the 418 murders in 2012 were the lowest since the city began tracking them 50 years ago, and a huge drop from 515 in 2011.
Two decades ago, more than 2,000 city residents were being murdered annually.
Success like that doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It occurs through smart, strategic policing and effective techniques such as stop-and-frisk.
The fact is, stop-and-frisk works — and among its greatest beneficiaries are members of New York’s minority communities.
It strikes us that their silent-majority support is worth as much notice as a few loud-mouth boos.