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When you consider that whites make up a much larger percentage of the population than blacks, it would make more since that more whites would be killed as that's probably who they are more in contact with. That said, why is it that you have a white person who shoots up a church and gets a ****ing happy meal but yet you have a black man who attempts to get his license out and is gunned down on social media. You also have a terrorist who shoots at the police w/ the INTENT of having them shoot him dead, but miraculously, he lives?
When you consider that whites make up a much larger percentage of the population than blacks, it would make more since that more whites would be killed as that's probably who they are more in contact with. That said, why is it that you have a white person who shoots up a church and gets a ****ing happy meal but yet you have a black man who attempts to get his license out and is gunned down on social media. You also have a terrorist who shoots at the police w/ the INTENT of having them shoot him dead, but miraculously, he lives?
Controlled for #of encounters with police per capita, white people have more chance of being shot in an encounter with a police officer than blacks.
A (black) Harvard economist has also shown that there is no pattern of blacks being targeted more than whites:
FINALLY, I hope everyone here realizes there is no "national police force." What one department does in South Carolina vs. Missouri vs. LA vs. Miami vs. New York..... varies from town to town, state to state, county to county.
Some areas have better trained cops. To say, "well they shot that unarmed black guy in Los Angeles, but that white guy in Bangor Maine didn't get shot!".... is ASININE and IGNORANT. It actually usually even worthless to talk like that unless you're talking about THE SAME COP, in the SAME TOWN having different outcomes in encounters of white vs. black!
Yes- police brutality/excessive force exists, but it's not a racial issue. Police kill more white people than black people in both armed and unarmed situations. In fact, police killed twice as many white people than black people in 2015. "But wait, black people only make up 13% of the population!" Yes, that is true. However, that 13% of the population commits 62% of robberies, 57% of murders, and 45% of assaults (according to FBI stats). So, although black people only make up 13% of the population, they statistically have more run-ins with the police... and even after all that, more white people are killed by police.
For some reason, the media loves to stir up racial tension by reporting on only white on black or police on black brutality, but stays silent when the more common white on white brutality occurs. It's important to understand the facts before making some wild assumption that police are looking for any excuse they can to kill a black person
There aren't that many murders, robberies, or assaults in a given year. So even if black people make a large percentage of that, it's still a relatively small portion of the black population. I would say 1 to 2% of the black people fit this. Yet you think it's ok for police to target black people based on a 1 to 2% reality
OP you should not attempt to downplay the fact that racial bias exists in our law enforcement/criminal justice system.
This is actually a documented fact.
Also, no one is debating the crime committed by black criminals. It is very telling in regards to the many of you who like to make excuses for police officers killing people involved in non-violent/non-criminal activities, that you pull out crime statistics as a reason why police should be racist against black people and kill them.
I'll also point out that black people have more run-ins with police due to racial bias as well. Whites are the most killed by police but whites are also the most likely to have drugs on their person in vehicles and to be driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol versus blacks by a wide margin and for DUI on a rate much higher than the population of whites at large. Since a majority of these police shooting or being involved in the deaths of black people occur based on traffic stops, it makes more sense that 80% of all traffic stops looking for drugs and criminal activity should be focused on whites and they should be stopped at least 80% of the time, more than that in some areas. However, this is not the case. Any run in with police makes a high probabilty of being charged with some sort of crime, usually a mis-demeanor. Since police stop black people more, even though statistically blacks are least likely to have drugs or be under the influence of intoxicating substances in their vehicles, this is proof of racial bias and racism and systematic bias in our criminal justice system.
On violent crimes you mentioned (according to FBI stats). They do not occur during traffic stops over 90% of the time. Robberies, murders, and assaults do not usually occur in vehicles whereas police are involved. Police are called after the fact. None of those have anything to do with police pulling over black people, or seeing random black people on the side of the road or seeing black kids running in a neighborhood. Unfortunately to many officers any black person equals a criminal. That is racial bias and it is rampant in law enforcement. You just ignored it until this digital age when people are killed on camera but police have been killing black people for 100 years. You just didn't have it in your face back then like you do today.
I appreciate the reasoned response, but much of your argument is flawed factually or based on biased data compiled by "social justice warriors" hoping to prove their point, not present accurate findings.
First off, how many Blacks (or anyone else) are involved in non-violent, non-criminal activities at the time of their shootings? You can count the cases on one hand. That's out of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of police stops yearly. You're more likely to be struck by lightening...twice...than to be shot by the police if you're Black and not committing a violent felony.
Next, there's no evidence that Blacks have more run-ins with police because of racial bias. That is absolutely fabricated by you and presented as fact. The police absolutely profile, but it's not racial profiling. Let's clarify one thing though before we continue: It's not "Black people" having these issues with the police, it's Black males, ages 18-35. Now, if you're not a Black male specifically, ages 18-35 y/o, then this basically a non-issue. Only about 1% of people shot by the police are female. Only about 1% of people shot by police are under 18 y/o. It's important to understand exactly what we're talking about and what we're talking about is a specific sub-set, of the Black community, not all Blacks. That's a very important baseline to this discussion. I live in the neighborhood where Philandro Castile lived and worked. He was pulled over 50+ times over 10 years & many pointed to that as racial bias. MY wife is Black and has been pulled over 0 times in 10 years. My next door neighbor is a 73 y/o Black woman who's a retired school teacher. She's been pulled over 0 times in 10 years. If the issue were as simple as racial bias the rate of being pulled over would be similar for all Black people, but it's not.
I'd appreciate it if you'd post a link or two to your assertion that Whites are more likely to be driving under the influence of alcohol compared to Blacks "by a wife margin". I'm looking at the data from both the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Commission) the NIH (National Institutes for Health) and neither show that at all. They both show drinking and driving fatalities and tendencies to be very on par between Whites & Blacks, higher among Hispanics and lower among Asians. The one difference being Black people, when polled, claim to drink and drive at much lower rates than Whites. This also doesn't identify whether or not Hispanics, who have a higher rate of drinking and driving, may also be included in the 'White' category. I'd also like to see some data to prove that Whites have a higher % of drugs in their vehicles. I've seen some several studies came to different conclusions and I'd like to see what you're basing your conclusion on specifically? One thing to consider is that the #1 reason for discretionary searches by police, is a vehicle having multiple occupants. i.e. when a vehicle has 5 people in it, the police are much more likely to remove the occupants and search the vehicle as a way of maintaining officer safety. This is perfectly legal and reasonable, and on some undefined level, helps explain why those 5 occupants may then be released with no drugs found, whereas a White driver may be obviously using drugs and arrested. Also a factor is White drivers driving into Black neighborhoods to buy drugs & being profiled by the police. i.e. It's easy to stop car after car of White drivers leaving a known drug neighborhood & have a high hit rate for drugs. I happen to be 100% in favor of this type of behavioral profiling.
In your last paragraph you go back into the false narrative of "Black people" this and "Black people" that, when as we've already covered, that's factually incorrect. The police pull over a specific behavioral profile, or sub-set of Black people, in specific neighborhoods, at specific times of day, driving certain types of vehicles, doing certain activities and behaving certain ways. i.e. Betty, the 50 y/o Black nurse in the suburbs isn't being profiled by the police while driving to the hospital in her Camry at 3pm. 5 low income, 18-21 y/o Black men, driving in a known gang/drug neighborhood at 3am do have a high rate of being profiled. If this was racial profiling, the two examples would be the same. They're not.
Lastly, the other gaping hole in your argument is the fact that if this is all racial bias is "rampant" as you claim, why is there no decrease at all, in fact it appears to increase, when the police officers are Black? Am I supposed to believe Black cops are all self loathing racists? Or perhaps it's because they see the exact same people doing the exact same things that all other cops see and react to?
There aren't that many murders, robberies, or assaults in a given year. So even if black people make a large percentage of that, it's still a relatively small portion of the black population. I would say 1 to 2% of the black people fit this. Yet you think it's ok for police to target black people based on a 1 to 2% reality
Police don't "target Black people". That's false. Police target people who fit a behavioral profile.
When you consider that whites make up a much larger percentage of the population than blacks, it would make more since that more whites would be killed as that's probably who they are more in contact with. That said, why is it that you have a white person who shoots up a church and gets a ****ing happy meal but yet you have a black man who attempts to get his license out and is gunned down on social media. You also have a terrorist who shoots at the police w/ the INTENT of having them shoot him dead, but miraculously, he lives?
On the bold, the man in Tulsa was not at home and was not committing a crime. Nearly every black man and boy that has been in the news this past year was not involved in a crime when they were killed by officers.
It is sad how much our country has not changed in regards to valuing life.
Were you living under a rock when Philandro Castile got shot?
It's too bad that the only video evidence was of only after he was shot. Nobody knows what led up to the police officer firing his weapon. It would have been clear cut had his girlfriend started filming the moment he was pulled over rather then after he was already shot.
Now I'm not saying that the cop was right or wrong. All I'm saying is....we don't know what happened.
So racism against the masses is justified based on the actions of 1% of the population??
That was a rhetorical question to show how odd that it is that you would even consider that black people should be treated poorly based on some other individual who just happens to be black.
There is not justification for the bias. The bias is a part of our country due to its legacy of systematic racism. Blacks have been biased as being criminals since our ancestors were enslaved. Blacks were seen as criminals when whites committed various violent acts of terrorism against black Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries and while white men got away legally with raping black women and killing black people.
There is no justification for racial bias against black people. Anyone who tries to justify it is buying into racism and the view that blacks are inferior to whites plain and simple.
PLEASE. There hasn't been systemic racism since the 60s. Nobody treats blacks any different than whites because of skin color. They do, however, keep in mind all of the negative encounters they have had with blacks, and that is HUGE. Most black people are rude, and refuse to fit into polite society. You just KNOW there's gonna be drama dealing with them, and so you try to avoid it if you can. It hasn't been about skin color for 50 years. It's all about behavior these days.
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