Comment by basurihn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by basurihn | Hacker News Reader

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It's more complex than that. There is only one racial side here... there is no other side that believes black lives DON'T matter.

Opinions are complex... Philando Castille certainly did not deserve death, although to say his murder is a symptom of epidemic racism is shortsighted and representative of narrow statistical exposure. Cops get away with murdering white people too.

We would be better off preaching color blind unity and stop blaming white people for the inevitable effects of high crime, police-xenophobic neighborhoods. Particularly where demonizing white people is ok. Cops working in those areas have a hard job. You have no idea.

We don't live in 1968 anymore, or even 1988. I realize there are many living today who did go through terrible times. There are also quite a few racists still around. But Black Lives Matter's finger-pointing at innocents is making more racists.

You can't help where you're born. No one likes to be punished for the sins of the father.

You aren't helping.

>there is no other side that believes black lives DON'T matter.

Very debatable.

>Cops get away with murdering white people too.

Source? What are the relative numbers?

>But Black Lives Matter's finger-pointing at innocents is making more racists. >You aren't helping.

The old 'they made me racist' defense.

>>Cops get away with murdering white people too.

>Source? What are the relative numbers?

Here is the source and the only real study about the subject. The data shows that you are actually more likely to be shoot/killed when stopped by the police if you are white than if you are black.

This article uses real data from police: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/13/why-a...

This one even more interesting used psychological tests and get's the same result. Police are more likely to shoot a white suspect: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/04/27...

And yet a final one showing that black cops are more likely to shoot black people than white cops: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/26/black-suspec...

Totally destroys that theory some people are trying to spread that there is this systemic racism in police about killing black people.

Thanks for looking that up. Experience tells me (s)he isn't really interested in your sources though. His/her opinion is already formed. I can tell by the tone and use of selective excerpts.

(S)he'll just quote different sources supporting her argument, all from politically motivated bodies. Your sources will never be good enough.

My advice is to let them scream in the wind and think they've scored points somehow. They'll figure it out by 40 or continue to be someone's useful idiot.

I did read the two linked news reports. Neither of them seems terribly convincing. The first report about the work of Fryer shows that it's actually significantly more likely that people of color are treated with disrespect by the police, and from my reading of the report at least, it's not clear at all that white people are more likely to be shot at. The actual question is: What is the likelihood that an encounter with an innocent person is needlessly escalated by a supposedly trained professional, leading to an unnecessary shooting/death? I don't see either of these surveys addressing this.

The second one is somewhat laughable in my opinion: The researcher dismisses the possibility of being a subject of the study tempering reaction times out of hand. That's ridiculous. Everyone is aware that race is a critical factor in this sort of survey, and to not even consider it as a factor in decision-making under made-up circumstances, where one's behavior is being constantly monitored is simply ludicrous.

As for black policemen also being more likely to shoot at black men: Yes! The problem of racism is systemic. Black men growing up in our system will also imbibe the lesson that other black men are dangerous. I don't see how this contradicts anything.

I see, so there is actually no amount of data that is able to refute your narrative.

Well, that's the magic of social "sciences", you may dismiss all data as much as you want in order to fit your pre conceived ideas. So I must actually agree with the OP here: is a waste of time to give you facts about this since you are always going to find a way to dismiss them.

Analysis that claims counter-intuitive conclusions should provide extraordinary evidence. The ones you provided are pretty tepid, and, as I mentioned, do not even deal with the actual important question at hand.

Edit: To be more precise, on a regular basis one reads reports of black people getting entangled in situations where law enforcement escalates an encounter into violence and/or death, or where the officer involved gets away without legal consequences for initiating such escalation. Does this happen just as regularly with other races? If so, where is the reportage? Is it being deliberately ignored by the media? Nothing you linked addresses this.

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