Also comparing the rate of shooting to deaths would also be nice to see if there is an issue of care after a shootout.
Also comparing the rate of shooting to deaths would also be nice to see if there is an issue of care after a shootout.
This is by African American Harvard prof, and highly controversial because his research indicates there isn't actually that much racial disparity in policing.
I for one, believe it. Cops are mostly not aggressive, and cops are mostly not racist. But there's a wide bell curve on that - and some are racist, some are aggressive. Coupled with the fact there are 330M people, 1 Billion guns, areas of 'extreme violence' ... we're going to see bad situations on CNN every few months for a long while yet.
Fixing the 'bad cops' problem is important, but so is fixing the 'out of control crime' problem, which is probably much harder due to complex social root causes.
[1] https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/empirical_anal...
Worse, both can be right and events like recent ones can still be demonstrably unequivocally wrong inexcusable. It's almost like the statements of general trends are uncorrelated with the highest profile cases. Which is the problem.
I think what happened in Minnesota is outrageous, but probably not as indicative of systematic problems as some people might believe.
I don't think the 'cops are bad' narrative is healthy - BUT - it may be necessary to help fix the problem. Humans are lazy, we fear for our jobs, DA's may not react until there is political pressure and everyone is throwing everyone under the bus.
It's also worth remembering that almost every single measure of 'inequality' has been steadily improving over the last 30 years and our current 'race war conditions' may be really just a function of Twitter, Social Media, and ever more biased press on all sides, jockeying for clicks and attention.
I can guarantee that if you read that book and look at the data, you'll change your mind.
Believe me, it'll cover every single talking point you probably have.
The data is kind of sloppy (the author admits) since it is nonuniform across many police departments. Also, it's the police reporting data on themselves about police racial discimination. Not exactly an unbiased source.
And finally he ends with this:
> movements such as Black Lives Matter should seek solutions within their own communities rather than changing the behaviors of police and other external forces
Which is kind of an insult that have identified a real problem for their community.
First - you've unfairly cherry-picked a statement. Here is the full context: "Even when officers report civilians have been compliant and no arrest was made, blacks are 21.2 percent more likely to endure some form of force in an interaction. Yet, on the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we are unable to detect any racial differences in either the raw data or when accounting for controls."
So right there in the very same para as your 21% argument, you have the author indicating that for more extreme violence there is no difference in police treatment among races.
Literally he's saying that "Shootings of Black men due to racism is 'not a thing'"
Second - that in some instances police are actually more likely to 'lay hands on' African Americans, by 21% actually disproves the narrative that 'African Americans' are in prisons etc. mostly due to disproportionate violence by cops.
The data presented in the article in question shows that Blacks are 2.5x more likely to be 'shot' - which is 'extreme violence'.
From the research, this would suggest that African Americans are probably involved in crime or situations which 'getting shot' is the unfortunate outcome.
Even if you apply the '21% disparity' - which would be unfair because the research indicates that's only for 'low violence situations' - that still does not explain the 250% disparity among races. Not even close.
So yes - unfair policing exists, and it's a problem, but the much bigger problem seems to be the inherent amount of crime.
That's what the data is indicating:
+ No racial disparity in more violent situations + Racial disparity in less violent situations + Quite substantial differences in the amount of crime
That American cops are somewhat too aggressive is without doubt, that racist cops exist is without doubt, but the extent to which they are, and to the extent to which it's systematic or 'bad actors' and the extent to which affects actual criminal behaviour is in doubt. There is also no doubt there is deep social malaise in the African American community.
The 'popular narrative' seeks to lay the blame mostly on cops, which the data does not support, also, it seems to ignore the 'Elephant in the Room' subject of the vast amount of crime in the community, which is also unfair.
Most Americans want to improve the situation, I think that narratives that support the nuance reality are more helpful towards that end.