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WHY DO FERGUSON COPS ARREST SO MANY BLACKS?
boblonsberry.com ^ | 03/04/15 | Bob Lonsberry

Posted on 03/04/2015 6:00:56 AM PST by shortstop

What if blacks just break the law more often?

The Justice Department yesterday released a report accusing the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, of broad-based discrimination against black people. The basis for the claim is the fact that, in recent years, blacks have been arrested in Ferguson at a rate about 40 percent higher than their proportion of the city’s population.

Blacks comprise 67 percent of the people who live in Ferguson, but 93 percent of the people arrested.

From that, the Justice Department concludes that the cops are racist.

That’s one interpretation.

But it is not the only explanation, and it’s not even the most likely explanation.

Unless all of America’s criminal justice system is racist. Because across America, black people are arrested and jailed at rates far higher than their percentage of the population.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending the Ferguson Police Department. I’m not saying anything about the Ferguson Police Department. I don’t care about the Ferguson Police Department.

I have long since tired of everything having to do with Ferguson, Missouri.

But if the new standard of racism in our society, according to the federal government, is disproportionality, then we’ve got a problem.

For example, in American prisons, black people comprise 39.4 percent of the inmates. By comparison, blacks account for 14.1 percent of the national population.

That means black people are incarcerated at a rate more than two and a half times their proportion of society.

That’s an over-representation rate of about 250 percent.

In contrast, blacks are over represented in Ferguson arrests at a rate of about 140 percent.

The disproportionality of criminal conduct is demonstrated anecdotally most nights on the evening news, as mug shots are shown, beat-down videos are played, and store surveillance footage is played back.

If there is a correlation between being arrested and going to prison – and there is – then the so-called racism of the Ferguson Police Department is statistically far less evident than the national average.

But that nicety doesn’t matter to a Justice Department that seems to have decided before it showed up that there were problems in Ferguson and it was going to ferret them out.

Sometimes the Justice Department does justice, and sometimes it does politics – and in Ferguson, it’s hard to tell which is which.

But I would offer, for the sake of discussion, this simple question: Is it possible that, in America, black people are more likely to commit crime than white people?

And that the police arrest them because they are criminals, and not because they are black?

Is it possible, in a society of diverse cultures and backgrounds, that those diversities of culture and background lead to diversities of conduct – including in relation to the law?

Could it be that blacks are arrested in Ferguson more often than whites not because the police are racist, but because blacks simply break the law more often?

The Justice Department’s own statistics support that likelihood. It is the federal government, after all, which says that a murderer is almost eight times more likely to be black than white – even though whites vastly outnumber blacks in the population.

If a police department, then, was to arrest more blacks than whites for murder, would that be racism – as the Department of Justice claims in Ferguson – or simply a reflection of who commits the crimes – as the Department of Justice also claims?

It is more than just bad logic to claim that disproportionate arrests are proof of racism – it is dishonesty.

Again, I don’t know or care about the specifics of Ferguson.

But I care deeply about the federal government’s premise – that there must be quotas of criminality, and if arrests fall outside social percentages, then the issue is a failure of policing, as opposed to a failure of conduct.

Further, I believe that if there is increased crime among African-Americans – and virtually all statistics show that there is – then as opposed to turning that toward the divisive issue of assumed racism, perhaps it would be better to use it to raise the issue of improved conduct and cultural reform.

Because you can either reduce black arrests by intimidating police out of arresting black people, or you can encourage more black people to obey the law.

I prefer the latter.

There are differences of opinion about why black people are disproportionately criminal. I believe it has to do with a failed culture and nonexistent families. But whatever the cause, the solution is not to demand the police change their behavior, it is to demand that law breakers change their behavior.

Even if they’re black.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: crime; ferguson; justicedept
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To: lurk

Yes, it was white people looting the stores in Ferguson.

It was whites, Hispanics and Korean grocery store owners... looting and starting fires... If you saw something different, you’re a racist.


41 posted on 03/04/2015 6:32:51 AM PST by GOPJ (Comrade Thug - please don't hurt me for disagreeing... I lived in a free country once..)
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To: shortstop
Comrade Holder needed to save face.He was fully expececting to be able to put the Ferguson cop in the chair but,alas,the video and each of the three autopsy reports spoiled that plan.

So now,punks "of color" in Ferguson will get a free pass just about every time they commit a crime (rob a 7/11? No problem!).

And,of course,there will now be dozens of convictions overturned and hundreds of civil suits filed.

42 posted on 03/04/2015 6:35:31 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Obama;A Low Grade Intellect With Even Lower Morals)
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To: shortstop

The statistics indicate blacks are about 1.4 times more likely to be arrested in Ferguson. Since they are several times more likely to commit crimes, Ferguson cops are likely giving a pass to lots of black criminals.


43 posted on 03/04/2015 6:36:39 AM PST by hlmencken3 (“I paid for an argument, but you’re just contradicting!”)
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To: MrB

1) It is a statement of fact that the jews are a higher life form than the earthlings that surround them.

Have a quick read of the document, its really enlightening!
Finally someone has had the nuts to assemble it all into one complete and coherent picture!


44 posted on 03/04/2015 6:37:22 AM PST by himno hero (hadnuff)
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To: jsanders2001

Uh, oh.

Amish man shot by police in Joliet, Illinois.

Rev. Al and Jessie enroute with media.....

Man shot by police in Joliet died Tuesday

By Alexandra Chachkevitch Chicago Tribune contact the reporter

March 4, 2015

Joliet

A man died Tuesday evening after being shot by police Monday in southwest suburban Joliet, authorities said.

Shaquille Barrow, 20, of Joliet, was shot in a police-involved incident sometime Monday, according to the Will County coroner’s office.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-man-shot-by-police-in-joliet-died-tuesday-20150304-story.html


45 posted on 03/04/2015 6:43:26 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: jsanders2001

Prog Lefty socialist justifying criminal behavior since the 1940s? Actually probably since the turn of the last century.

It was the white prog/lefty/socialist, who somehow ends up quite well off after all is said and done, who messed up the black families more than anyone or anything. They created an entitlement society that wasn’t so Great. While black children were left fatherless by the policies of white prog/left socialist. That is if they were not aborted by white prog/lefty/socialist. Like i said the white prog/lefty/socialist in charge of these policies is really are all doing quite well.
I use to think it was the result of unintended consequences. You know dO gooders and the like. But it seems to do more with grabbing power. THe white prog/lefty/socialist doesn’t care about anyone but themselves.
Do gooders and pupets are mostly useful idiots.


46 posted on 03/04/2015 7:07:25 AM PST by Leep (Obama Care has hit the fan)
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To: shortstop

Just the Justice Dept. ignoring the African elephant in the living room. Nothing to see here, move on.


47 posted on 03/04/2015 7:24:28 AM PST by super7man (Oh why did I post that, now I'll never be able to run for Congress.)
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To: shortstop

Missing from the conclusions is the all-too-plausible one that the “Just Us” department will insist on *increasing* the arrest of whites to match the black arrest rate.


48 posted on 03/04/2015 7:40:38 AM PST by Little Pig
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To: himno hero
From your link himno - interesting....

http://lazypawn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Race_Evolution_Behavior.pdf

Several hundred years later, European explorers had the same impressions. They wrote that Africans seemed to have a very low intelligence and few words to express complex thoughts. They praised some tribes for making fine pottery, forging iron, carving wooden art, and making musical instruments. But more often, they were shocked by the near nakedness of the people, their poor sanitary habits, simple houses, and small villages. They found no wheels for making pots, grinding corn, or for transport, no farm animals, no writing, no money, and no numbering systems.

The Whites who explored China were just as racist as those who explored Africa, but their descriptions were different from what they and the Arabs had written about Africans. In 1275 Marco Polo arrived in China from his native Italy to open trade with the Mongol Empire. He found that the Chinese had well built roads, bridges, cities connected by canals, census takers, markets, standardized weights and measures, and not only coins, but paper money as well. Even a postal system was in existence. All of these made him marvel when he compared the Chinese to what he saw in Europe and the Middle East. Even though he was an Italian, proud of his people and well aware of the greatness of Ancient Rome, Marco Polo wrote: "Surely there is no more intelligent race on earth than the Chinese.

Culture could also explain most of these differences. And the Chinese? If they're so smart why do they produce so many thuggish governments? Lots more questions here than answers...

49 posted on 03/04/2015 7:45:37 AM PST by GOPJ (Comrade Thug - please don't hurt me for disagreeing... I lived in a free country once..)
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To: GOPJ

“And the Chinese? If they’re so smart why do they produce so many thuggish governments? Lots more questions here than answers...”

One word
Christendom.

Christendom gave us the magna carta, the greatest stimulus to political evolution, technological advances, business and commerce.


50 posted on 03/04/2015 8:02:33 AM PST by himno hero (hadnuff)
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To: Rummyfan

I hate to say blacks commit more crimes but blacks commit more crimes.


51 posted on 03/04/2015 8:41:52 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: shortstop
What if blacks just break the law more often?

Because it's even more firmly established scientically than "anthropological global warming, cooling, & climate change" that all cultures are equal, except of course for European ones, which gave us the KKK and the Nazi party; and that all races commit crimes at the same rates.

Didn't you know that? My goodness, What ARE they teaching in school nowadays? :)

52 posted on 03/04/2015 9:30:11 AM PST by chesley (Obama -- Muslim or dhimmi? And does it matter?)
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To: shortstop

The answer to this manufactured problem is simple: Obama will issue an executive order that blacks will only be arrested in proportion to their number in the population—and that to arrive at that percentage only major crimes will be enforced and prosecuted.

Bingo, we will have arrived at a color-bline system of criminal law, thanks to Obama the One.


53 posted on 03/04/2015 10:06:50 AM PST by wildbill (If you check behind the shower curtain for a murderer, and find one... what's your plan?)
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To: shortstop

Is not even a racial issue. It’s one of social class.


54 posted on 03/04/2015 11:26:31 AM PST by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: himno hero

Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism - - all parts of the Chinese culture... All ethical religions that are philosophically substantial. It just seems odd the Chinese culture with that base could create so many ruling thugs.


55 posted on 03/04/2015 1:38:03 PM PST by GOPJ (Comrade Thug - please don't hurt me for disagreeing... I lived in a free country once..)
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To: manc
Is that racist? Well if observing and stating a fact instead of having your head where the sun does not shine then no it does not.

Have you not heard? TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH!

56 posted on 03/05/2015 11:12:47 AM PST by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & Ifwater the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: JimRed

Hence the reason why political correctness was introduced.

Say anything with facts and you are called a racist, bigot, homophobe which the latter does not make sense as I ma not afraid nor live in fear of homosexuals.


57 posted on 03/05/2015 11:29:38 AM PST by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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