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Race and Police Shootings: Are Blacks Targeted More?
NY Times ^ | AUG. 30, 2014 | MICHAEL WINES

Posted on 09/01/2014 5:15:00 AM PDT by Zhang Fei

But most interesting, perhaps, was the race of the officers who fired their weapons. About two-thirds were white, and one-third black — effectively identical to the racial composition of the St. Louis Police Department as a whole. In this study, at least, firing at a black suspect was an equal-opportunity decision.

The experiment’s 102 subjects, a mixture of police officers, combat veterans and civilians, were run through a random sample of 60 scenarios drawn from actual police encounters. The scenarios, using white, black and Hispanic actors, were projected in life-size high-definition video on laboratory screens.

Whether officers, veterans or civilians, the subjects consistently hesitated longer before firing at black suspects and were much more likely to mistakenly shoot an unarmed white suspect, the researchers found. And when they failed to fire at an armed suspect — a potentially fatal mistake — the suspect was about five times more likely to be black than white. The study’s 36 police officers were the lone exception in failing to fire: The suspect’s race wasn’t a factor in their decision not to shoot. “The findings were very unexpected given the previous experimental research,” said Lois James, an assistant professor who conducted the research.

“The notion that cops want to shoot anybody is a lot of baloney,” said Dr. Klinger, who has interviewed some 300 officers involved in shootings. “But white officers are much more reticent to shoot a black man than a white man because, all things being equal, they know the social context in which they’re operating.”

By that theory, officers are more careful when confronting black suspects because they know a fatal shooting will open them to controversy.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: brown; ferguson; holder; obama
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1 posted on 09/01/2014 5:15:01 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: Zhang Fei

When those of the black urban criminal subculture present themselves as targets to police, they get shot


2 posted on 09/01/2014 5:17:12 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: Zhang Fei
Blacks aren't 'targeted more.' They just happen to make up only 12% of the population but commit 65% of the crime.
3 posted on 09/01/2014 5:17:56 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy saints surrounded.)
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To: Zhang Fei

“......officers are more careful when confronting black suspects because they know a fatal shooting will open them to controversy.”..............

Which could also cause them to get shot by that same black man. The race of any person should never be a factor in deciding to shoot or not, providing the threat is real.


4 posted on 09/01/2014 5:20:47 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Zhang Fei

http://americanfreepress.net/?p=14864
[snip]

Similar statistics were released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the “Uniform Crime Reports.” They determined, “In the year 2008, black youths, who make up 16% of the youth population, accounted for 52% of juvenile violent crime arrests, including 58% for homicide and 67% for robbery.” By contrast, the only categories where white youths surpassed blacks were in liquor law violations and driving under the influence.

[snip]

Facts are facts...


5 posted on 09/01/2014 5:22:02 AM PDT by Eddie01 (Liberals lie about everything all the time.)
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To: Zhang Fei

The Knock out game. polar bear hunting and the EXTREMELY high yet VERY under reported black on white crime stats.......

Maybe the question should be are whites purposely being targeted by blacks ,IS LEO perhaps aware of this and are they acting accordingly??


6 posted on 09/01/2014 5:32:26 AM PDT by Le Chien Rouge
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To: Zhang Fei

For those who have never watched The First 48, watch it and decide for yourself.


7 posted on 09/01/2014 5:34:56 AM PDT by RetSignman (Obama is the walking, talking middle finger in the face of America)
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To: Zhang Fei

The LMSM continue to push a false story line. So what else is new?

Why is the Ferguson, MO, story line false? Just take a look at the story line itself! According to the story line the American Police Force, as a whole, routinely go out and kill unarmed black men that have committed no crime other than being black.

If that is so - where are the routine reports of such events happening on a daily or weekly basis?

The reason that Ferguson got the coverage that it did is because it was an unusual event; otherwise it wouldn’t attracted so much attention from the LMSM.

Please, if you have other, documented, examples of police shooting black men because they are black post them. Otherwise realize that we have been and are being feed a lie that the LMSM are trying to masquerade as the true.


8 posted on 09/01/2014 5:39:42 AM PDT by Nip (BOHEICA and TANSTAAFL - both seem very appropriate today.)
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To: DaveA37

True but deadly force should only be used against deadly force. A fleeing suspect suspected of murder or rape should be shot but not in other situations. No knock drug busts have to be better orchestrated and they have to cut out this crap about shooting dogs on sight. Let them carry pepper spray.

The cops - in too many cases - are too eager to employ deadly force.


9 posted on 09/01/2014 5:41:35 AM PDT by ZULU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qLDFiQcjlY Impeach Obama in 2015 !!!)
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To: Repeat Offender

The metric used in the question, “more,” is incendiary. The question should include a component of unjustified use of deadly force. I submit that “targeted” is even MORE incendiary, because the police are (generally) not out looking for “targets.” Public spaces aren’t, other than exceptional cases, a shooting gallery where the cops are choosing who to use force against. The decision to use force is reactionary.


10 posted on 09/01/2014 5:52:26 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Zhang Fei

The article mentions the disproportionate amount of traffic stops and arrests police make on black motorists and I would like to offer some insight.

When you commit a traffic violation, you should expect to get stopped and get a citation. However, when you decide that you are going to ignore that citation or you can’t pay it because of your economic status, then there are consequences, like warrants for Failure to Appear and In-State Suspensions.

Many of those initial traffic violations also reveal no proof of insurance, a violation that has an immediate suspension of license if found guilty.

I can tell you from experience there are probably hundreds of thousands of active warrants in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area and most are for black citizens. It is what it is and even Amnesty days are not helping. Some of it can be attributed to economic status and some to direct defiance of being accountable.

So, yes black citizens are being arrested disproportionately but not inappropriately.


11 posted on 09/01/2014 5:53:35 AM PDT by Molon Labbie (Prep. Now. Live Healthy, take your Shooting Iron daily.)
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To: ZULU

“........deadly force should only be used against deadly force.”.....

Getting your brains beat out by some 300 lb. “gorilla” who has already attacked and cause you severe injury, puts YOUR life in danger. It is pretty obvious what the “beaters” intentions are up to that point so, tTo stop the threat of YOUR OWN DEATH, deadly force, IMO is justified.


12 posted on 09/01/2014 6:00:16 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Zhang Fei

Whitey need do more thug’n, not fair!


13 posted on 09/01/2014 6:09:28 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: Zhang Fei
My own opinion is that not enough violent, black males are being shot and killed either by the authorities or just common citizens, white and black. There are too many out of control black males assaulting citizens, committing other crimes, and getting slapped on the wrist and allowed to commit more crimes. I don't know how many accounts I've read of black males with rap sheets as long as Barack Obama's nose finally murdering someone before they're stopped for good.

My message is to get violent, black males off the streets and into the prisons or coffins where they belong.

14 posted on 09/01/2014 6:10:13 AM PDT by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: Nip
The reason that Ferguson got the coverage that it did is because it was an unusual event; otherwise it wouldn’t attracted so much attention from the LMSM.

Indeed. Murders in Chicago almost never make national news because they are so common. A murder in my county a few years ago, however, made national news--probably because murder is so rare here.

15 posted on 09/01/2014 6:21:41 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: DaveA37
Getting your brains beat out by some 300 lb. “gorilla” who has already attacked and cause you severe injury, puts YOUR life in danger. It is pretty obvious what the “beaters” intentions are up to that point so, tTo stop the threat of YOUR OWN DEATH, deadly force, IMO is justified.

And you have to be granted the latitude to decide whether the force used against you is deadly. That's not always easy. A 300 lb. gorilla can overpower and kill a smaller man with his bare hands; and if you have a weapon, he can take it from you.

16 posted on 09/01/2014 6:24:05 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Zhang Fei

What do you expect from a culture that has 72 percent of black babies born to unmarried mothers today. In 2012, 67 percent of black children live in single-parent homes. How do children learn those moral values to live in a civil society with such conditions? Then, you have that situation coupled with the illegal drug industry entwined into the black community like a snake squeezing the life out of it. If Darwin ever wrote a script for the demise of a species, this would be it.


17 posted on 09/01/2014 6:27:04 AM PDT by jonrick46 (The opium of Communists: other people's money.)
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To: Zhang Fei
By the F.B.I.’s figures, there were between 378 and 414 police homicides in the five years ending in 2012, the most recent year available.

Police homicides? Is that the FBI's term for it or the New York Times term for it?

18 posted on 09/01/2014 6:27:07 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DaveA37

If the per actually DID assault or threaten to assault the officer, that is correct.


19 posted on 09/01/2014 6:56:07 AM PDT by ZULU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qLDFiQcjlY Impeach Obama in 2015 !!!)
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To: Zhang Fei

NYT: keep omitting the fact that they commit 4 times as much crime as the opposite color.


20 posted on 09/01/2014 7:27:40 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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