Posted on 11/27/2014 2:21:28 PM PST by Kaslin
Black anger that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was not charged for killing Michael Brown stems partly from the fact that blacks in America often face much worse treatment from cops than whites do. Only rarely do whites get an unpleasant taste of what minorities have to swallow.
A few years ago, when my middle child was in college, he had a summer job in New Mexico. Returning home to Illinois, he drove into Oklahoma, where he was pulled over by a highway patrolman.
He said my son was going 57 mph in a 55 zone, asked him to get into his cruiser and questioned him about where he was coming from and where he was going. Then the trooper said he'd like to search the car.
My son was reluctant, but eventually decided he had no choice but to agree. The officer thoroughly inspected the vehicle, which he damaged in the process, and found nothing.
With that, young Chapman was allowed to go -- without a speeding ticket. But 20 minutes later, another trooper followed him for several miles and pulled him over for an "improper lane change."
My son recounted his previous encounter to the officer, who made a call to confirm it and then explained why he was worthy of so much law enforcement attention: He was a young adult male in a car with an out-of-state license plate and a college decal, driving solo on a major drug trafficking route (an interstate highway) -- as if those factors proved anything.
What the trooper didn't mention is that from a distance, because of his dark hair and complexion, my son might be taken for Hispanic. In any event, he let him leave -- again, with no citation.
If you want to know why many black residents of Ferguson, Mo., distrusted cops even before Brown's shooting, you can assume that practices like this play a role. In 2013, 86 percent of all the traffic stops there involved African-Americans, and they were twice as likely to be subjected to vehicle searches as whites who were stopped.
The Ferguson police search blacks more often even though they are far less likely to be found with contraband than whites. These disparities are typical of vehicle "consent searches" in other jurisdictions.
The searches are known by that term because they may not be conducted without the agreement of the motorist. (If the cop has "probable cause" that he'll find evidence of a crime, he can search without asking.) But it's a joke. Few drivers are willing to say no.
Why would anyone -- particularly someone with illegal cargo -- cheerfully agree to have his car ransacked? Because he figures it would be worse to antagonize an armed cop, who might ticket him, arrest him, plant incriminating evidence or even shoot him. In Illinois, about 90 percent of search requests are granted.
Some states and cities have recognized that these requests are inherently coercive and unfairly target minorities. So they have restricted such searches, requiring "reasonable suspicion" of a crime and written consent from the driver. But those limits may be a false comfort.
The Illinois State Police says its officers request permission only when they have reasonable suspicion. But Harvey Grossman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, says what the term encompasses is so elastic that "it's no impediment at all."
It's also a lousy guide. Consent searches in Illinois yield contraband in 18 percent of searches. In Missouri, the hit rate is just 24 percent.
A lot of innocent people are delayed, inconvenienced and even humiliated because a cop had some flimsy and usually mistaken basis -- or because the officer's racial biases, conscious or unconscious, set off false alarms. What looks to cops like aggressive law enforcement often looks to victims like harassment and vandalism.
Police are not very good at overcoming those prejudices even when they're revealed. Illinois has been collecting and publishing racial data on traffic stops and searches since 2004, and disparities persist.
It's clear that the only way to protect motorists from being pressured into unwanted, racially skewed searches is to forbid the misnamed consent searches entirely. If cops have clear grounds to think a crime has been committed, they can search anyway. If they don't, they should mind their own business.
Why do so many blacks and Hispanics see the cops as enemies? Because in situations like these, they are.
Statistics are NOT science. They are numbers and can be interpreted any way someone wants.
The average of 1 and 3 is 2. Show me the 2 in that set.
“Over 70% of the Ferguson population is black.”
Yep, Ferguson has a white Mayor, City Manager, Police Chief, DA, and only three blacks on the police force. If they want more “blackness” then all they have to do is get off the couch and go vote. Then, they could make Ferguson as black as they want.
That 12 percent is all blacks, young, old, male and female. The proportion of these in the most likely demographic (male 15 to 40) is less than 20%. That makes it 2 to 3 percent of the population.
Corrupt cops can harass anyone.
statistics (science)
Britannicattp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/564172/statistics
Department of Statistical Science
The argument you made is that solving for x is not math, because x is not a numeral.
I'll see you Department of Statistical Science and Raise you one Department of Political Science and two Departments of Social Science.
the article is in error. A minority of the black community, the black urban criminal subculture is treated differently. The reason is that the black urban subculture is very dangerous
It is logical and rational to treat those that would do you harm, severe harm, in a manner that eliminates the possibility of danger.
Choirs from AME Zion churches don’t ever require the defensive force required by a single Trayvon or Michael Brown.
Do ‘bias’ and profiling mean the same thing?
Cops should profile just as border patrol and immigration should? Hell, citizens should profile if they value their safety.
You can call it what you want. There is Climate Science???
Observation, Analysis, Hypothesis, Experiment, conclusion.
It’s called the scientific method.
The missing 2 from above shows that an average value has no real meaning.
There are cops out there who have it in for the entirety of the non-police citizenry. A true "us v them" mentality. Then they whinge, snivel, p*** and moan about a lack of public support.
If they would stop treating us as "the enemy", perhaps we wouldn't be loathe to support them.
I am not the two sources I posted.
Statistics is a science regardless of what you feel it is.
The ability to manipulate a discipline is not the criteria for rendering any discipline mute.
Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/s/statistics.htm
Statistics belongs in the department of Mathematics. It's a tool that all sciences, hard and soft, can use to their advantage and disadvantage, but only appropriately. It is not, as far as I can see, a science in and of itself. . . that is a conceit the practitioners have arrogantly claimed to give themselves more authority than they deserve.
Like all mathematics, they make the mistake that their descriptive language, their map, is not the thing being described, and only limited conclusions from that description can be drawn from it. Often they forget the basic principle of GIGO, garbage in, garbage out, or make the assumption that their statistical models are inclusive of everything that can affect or skew the results.
In the 1960s and 1970s the cops in Venice and Culver City pulled over EVERYONE atone time or another. It was well known that such stops were revenue enhancers.
In the 1960s and 1970s the cops in Venice and Culver City pulled over EVERYONE at one time or another. It was well known that such stops were revenue enhancers.
Yup. After a while you begin to recognize that the numbers say every Black male must be guilty of something.(why bother anyone else when Black males are around)
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