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The Myth of Systemic Police Racism
Wall St. Journal ^ | June 2, 2020 | Heather Mac Donald

Posted on 06/02/2020 11:06:20 AM PDT by SJackson

Hold officers accountable who use excessive force. But there’s no evidence of widespread racial bias.

George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has revived the Obama-era narrative that law enforcement is endemically racist. On Friday, Barack Obama tweeted that for millions of black Americans, being treated differently by the criminal justice system on account of race is “tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal.’ ”

..snip..

Joe Biden released a video the same day in which he asserted that all African-Americans fear for their safety from “bad police” and black children must be instructed to tolerate police abuse just so they can “make it home.” ,,snip..

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz denounced the “stain . . . of fundamental, institutional racism” on law enforcement

..snip..

This charge of systemic police bias was wrong during the Obama years and remains so today. However sickening the video of Floyd’s arrest, it isn’t representative of the 375 million annual contacts that police officers have with civilians. A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing. Crime and suspect behavior, not race, determine most police actions.

In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. African-Americans were about a quarter of those killed by cops last year (235), a ratio that has remained stable since 2015. That share of black victims is less than what the black crime rate would predict, since police shootings are a function of how often officers encounter armed and violent suspects. In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
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The police fatally shot nine unarmed blacks and 19 unarmed whites in 2019....In 2018 there were 7,407 black homicide victims. Assuming a comparable number of victims last year, those nine unarmed black victims of police shootings represent 0.1% of all African-Americans killed in 2019. By contrast, a police officer is 18½ times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.
1 posted on 06/02/2020 11:06:21 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson

Unfortunately a pay site.


2 posted on 06/02/2020 11:06:35 AM PDT by SJackson (Suppose you were an idiot, suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself, Mark Twain)
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To: SJackson

must be true, we saw it in the movies and on tv.


3 posted on 06/02/2020 11:08:12 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: SJackson

Why will no one mention that there was no white guy using counterfeit money to buy cigarettes at that time and no white man battled with the cops while being arrested?

Seems he put his self in this situation.

Also he was screaming he couldn’t breathe before he hit the ground and they called paramedics. If you can not breathe you can not talk.

The treatment was excessive but had he not chosen to do drugs, drive, steal, and resist arrest this never would have begun let alone ended like this.


4 posted on 06/02/2020 11:13:04 AM PDT by Ndorfin (Kitties,titties, and fiddies oh, and no sickies)
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To: SJackson

All of these big cities are run by democrats and most of them have been for decades. Democrats control the police departments. And the run-down schools, and the crime-ridden slums and the lack of opportunity. If black people really want change, maybe they should stop voting for democrats.


5 posted on 06/02/2020 11:13:47 AM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!)
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To: SJackson

How about the myth of systemic racism period.


6 posted on 06/02/2020 11:18:43 AM PDT by Altura Ct. (uNACA)
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To: SJackson

More likely to get killed by lightning I suppose.


7 posted on 06/02/2020 11:20:19 AM PDT by 11th_VA (May you live in interesting times - Ancient Chinese Proverb)
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To: SJackson

And from today’s dead tree edition:

Good Policing Saves Black Lives
A report by Harvard’s Roland Fryer shows that when the cops pull back, homicides increase.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/good-policing-saves-black-lives-11591052916

In 2016 Mr. Fryer released a study of racial differences in police use of deadly force. To the surprise of the author, as well as many in the media and on the left who take racist law enforcement as a given, he found no evidence of bias in police shootings...

And now we know how scapegoating law enforcement can backfire in ways that do the most harm to our most vulnerable communities. “I never would have guessed that if police stopped putting in the effort, that homicides would change like this,” said Mr. Fryer. “You hear some people say ‘Oh, we want to police our own neighborhoods, get out.’ No, you don’t want that. I guess I always knew it was a foolish idea, but I didn’t realize it was this deadly.”


8 posted on 06/02/2020 11:26:45 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: SJackson

Unfortunately Heather Mac Donald comes at all this from the perspective of using logic and rationality, and what is going on is all about using emotion to drive a political result. There is precious little logic and rational analysis going on. Of course everyone thinks how George Floyd died is terrible. Now what? The answer seems to be to condemn every cop in the country, which is complete B.S. There are plenty of good cops out there.

I posted the following links to some of Heather Mac Donald’s writings on this subject in the last couple days. They are very much worth reading. I believe she coined the term The Ferguson Effect, the reduction in policing that happens because police are afraid of possible fallout. The net result is less safe neighborhoods for everyone, but especially blacks.

Heather Mac Donald
Thomas W. Smith Fellow
Contributing Editor, City Journal
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/expert/heather-mac-donald

Why ‘Policing Is Racist’ Is Such a Poisonous Lie
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/why-policing-is-racist-poisonous-lie

There Is No Epidemic of Racist Police Shootings
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/white-cops-dont-commit-more-shootings

There’s much more of her material there, and she probably has a couple books on the general topic.


9 posted on 06/02/2020 11:35:14 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: SJackson

Glad they’re covering this.


10 posted on 06/02/2020 11:38:01 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: FreedomPoster
I believe she coined the term The Ferguson Effect, the reduction in policing that happens because police are afraid of possible fallout

And in six months we'll be hearing of the capitalist effect when many of the destroyed business' don't reopen.

11 posted on 06/02/2020 11:41:00 AM PDT by SJackson (Suppose you were an idiot, suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself, Mark Twain)
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To: Altura Ct.

City of Detroit in 1960s had Big Four squad cars with four officers and carrying heavy armament in trunk. Project called STRESS (....streets safe....) Police would target and arrest rings of child sex traffickers, heroin pushers by schools, organized extortion rings and known murderers fingered by informants. This all was ended as “racist”.

The criticism of police force before July, 1967 riots was that almost no ranking or administrative police officer was black anywhere in Detroit. And majority of officers were white confronting the black populace.
So big affirmative action started and has never stopped. Police chiefs and majority of force has been black since then and 99% of mayors and all council majorities. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (now still in prison) was popular.

SO, blame the black police bosses, the Dem mayor and the black council, and the Dem Governor Whitmer for “systemic racism” that the DEMS caused. No GOP in sight to blame since 1967.


12 posted on 06/02/2020 11:41:27 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media new:s censorship or we are finished.)
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To: Altura Ct.
I suppose there are still a few who are biased against people of different races. I was privileged to work with scientists, technicians, and support staff from many different cultures. I reject the term “race” because we are all human beings. What we have are different cultures (coming from the Latin term ‘cultus’ which encompasses a person's world view and values). I enjoyed learning about people from different cultures.

My concern is that Cultural Marxism has slowly and consistently become a dominant ideology in the United States. This ideology seeks to pit people from different cultures against one another to bring about a Marxist Utopia. Over 100 million people died in the last century from wars fought to implement this ideology. They always end the same way: with a totalitarian government antithetical to the ideas put forth by our Framers. Think “Venezuela”.

The key is to try and listen to those who come from different cultures. Embrace what works and creates freedom and prosperity for our nation and abandon ideas that produce tyranny and strife.

Over 2000 years ago Jesus Christ gave His disciples some really good advice. Treat others like you would like to be treated. Love your neighbor (i.e. don't be totally selfish). He expected His disciples to use their gifts to support themselves and to help their neighbor in time of need.

When we live like that we work together to create the best life possible for the most people. There is an expectation for individuals to be productive. The Apostle Paul noted that one who would not work (i.e. was capable but lazy) should not eat.

We are an interdependent people and our success depends upon each using the skills that one has. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts...

13 posted on 06/02/2020 11:58:39 AM PDT by RetiredScientist
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To: RetiredScientist

Great post!


14 posted on 06/02/2020 12:20:16 PM PDT by FormerFRLurker (Keep calm and vote your conscience.)
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To: SJackson

Socrates Lemp, a young white man, was killed in his bed by police in Maryland in a no knock raid earlier this year, as was Breonna Taylor, a young black woman in Louisville.

Tony Timpa, a young white man with schizophrenia, called the police in Dallas for help in Dallas last year and suffocated when the cops knelt on him while he was prone and restrained.

I can’t think of a white match case for Ahmaud Arbery within the last year.


15 posted on 06/02/2020 12:35:20 PM PDT by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: heartwood

The issue the media cares about are dead black people which can be blamed on Trump and/or America. Plain dead white people, doesn’t fit the profile, even if killed by the police. Who it’s mandatory to paint as institutionally racist. Like murdered inner city blacks. Plenty of them, neither the media nor the Democrat party care. Not sure Republicans care that much either.


16 posted on 06/02/2020 12:41:06 PM PDT by SJackson (Suppose you were an idiot, suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself, Mark Twain)
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To: SJackson

What we’ll be hearing is renewed screeching about racist food/shopping “deserts”, by the same people as are screeching now. They don’t see the cause and effect. They don’t see that THEY are causing black lives much pain.

BTW, this is one of the more heartbreaking things I’ve seen all week. Older black woman completely distraught that her neighborhood stores have been looted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoQSNJn8sTg

This is a direct result of all the white guilt virtue signalling plus lack of action by mayors and governors.


17 posted on 06/02/2020 12:56:28 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: SJackson

CNN made the mistake, a couple nights ago, of revealing some truth. The quoted the Minneapolis police chief who said he can’t fire the bullies on the police force because of the police unions and (liberal) mediators/judges who continue to reinstate fired cops.


18 posted on 06/02/2020 12:58:42 PM PDT by aimhigh (THIS is His commandment . . . . 1 John 3:23)
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To: aimhigh

I’m sure that’s true. Can’t fire bad cops because of the unions, can’t hold criminals on bail lots of places because of politicians.


19 posted on 06/02/2020 1:05:33 PM PDT by SJackson (Suppose you were an idiot, suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself, Mark Twain)
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To: FreedomPoster
What we’ll be hearing is renewed screeching about racist food/shopping “deserts”, by the same people as are screeching now.

Yes we will. I spend a lot of time in a non-urban food desert, no big deal. But in urban neighborhoods, it becomes a real problem. Of the communities making, which doesn't help individuals. Of course I don't mean Michelle's nonsensical 13 mile radius. In urban areas a mile can be a lot to an older or disabled person. I'm sure the rioters are concerned.

20 posted on 06/02/2020 1:08:15 PM PDT by SJackson (Suppose you were an idiot, suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself, Mark Twain)
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