Police brutality against black people happens way less than public thinks

NY Post ^ | February 27, 2021 | Rav Arora

[Stravinsky]

Social movements tap into our most primitive emotions, obscuring the complexities of sociopolitical problems. Reason is traded for ideological fervor and skepticism is swapped with religious dogma. Such was the case in 2020 in the wake of several high-profile cases of alleged police brutality involving black victims. Across the US and Western countries worldwide, activists and average citizens alike vigorously protested against a perceived (but empirically refuted) “epidemic of racist police killings.”

A new survey commissioned by Skeptic Research Center reveals the extent to which the public is misinformed on the issue of police violence. Participants across the political spectrum in the nationally representative survey were asked how many unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019. The results were revealing. Overall, nearly half of surveyed liberals (44 percent) estimated roughly between 1,000 and 10,000 unarmed black men were killed whereas 20 percent of conservatives estimated the same.

Most notably, the majority of respondents in each political category believed that police killed unarmed black men at an exponentially higher rate than in reality. Over 80 percent of liberals guessed at least 100 unarmed black men were killed compared to 66 percent of moderates and 54 percent of conservatives. But, according to a close database compiled by Mapping Police Violence, the actual number of black men killed by the police in 2019 is 27.

The second question the survey asked was: “In 2019, what percentage of people killed by police were Black?” While the survey states that the actual percentage is around 25 percent, the average survey respondent guessed 50 percent (58 percent for liberals and 41 percent for conservatives). The disconnect between perception and reality couldn’t be starker.

[DoughtyOne]

Misguided guilt.

That’s the long and the short of it. Some people recognize
the failures of the past and resolve to make the place a
better place by their own behavior. Others choose to wallow
in the past, express extreme guilt, and genuflect upon demand
to convince others, but mostly themselves, that they are not
from their great great great grandparents generation.

And the sad thing is, that even from that generation, not
everyone was a slave owner or a person who looked down on
black people.

The Underground Railroad was an offshoot of that. Many
people contributed to helping blacks escape slavery.

Were they all black? No.

There were a lot of non slavery states that looked down on
the practice with much disdain. None the less, today when
considering that period, all whites are deemed filthy
racists. Some were, but I believe the vast majority of
people weren’t.

[Stravinsky]

No, I didn’t buy into it at any point. I’m talking about the results of the poll in the article which show that people greatly overestimate the number of police-caused black deaths. The MSM is responsible for making people think this is an actual issue when the real numbers are extremely small.

[I want the USA back]

Right, and any thing that can be reinterpreted and presented to the public as police brutality against blacks is broadcast 24/7 and obsessively repeated until the country is worked up into a frenzy.

[DoughtyOne]

Good, and I agree with your take-away.

[MercyFlush]

The headline of the article is misleading.

“Police brutality against black people happens way less than public thinks”

That’s the headline but the story goes into detail on black people killed by police and not just brutalized.

Brutality takes on many forms and it is safe to say that it occurs more frequently against black people because they tend to live in the Democrat operated jurisdictions where the police hold civil rights in contempt. Some of the worst Democrat jurisdictions for police brutality against black people are in fact run by black Democrats.

Brutality can be a police beating on a handcuffed person, someone beaten and arrested for ‘resisting arrest’, and there’s many more examples of non-fatal police brutality available on You Tube.

The infinite circle powering this brutality is defined by the fact that black people do indeed tend to celebrate lawlessness. Therefore they’re easy targets for arrest by police who have to perform according to quotas (metrics) that consider a cop a failure unless he makes a certain number of arrests every month.

This situation leads to police making needless stops to demand ID or to write traffic tickets which the officers deliberately escalate into arrests because they need to make their metrics (quota) for the month.

Black people who don’t have lawyer friends are safe targets for this kind of abuse.

Now don’t think I’m a liberal as I am not. But I do believe that unless everyone is safe from police abuse then we don’t need police. I’d rather just have elected sheriff’s departments and then have Constitutional carry so everyone who wants to be armed can be armed with no interference from....the police.

[NoLibZone]

Since the election its now at zero.

strange.

[Zuriel]

**The thing that triggered these riots was the MSM reporting of the Floyd demise and spiking the facts behind his condition at the time. Because of that getting those facts out are desperately needed**

I am one of a growing number of folks that decided to experience the knee on the neck to satisfy my investigative instinct. If you are in good health try it youself. I chose a person that could simulate officer Chauvin’s weight (online said to be 167#), and even told my ‘officer’ to put more weight on my neck than on the other knee (its a 4 point stance: 2 feet and 2 knees, with just one point putting weight on the subject; probably no more than 70#. A hip joint, knee joint, and foot creating a triangle, times 2). My findings:

It doesn’t cut off the windpipe.
The diaphram still functions.
Major veins and arteries in the neck are not pinched.
At 66 yrs old, I narrowly escaped a visit to the chiropractor.

I noticed in the many pics online that Mr Floyd had his handcuffed right hand pushing against the pavement to remove some weight off of his right chest, which also reduced some of the twist on the neck. I found that to be somewhat helpful in the quite uncomfortable position.

While the optics were bad: the white man holding down the black man; unfortunately for George Floyd, he clobbered his own body, especially his lungs, with dangerous drugs.

[TChad]

...the actual number of black men killed by the police in 2019 is 27.

That's the number of UNARMED blacks, not the total number of blacks. The total number of blacks killed by police in 2019 was 235. There are about 44 million blacks living in the United States.

Heather MacDonald is the expert on this subject:

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/the-myth-of-systemic-police-racism

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.

IIRC, the Washington Post updated their estimate for the number of unarmed blacks killed by police in 2019 from nine to 27, after the linked MacDonald piece was written.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[Feckless]

The only stat I want to see is "Did the Perp Resist Arrest?"

If the answer is yes then everything that happens after that is moot.

If you Resist Arrest the only place you will find sympathy is in the Dictionary between Shit and Syphilis.

[lepton]

“Mapping Police Violence, the actual number of black men killed by the police in 2019 is 27.”

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And even that appears to give an excessive impression. Counting blacks that were not actively fighting with the police over a weapon, or were not armed themselves, the Washington Post counted 10 before they changed the criteria for ‘unarmed’.

[lepton]

This posting has comments that reveals that both the arresting officer and Floyd knew each other and had worked together in bar security

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That account has been withdrawn as being someone else.

[lepton]

Some of the worst Democrat jurisdictions for police brutality against black people are in fact run by black Democrats.

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Sure, just look at the cities where there were riots over the shootings, each ones that had such shootings, and those that didn’t. Not just democrat run cities, but long-term Democrat cities.

[lepton]

IIRC, the Washington Post updated their estimate for the number of unarmed blacks killed by police in 2019 from nine to 27, after the linked MacDonald piece was written.

---

I think it was 10, but yes, they updated it using a ridiculous definition of ‘unarmed’.

[mosesdapoet]

Do you have the link to the correcting post ?

[lepton]

Here’s one. There were better ones elsewhere.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-floyd-derek-chauvin-nightclub-bumped-heads-changes-story/