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Let’s Look At The Actual Facts About The Alleged Racism of Police
The Federalist ^ | June 7, 2020 | John R. Lott Jr

Posted on 06/08/2020 8:35:41 AM PDT by Kaslin

The media help foster a narrative there is an epidemic of Caucasian police officers killing black Americans out of racist impulses. But is it really true?


This past week, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with the second-degree murder of George Floyd, a black man. Footage and photos of Floyd’s death launched protests and riots across the country. Despite there being no evidence yet that the officer was racist, it is simply assumed that racism motivated the Caucasian cop’s abusive actions.

Law enforcement officers can be careless or abusive without being racist. In Dallas, in 2016, a Caucasian man died after being arrested in the exact same way. The officers joked about the man being asleep, but he had died after pleading for help “more than 30 times.”

On Fox News Sunday this past weekend, host Chris Wallace mentioned a handful of cases that he thought showed a racist pattern. He pointed to Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead by a retired police officer in February while out jogging in Georgia. He also mentioned a recent disturbing incident in New York’s Central Park, where a Caucasian woman who was walking her dog called police to report that she was being threatened by “an African-American man.” The man simply told her that the law requires her to keep her dog on a leash.

It’s worth recalling that following the nationwide riots after the Michael Brown shooting, the “Hands up, don’t shoot” aspect of the story was revealed to be false.

The media have helped create a biased perception that is far from the reality of shootings by police. A study conducted by the Crime Prevention Research Center (where I serve as president) found that when a Caucasian officer kills a suspect, the media usually mention the race of the officer. When the offending officer is black, however, any news coverage rarely mentions race.

Furthermore, there’s ample evidence that black Americans aren’t all that fed up with the police. A July 2017 Quinnipiac University poll in New York City found that black Americans strongly support the cops in their own neighborhoods—62 percent approved compared to just 35 percent who disapproved. That approval rating was 11 percent higher than for the New York City Police Department as a whole. It makes sense that people only know their local cops but rely on media reports to form impressions about the parts of the city they are less familiar with.

More recently, a Monmouth University poll surveyed a national sample of 807 adults between May 28 to June 1, 2020, and found that Americans of all races are largely supportive of their local police departments.

Monmouth poll: How satisfied are you with your local police department (Very or somewhat satisfied/ Somewhat or very dissatisfied):

College educated whites: 73% / 9%
Non-college whites: 70% / 14%
Black: 72% / 17%
Hispanic/Asian: 68% / 18%

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) June 3, 2020

Through our own extensive research, my organization found 2,699 instances of police shootings across the nation from 2013-2015. That’s far more than the FBI found since its data is limited to only 1,366 cases voluntarily provided by police departments.

The FBI data has other problems, as well: It disproportionately includes cases from heavily minority areas, giving a misleading picture of the frequency at which blacks are shot.

Our database keeps track of characteristics of both the suspect and the officer involved in each shooting, local violent crime rates, demographics of the city and police department, and many other factors that help determine what causes police shootings.

Officers kill black Americans at a higher rate than their share of the population: 25 percent of the suspects killed were black, 45 percent Caucasian, and 16 percent Hispanic. But that isn’t true where the highest concentration of deaths occur. Black suspects tend to die in larger cities with populations averaging over 600,000 (overwhelmingly run by Democrats), while Caucasians are killed in smaller cities with an average population of 250,000.

Caucasian suspects were slightly more likely to be holding a firearm than blacks (63 percent to 61 percent). Black and Caucasian suspects where both equally likely to have been involved in violent crime when they lose their lives, though blacks who died were more likely to be involved in drug or property offenses.

It’s important to note, however, that police generally have more challenging jobs in cities where blacks are killed. The average city where blacks are killed had a 61 percent higher violent crime rate and a 126 percent higher murder rate than where the average Caucasian was killed.

After accounting for these and other factors, including the average differences across police departments to deal cultural differences in departments, we found that black officers were at least as likely as their Caucasian peers to kill black suspects, but that black officers were more likely to kill unarmed blacks than were Caucasian officers.

The data offered some advice for reducing these attacks. While it can’t explain all instances such as George Floyd’s case, usually when more police are present at the scene of a confrontation with a civilian, suspects face reduced odds of being killed. For each additional officer, there is about a 14 to 18 percent reduction in the suspect’s chances of being killed.

This makes intuitive sense. Officers feel more vulnerable if they are alone at the scene, making them more likely to resort to deadly force. Also, suspects may be emboldened and resist arrest when fewer officers are present.

It is a dangerous fiction that prejudiced Caucasian officers are going out and disproportionately killing black men. But that doesn’t mean that measures can’t be taken to reduce shootings by police. The most obvious step would be to increase the number of officers, to avoid forcing lone, vulnerable officers to make life-or-death decisions.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crime; crimedata; crimestatistics; derekchauvin; georgefloyd; police; policeconduct; violence
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To: scottiemom

It’s even worse than that. Pointing out facts that counter the narrative of systematic and widespread police violence against blacks is racist according to the loony lefties. Biden inadvertently spilled the beans ... they’re concerned with “truth”, not facts. The systematic execution of black people by cops is “truth”, facts be damned. Anyone using facts to subvert the “truth” is inherently racist by definition.


21 posted on 06/08/2020 10:21:13 AM PDT by stremba
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To: DoodleDawg

Done any “ride-alongs” with police?


22 posted on 06/08/2020 10:47:55 AM PDT by Does so (Neo-Venezuelans = Democrats = Rioters = Looters)
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To: RatRipper

If the facts contradict the narrative, the facts lie. Apparently, you forgot that.


23 posted on 06/08/2020 10:50:55 AM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: Texas Eagle
Their go-to argument is systemic racism.

Because they're Democrats, the one systemically racist part of America.

24 posted on 06/08/2020 10:52:19 AM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: TBP
Because they're Democrats, the one systemically racist part of America.

Thank you.

25 posted on 06/08/2020 10:53:22 AM PDT by Texas Eagle
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To: Kaslin

Instagram Censors FBI Crime Stats Graph As ‘Hate Speech’
Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Jun. 08, 2020

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=61523


26 posted on 06/08/2020 10:53:27 AM PDT by LilFarmer
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To: TBP

I just gotta learn the rules better. . . .

That reminded me of a quote from Voltaire:

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

NEVER retreat from the truth.


27 posted on 06/08/2020 10:57:10 AM PDT by RatRipper ( Democrats and socialists are vile liars, thieves and murderers - enemies of good and America.)
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To: Does so
Done any “ride-alongs” with police?

I did once back when I was in high school. What difference does that make?

28 posted on 06/08/2020 10:57:40 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Kaslin

None of this is about facts.

The revolution is all that matters.


29 posted on 06/08/2020 12:35:23 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who could have guessed the Communist Revolution would arrive disguised as the common cold?)
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To: Kaslin

Hey John Lott Jr of the Federalist, you should have read this article out loud to the ducks, thrown it into the pond, then ordered a few thousand rounds of .223.

You are spitting in the wind.


30 posted on 06/08/2020 12:37:47 PM PDT by The Toll
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To: scottiemom
Dear scottiemom

I didn't write the op-ed, besides I am a she like you, not a he like the author.

31 posted on 06/08/2020 1:12:44 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: RatRipper

Bad boy? Wow. The last time I checked I was a she, besides I did not write the article, just so you know


32 posted on 06/08/2020 1:16:43 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Was being sarcastic. . . been on here a long, long time and I guess I always assumed you to be a man. Have run across your posting name many, many times. My apologies. . . now I know better.


33 posted on 06/08/2020 1:33:07 PM PDT by RatRipper ( Democrats and socialists are vile liars, thieves and murderers - enemies of good and America.)
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To: Kaslin

Quick check of your profile. . . a Tennessee girl. I live in North AL - Cullman


34 posted on 06/08/2020 1:35:19 PM PDT by RatRipper ( Democrats and socialists are vile liars, thieves and murderers - enemies of good and America.)
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To: frank ballenger
what words did President Trump EVER show himself to be a racist?

BUILD THE WALL

35 posted on 06/08/2020 2:06:03 PM PDT by lizma2
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To: mellow velo

Hillary’s anti black and anti semitic statements :As the old movie Love Story said (paraphrased)—

Being a Dem means never having to say you’re sorry.


36 posted on 06/08/2020 3:34:45 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: TBP
"Facts are stubborn things."

--John Adams, 1770

"Facts are racist."

--MSM, 2020

37 posted on 06/08/2020 5:08:53 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

I remember when Reagan gaffed and said, “Facts are Stupid Things”, the press had a field day with it.


38 posted on 06/08/2020 5:10:37 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kharis13
President Trump's problem is he's refreshingly honest, which means he's not PC. THAT is what the Left can't handle. <<

Isn't that refreshing!...He got elected because he touched on what most Americans were thinking......

He'll be elected in a landslide if we can ever “True the Vote”

39 posted on 06/08/2020 8:17:34 PM PDT by M-cubed (The MSM is now the 4th Branch of Government.....)
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To: DoodleDawg

MY first “ride-along” responded to a city cop who’d been fatally wounded while apprehending a “teen” in a liquor store holdup.

It’s not always like TV.


40 posted on 06/09/2020 12:05:17 AM PDT by Does so (Neo-Venezuelans = Democrats = Rioters = Looters)
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