Posted Facebook. I decided to break my rule.
I think adding some context to some current debates might be useful.
42% of arrest related homicides are among whites. 32% among blacks. This is a ratio of 1.31. What I will note is that in absolute numbers more whites are killed by cops in the arrest process than blacks. Our media would have you believe that number is close to zero. It isn’t. I will post in comments a very recent case exactly similar in kind to the Eric Garner case.
Now, here is a table showing total arrests:
I have divided total white arrests by total black arrests–for all causes–and the ratio is 2.46, which means that proportionately blacks are more likely to die in the process of getting arrested. However if I select ONLY for violent crimes–which I think we can safely assume also carry the highest risk for both sides–the number of arrests for whites is 236,394, and for blacks it is 155,088, which is a ratio of 1.52. This STILL reflects a higher rate for blacks, but not a huge one. If my math is correct, the rate is 16% higher.
If we have a crisis, it is that nearly 3,000 people died in the process of getting arrested, or in custody and that their deaths were formally classified as officer-involved homicides. And again, in absolute numbers that represents about 1,244 white people, and 931 blacks.
Now, most of these were likely folks who came out shooting and got dropped. But not all of them.
I would like to tell the people using this for racial polarization, profit, and ratings to kiss my ass. Eric Garner’s killer was clearly guilty of at least reckless manslaughter, but the problem is not primarily a BLACK problem, at least statistically. We are having riots because it is being portrayed as such, but wrongs are being done to ALL races. What was done to Garner was wrong, but the same sorts of things are happening to everyone, at roughly comparable rates, or at least that would appear to be the case.
I am having vivid fantasies of putting some journalists, politicians and agitators in old fashioned stocks and having people throw rotten fruit and vegetables at them for a day or two.
You don’t make people smarter by making them dumber. What you do is make them USEFUL.
I will note that nothing good usually happens to the pawns. None of us should aim to be a tool for someone else’s end, but rather to seek our own purposes, with our own wills, our own knowledge, and our own wisdom.
Do you know about this? 19 year old kid leaves a party in a field, terrified and drunk, stupid cop tries to stop her car with his body, gets his foot run over, panics, shoots and kills her. No charges. Underage drinking is not a capital offense. It may be that some of these people do not deserve criminal trials, but in my book if you do something that stupid once, your ass bounces high on the way out, and you are put on a permanent national shit list to make sure no one rehires you.