I have tried to remain out of this discussion, simply because I am not going to change anybody's mind, so what the ****? However, blitzburgh5' recent post deserves a response.
You should read an article by Constance Rice....shes a civil rights attorney that did work with LAPDs top brass and she worked alongside the department to try and bridge the gulf between police and the community.... and she tells of her interviews she conducted with police officers and how these officers would talk about their fear of black men. They weren't necessarily racists or bigots but just fearful of black men in general. One told her about how he perceived black men that came out of prison.....(quote from the article) "Ms. Rice, you know black men who come out of prison, they've got great hulk strength and I'm afraid they're going to kill me".
The only person who should NOT fear a large male just out of prison is ... well, ******* NOBODY. Large males just out of prison are vastly more likely to beat you, rob you, rape you (if you are a woman), or kill you.
An estimated two-thirds (68 percent) of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of release from prison, and three-quarters (77 percent) were arrested within five years, per the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
More than a third (37 percent) of prisoners who were arrested within five years of release were arrested within the first six months after release, with more than half (57 percent) arrested by the end of the first year.
These findings are based on a BJS data collection, Recidivism of State Prisoners Released in 2005, which tracked a sample of former prison inmates from 30 states for five years following release in 2005.
http://www.crimeinamerica.net/2010/09/29/percent-of-released-prisoners-returning-to-incarceration/
The reason these cops are encountering black males is because they work in neighborhoods with a large percentage of blacks. Hence, the big guys just out of jail are ... black.
Only an idiot would not be wary of those guys. Would you leave your door open if you knew that a convicted felon was hanging around your house? Would you leave your keys in your car? If not, does that make you a racist ... or a realist?
Further, according to the US Department of Justice, blacks accounted for 52.5% of homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008, with whites 45.3% and "Other" 2.2%. The offending rate for blacks was almost 8 times higher than whites.
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf
Therefore, being very concerned about the possibility that a criminal out of jail, and who is black, presents a genuine risk of harm is not racist, or dumb, or foolish; it is based on real life factors.
And I agree 100% that the substantial percentage of black citizens do not wish harm on the police. However, that provides no comfort since failure to take precaution can get you freaking killed. It's not like a cop can take a "mulligan" and be undead.
Often what happens is you have these men that spend very little off duty time in the areas they patrol. They have no understanding of black/hispanic culture. The operate on stigma and stereotypes and it fosters this fear in some. And when they encounter a black male, often times they have fear, adrenaline and this induces panic and this could explain why officers shoot up vehicles in Cleveland 135 times, or shoot a 12 yr old with a toy gun within 2 seconds of encountering him or shoot a motorist (Univ of Cincinnati) in the head when the motorist posed no threat.
Those events occur because police deal with the worst of the worst, every day, 365 days per year. You really think mistakes prove some racial bias? Jeez, Louise, doctors accidentally kill patients with vastly more regularity than cops mistakenly kill citizens.
According to a new study just out from the prestigious Journal of Patient Safety, four times as many people die from preventable medical errors than we thought, as many as 440,000 a year.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/leahbinder/2013/09/23/stunning-news-on-preventable-deaths-in-hospitals/
Are doctors killing patients due to bias, or racism? Or maybe because they work an incredibly difficult job, for long hours, where mistakes = dead people.
You know, like cops.
And this has nothing to do with "culture." It has to do with the fact that our society has a lot of very dangerous people. Have you ever seen the Richard Pryor skit where he talks about visiting a jail? Before he goes, he says he was looking forward to "being with my people" and seeing what oppression has done. After the visit, he says, "You know why these people are in jail? Because they are crazy. Thank God we have jails."
Encounters between white officers and black suspects often end in brutal exchanges and death even if the suspects are unarmed. Blacks just appear too menacing to some white cops. Constance speaks about this in her article
No, encounters between white officers and black suspects result in an unnecessary shooting an incredibly tiny fraction of the time - maybe 0.02%. Seriously, these events are so rare they are the subject of protests and news reports, while 25,000 times per day across this nation, white officers encounter black suspects.
I get my percentage by estimating 25,000 encounters a day, though that statistic is incredibly low and does not include traffic stops. 365 days per year yields 9,125,000 such encounters per year. Let's say an unfounded and unprovoked shooting occurs once every other day (it does not - it happens vastly less than that but **** it, I will go on the high end.) That means 182 unfounded shootings per year.
182 is 0.02% of 9,125,000.
Look, it would be great if the number were zero. But when violent criminals with little concern about the law or jail are drunk, or stoned, and regularly get into physical scuffles with armed police officers, people are going to get hurt - and some will die.
That's just the way it is.
And the concern over 180 shootings per year is not justified, given that the underlying cause of behavioral breakdown - single-parent families, young mothers ill-equipped for the task, lack of positive parental influence for a lot of kids, poor academic performance due to a lack of parental involvement, etc. - is basically ignored. This is really no different than obsessing over the fact that a Pop-Tart is being burnt because the house is burning down, and not giving a **** about the house.
