5 ms·

Given that this isn't an isolated incident, and we're seeing black people on the receiving end of a great deal of police misconduct over the past couple of year

Given that this isn't an isolated incident, and we're seeing black people on the receiving end of a great deal of police misconduct over the past couple of years (Laquan McDonald and the subsequent cover up is the most recent example), perhaps it's time you consider that the reason arrest rates for black people are so high is because they are targeted unjustly. Not because they're actually committing crimes at higher rates.

rewqfdsa 11y ago
The higher criminality drives the police mistreatment. If you're a police offer and interact with mostly black criminals all day, your priors are set so that you think most blacks are criminals. So when you see an honest black person, you assume he's guilty of _something_, and consider framing him the honest thing, since you believe you're just putting the black man away for crimes he's doubtlessly committed, but for which you have no evidence. (You should understand that _explaining_ something is different from _endorsing_ it. Of course we should judge people by their actions only. It is _understandable_, however, why the current police culture might have arisen.)
- karlshea 11y ago
  It's sad that you actually think this is true.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - brazzledazzle 11y ago
      You can't draw conclusions from one fact and then call your suppositions facts.
  - Asbostos 11y ago
    You're saying it's not true? That policemen don't assume all blacks must be guilty of something? I'm sure a lot of them really do. That's just how human nature works. We all judge people on flimsy evidence and form prejudices. Police are humans like the rest of us and are bound to have those same kinds of prejudice.
    - karlshea 11y ago
      > That policemen don't assume all blacks must be guilty of something? I believe this is closer to the truth, but that's not what the flagged comment was getting at. His blanket assertion was that blacks committed more crimes than whites.
- airkumar 11y ago
  "criminality" is not an inherent trait in any race, including black Americans. The increased crime rates are a function of a number of inputs, many of which stem all the way back to slavery-- which has never fully been addressed/redressed in our public policy. To fail to recognize this and treat "black criminality" as some initial condition is to fail to critically think about our collective history and the resulting consequences.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- brazzledazzle 11y ago
  This is just made up shit that sounds good in your head. Even if we suppose for a moment that what you should have kept to yourself is true, what do you expect black people to do? In a dysfunctional relationship the person in the position of overwhelming power is the one that needs to change. Who "started" it is irrelevant.
doktrin 11y ago
It could be both. It could also be that the two phenomena are related in more ways than one. I'm not a sociologist and this isn't my wheelhouse, but I can both imagine a world in which exposure to crime can jade law enforcement against a community - and one in which a community can become jaded by corrupt law enforcement.

rewqfdsa 11y ago

The higher criminality drives the police mistreatment. If you're a police offer and interact with mostly black criminals all day, your priors are set so that you think most blacks are criminals. So when you see an honest black person, you assume he's guilty of _something_, and consider framing him the honest thing, since you believe you're just putting the black man away for crimes he's doubtlessly committed, but for which you have no evidence. (You should understand that _explaining_ something is different from _endorsing_ it. Of course we should judge people by their actions only. It is _understandable_, however, why the current police culture might have arisen.)

karlshea 11y ago
It's sad that you actually think this is true.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - brazzledazzle 11y ago
    You can't draw conclusions from one fact and then call your suppositions facts.
- Asbostos 11y ago
  You're saying it's not true? That policemen don't assume all blacks must be guilty of something? I'm sure a lot of them really do. That's just how human nature works. We all judge people on flimsy evidence and form prejudices. Police are humans like the rest of us and are bound to have those same kinds of prejudice.
  - karlshea 11y ago
    > That policemen don't assume all blacks must be guilty of something? I believe this is closer to the truth, but that's not what the flagged comment was getting at. His blanket assertion was that blacks committed more crimes than whites.
airkumar 11y ago
"criminality" is not an inherent trait in any race, including black Americans. The increased crime rates are a function of a number of inputs, many of which stem all the way back to slavery-- which has never fully been addressed/redressed in our public policy. To fail to recognize this and treat "black criminality" as some initial condition is to fail to critically think about our collective history and the resulting consequences.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
brazzledazzle 11y ago
This is just made up shit that sounds good in your head. Even if we suppose for a moment that what you should have kept to yourself is true, what do you expect black people to do? In a dysfunctional relationship the person in the position of overwhelming power is the one that needs to change. Who "started" it is irrelevant.

doktrin 11y ago

It could be both. It could also be that the two phenomena are related in more ways than one. I'm not a sociologist and this isn't my wheelhouse, but I can both imagine a world in which exposure to crime can jade law enforcement against a community - and one in which a community can become jaded by corrupt law enforcement.