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I wonder how closely the racial breakdown of who gets shot by police matches the racial breakdown of who commits murder. I also think it's silly to act indigna

I wonder how closely the racial breakdown of who gets shot by police matches the racial breakdown of who commits murder. I also think it's silly to act indignant about a disproportionate amount of police misconduct happening to a group that commits a disproportionate amount of crime. In fact, if the volume of misconduct matches volume of crime (eg, same number of mishandled incidents for number of calls), that's evidence they arent racist, because you'd expect racists to have misconduct at a higher-than-usual rate for the amount of crime they're responding to.

tinus_hn 10y ago
Unfortunately it is impossible to know volumes of crime because you can't know about all crime and you can't rely on the reports of people who report the crime you do know about. Both of these are tainted by biases. And even if you would know, and it turns out that blue men commit more murders than green men, would that make it not racist to shoot a blue man just because he is blue and therefore more statiscally likely to be a killer? He may also not be a killer.
- tynpeddler 10y ago
  True, but if blue people commit a higher number of crimes, then it's reasonable there will be a great number of witness reports describing blue suspects, and therefore you can expect a higher number of encounters between police and blue people. You can examine the link between suspect descriptions and the number of encounters and see if an ethnic group generates more or less encounters per description to check for racism in who police decide to encounter. You can then look at the rate at which police encounters become violent, and if that rate is different than the rate for green people, that would also be clear evidence of racism on the police force.
HeavenBanned 10y ago
Statistical syllogism won't absolve the police of their institutionalized racism. Black Lives Matter.

tinus_hn 10y ago

Unfortunately it is impossible to know volumes of crime because you can't know about all crime and you can't rely on the reports of people who report the crime you do know about. Both of these are tainted by biases. And even if you would know, and it turns out that blue men commit more murders than green men, would that make it not racist to shoot a blue man just because he is blue and therefore more statiscally likely to be a killer? He may also not be a killer.

tynpeddler 10y ago
True, but if blue people commit a higher number of crimes, then it's reasonable there will be a great number of witness reports describing blue suspects, and therefore you can expect a higher number of encounters between police and blue people. You can examine the link between suspect descriptions and the number of encounters and see if an ethnic group generates more or less encounters per description to check for racism in who police decide to encounter. You can then look at the rate at which police encounters become violent, and if that rate is different than the rate for green people, that would also be clear evidence of racism on the police force.

HeavenBanned 10y ago

Statistical syllogism won't absolve the police of their institutionalized racism. Black Lives Matter.