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> "First-conclusion bias". Huge problem with cops. Also check out "availability bias" which Charlie mentions many times in his speeches. Because "x minority sh

> "First-conclusion bias". Huge problem with cops. Also check out "availability bias" which Charlie mentions many times in his speeches. Because "x minority shot and killed by police" comes up so many times in the news, this image tends to be readily accesible in our brains when we here the word "cops", thus causing us to vastly overestimte it's probabiltiy of this event actually happening in real life. This causes us to believe the problem is far bigger than it actually is, probabilistically speaking: https://i.imgur.com/tOTcCRH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tOTcCRH.jpg . (Mind you, those stats are "white men", much less "white men that happen to be policemen") . Dramatic/emotional information is somehow perceived to be a bigger threat than "real, actual statistcal risk", in other words. Daniel Kahneman also covers this topic on his excellent "Thinking Fast and Slow": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Availability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Availa... which I also recommend.

random314 9y ago
It is a fairly common subterfuge to replace law-enforcement killing blacks statistics with statistics of white-on-black crime. There have been several studies that demonstrate that the likelihood of death from an LEO encounter increases with your melanin content http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-americans-shot-dead-police-shooting-twice-likely-white-people-us-african-american-a7567471.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-ameri...
boomboomsubban 9y ago
>Mind you, those stats are "white men", much less "white men that happen to be policemen" These stats are on murders as tracked by law enforcement agencies, most of the killing of black people by police officers wouldn't be included.
- icebraining 9y ago
  http://killedbypolice.net/ http://killedbypolice.net/ tracks those; I don't think they have statistics per race, but even if all the people killed were black, I don't think it would change much the graphic. More than 1000 people killed by cops per year is still absolutely horrifying, of course.
  - steveeq1 9y ago
    And how many of those killings were justified? Probably the great bulk of it, as the police have an inherently dangerous profession.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - icebraining 9y ago
      So it is. Yet, even adjusting for population size, the US police kills 40 to 100 times the number of people killed by the German police. Is the US 40 to 100 times more dangerous than Germany? You tell me, I've never been there. (Germany is just an example. The UK, Canada, Austria, and probably many other countries in the EU all kill less than 10 people per year).
      - AnimalMuppet 9y ago
        I would say you are much less likely to be shot (by anybody) in Germany. Far fewer people carry guns. (Making up numbers for illustration purposes only: In the US, you may be twice as likely to have a physical confrontation with fists, and 50 times as likely to be shot.) This changes things for the police. If a cop in Germany confronts a belligerent citizen, said citizen may take a punch at the cop. The cop is probably better trained, and also probably in better shape. Still, s/he could lose. If so, s/he may get teased by other cops back the station. In the US, the cop has to worry about the belligerent citizen taking a shot at the cop. If the cop loses that encounter, the other cops at the station will speak very respectfully to the cop's widow(er). That's a completely different proposition. It means that the US cops are on a hyper hair-trigger alert that German cops don't have to be. Disclaimer: I don't work in law enforcement. It's been many years since I was in Germany. This is my perception only.

random314 9y ago

It is a fairly common subterfuge to replace law-enforcement killing blacks statistics with statistics of white-on-black crime. There have been several studies that demonstrate that the likelihood of death from an LEO encounter increases with your melanin content http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-americans-shot-dead-police-shooting-twice-likely-white-people-us-african-american-a7567471.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-ameri...

boomboomsubban 9y ago

>Mind you, those stats are "white men", much less "white men that happen to be policemen" These stats are on murders as tracked by law enforcement agencies, most of the killing of black people by police officers wouldn't be included.

icebraining 9y ago
http://killedbypolice.net/ http://killedbypolice.net/ tracks those; I don't think they have statistics per race, but even if all the people killed were black, I don't think it would change much the graphic. More than 1000 people killed by cops per year is still absolutely horrifying, of course.
- steveeq1 9y ago
  And how many of those killings were justified? Probably the great bulk of it, as the police have an inherently dangerous profession.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - icebraining 9y ago
    So it is. Yet, even adjusting for population size, the US police kills 40 to 100 times the number of people killed by the German police. Is the US 40 to 100 times more dangerous than Germany? You tell me, I've never been there. (Germany is just an example. The UK, Canada, Austria, and probably many other countries in the EU all kill less than 10 people per year).
    - AnimalMuppet 9y ago
      I would say you are much less likely to be shot (by anybody) in Germany. Far fewer people carry guns. (Making up numbers for illustration purposes only: In the US, you may be twice as likely to have a physical confrontation with fists, and 50 times as likely to be shot.) This changes things for the police. If a cop in Germany confronts a belligerent citizen, said citizen may take a punch at the cop. The cop is probably better trained, and also probably in better shape. Still, s/he could lose. If so, s/he may get teased by other cops back the station. In the US, the cop has to worry about the belligerent citizen taking a shot at the cop. If the cop loses that encounter, the other cops at the station will speak very respectfully to the cop's widow(er). That's a completely different proposition. It means that the US cops are on a hyper hair-trigger alert that German cops don't have to be. Disclaimer: I don't work in law enforcement. It's been many years since I was in Germany. This is my perception only.