(Pokermind, take note: See how PeterZ does a very good job of finding actual research to support his arguments, using articles that properly attribute their findings and giving links to the original research. This is much better than the bullshit you are reposting here.)
PeterZ wrote:http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/28107/This Harvard study supports your assertion on police bias and the use of force with one glaring exception. Blacks are less likely to be killed than whites in an encounter with the police.
You are right, that is a very interesting result that I would not have predicted based on the data available to me. Thank you for bringing it to my, and our, attention. Having read it, while it definitely undermines the point that black people are shot more freely than whites, it still definitely supports the argument that there is a qualitative difference in your average interactions with the police depending on your race, which is something that needs to be addressed.
Yet since blacks are more likely to commit violent crime in the US, is that bias purely race driven or is it based on culture that skin Colorado is just a part of? The bias is targeting behavior and attempts to find clues indication criminal behavior as quickly as possible.
So statistically speaking, black people are, on average, more likely to commit crimes than whites. That seems to be an undisputable fact. But in what way should that fact govern the day-to-day interactions between law enforcement and blacks? What is the effect on the black community if, no matter how upstanding a citizen you are, you will get treated worse by the cops just for sharing a skin color with a large portion of the US prison population?
Laws are tools we use to shape our society the way we want it to be. They're an expression of our ideals, our social mores. The law is, to its credit, largely colorblind. But what if law enforcement isn't? What if laws are applied more harshly based on skin color? Is that truly a just and fair society? The core complaint behind BLM is that black people face a struggle against society and its agents that whites are largely oblivious or even indifferent to. Can you honestly say that they're wrong to make that complaint? That after 150 years of ongoing improvement in the equalisation of blacks and whites in society with no end to that process in sight, they're not justified in making their complaints more visible?
