Harvard Study shows no racial bias in police shootings...

This study was done by an economist, apparently held in high esteem by his peers and he claims he's never been so surprised in his career.

Apropos of nothing, he's African-American.

The study cover three states and 10 major police forces and thousands of shootings...

www.washingtontimes.com...

a reply to: nwtrucker

Haven't read the study or abstract, but this was brought up on the Kelley File last night in what was an entertaining set of exchanges, to say the least.

It's a shame that the Washington Times would be the only source? Thanks for posting.

a reply to: nwtrucker

From what I can tell, the study is saying there wasnt a bias in shootings but that there is a bias in every other aspect.

Posted yesterday www.abovetopsecret.com...

At the same time, the study found blacks and Hispanics were more than 50 percent more likely to experience physical interactions with police, including touching, pushing, handcuffing, drawing a weapon, and using a baton or pepper spray.

The headline is misleading and means nothing. If there's a 50% increased risk for black people to get involved in physical altercations with police, and shootings are correlated to physical alterations, than the data the headline is based on is just a counterintuitive variable.

That happens in all kinds of studies, it doesn't make the conclusion drawn correct.

Some people might say "its black peoples fault for getting into altercations with police" but then you might want to research the destruction of the black family by systemic failings. The 'drug war' coinciding conveniently with the development of civil rights led by MLK, and the subsequent promotion of 'gang banger' mentality, attacks on Tupac who pushed for resistance, and the bastardization of 'Thug Life' which originally meant something entire different than what it means today. The subversion of the black race can be tied back to numerous policy directives and money being funded into social programming and engineering.

I won't say who seems to be linked to most of it, because I'd get pegged as a racist. Hint, it's not 'whitey'. Not exactly.

From the abstract:

This paper explores racial differences in police use of force. On non-lethal uses of force, blacks and Hispanics are more than fifty percent more likely to experience some form of force in interactions with police. Adding controls that account for important context and civilian behavior reduces, but cannot fully explain, these disparities. On the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account. We argue that the patterns in the data are consistent with a model in which police officers are utility maximizers, a fraction of which have a preference for discrimination, who incur relatively high expected costs of officer-involved shootings.

Link to the abstract of the actual publication

Given that the greatest number of interactions are non-lethal (i.e. no one died) and those do show marked racial difference, is anyone surprised that the widespread perception exists among many that the lethal uses of force are also racially motivated ... even if they statistically aren't?

Besides that, OP ... honestly. Do you think you're going to hold up a study from Harvard and change the hearts and minds of the people in the streets protesting?

Further, the study itself realizes that its data set may be fraught with inaccuracy:

Our results have several important caveats. First, all but one dataset was provided by a select group of police departments. It is possible that these departments only supplied the data because they are either enlightened or were not concerned about what the analysis would reveal.

This links to an actual PDF of the publication

Just some additional thoughts.

originally posted by: BeefNoMeat
a reply to: nwtrucker

Haven't read the study or abstract, but this was brought up on the Kelley File last night in what was an entertaining set of exchanges, to say the least.

It's a shame that the Washington Times would be the only source? Thanks for posting.

I heard about this morning on Seattle radio. I 'googled' it just now and there's a number of links to it....as well as 'wait just a minute'...

originally posted by: gladtobehere
a reply to: nwtrucker

From what I can tell, the study is saying there wasnt a bias in shootings but that there is a bias in every other aspect.

That's true. The study didn't say bias, per say, it was statistical as opposed to subjective. Physical contact was 17-18% higher when dealing with blacks rather than whites. Hey, I don't doubt it at all.

Yet, the real, IMO, point is shootings and the murders of Blacks is statistically false, or at least, the murders aren't race based, per say.

It raises the question of how much hyperbole is in the BLM movement especially when the level has been raised to murders committed based on a false/exaggerated picture??

a reply to: boncho

Don't forget about how a lot of funding was pulled out of southern public schools once they were desegregated back in the 1960's.

A lot of the wealthier white parents pulled their kids out of public schools to avoid having their children in public, desegregated schools. Funding was cut, education suffered.

It's the accumulation of a lot of subtle, dog-whistle policies and (as you pointed out) social engineering over the years.

a reply to: Autorico


Thanks....missed it, obviously....

a reply to: Gryphon66

That last quote you posted? About the data coming from police departments who volunteered the data...

Yeah, no police department that's has a problem is going to knowingly hand over that info for a Harvard study.

Then there's the whole issue of accountability in the records kept by police departments. Lots of people in all kinds of job fluff their stats in order to make themselves look better. From fast food to Fortune 500 companies people sometimes leave out details and only show the best of themselves.

a reply to: boncho


Perhaps, yet, the numbers don't lies when taken to that degree....at least as far as shootings go. By the way, it was 17-18% higher , not fifty...

originally posted by: nwtrucker
a reply to: boncho


Perhaps, yet, the numbers don't lies when taken to that degree....at least as far as shootings go. By the way, it was 17-18% higher , not fifty...

Numbers themselves are incapable of lying. True.

But what if the numbers provided aren't the actual numbers? What if the numbers reported aren't accurate? What if things are being kept quiet to protect people's jobs?

It's already been established that it's hard to pin down the numbers of officer-related deaths in America due to inconsistent reporting between police departments. There's a reason why public advocacy groups have now taken it upon themselves to keep a tally.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
a reply to: boncho

Don't forget about how a lot of funding was pulled out of southern public schools once they were desegregated back in the 1960's.

A lot of the wealthier white parents pulled their kids out of public schools to avoid having their children in public, desegregated schools. Funding was cut, education suffered.

It's the accumulation of a lot of subtle, dog-whistle policies and (as you pointed out) social engineering over the years.

On the other side of the coin, the ratio of white to black also drops in the urban areas where the majority of police shootings occur. It's 40% white with 20% black.

Social engineering? Maybe, yet I kept my daughter in private school in L.A. for her entire school years, I had no desire to have my princess go to a school that had metal detectors at the entrances. is that 'social engineering'? Some insidious conspiracy? Or just plain prudence from a parent....

I was further towards the side of blm activists til I had a discussion about the Dallas shootings w an African American lady, I mentioned that black youth are 21% more likely to be killed by police and she responded yes and black youth are 21% more likely to not act right around the police. You know she has a point and it should be acknowledged, when you are pulled over by police you should just follow orders and try to have some respect, it will go along way.

Closed at request of OP.

Previous Thread - please feel free to add your thoughts to that prior thread.


Cheers.