# Political Correctness Overrides Law Enforcement in Suburban New Jersey **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 27, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373 "2016-03-27T17:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/41 "2016-03-28T13:45:06Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Beating suspects until they confess is also an economical, common sense police tactic. Why don’t we do that too? Well, I mean, they do. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/42 "2016-03-28T14:54:06Z")
May I assume that the OP _won’t_ be returning to defend this assertion? > [@JBGUSA](#): > > in Brussels and Paris, as well as other European cities (and a few communities in the U.S.) there are large areas that are “off limits” to police and to majority communities. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/43 "2016-03-28T15:03:00Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > I think this is a great idea. That’s why I think every white man should have to go through metal detectors before they enter a school, movie theater, and/or church. > [@Grumman](#): > > White men do not commit a disproportionate number of homicides. Please try to keep up with the class. The obvious subject of the first comment was mass shootings. Your assignment: For each – oh, let’s make it three to be sporting – white male mass shooter others on the thread can name, name one non-white-male mass shooter (US examples only – obviously, our policies only apply in our territory). I’ll start us off with Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Dylann Roof. Your turn… ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/44 "2016-03-28T17:50:12Z")
John Allan Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. That’s two. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/45 "2016-03-28T18:32:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ll start us off with Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Dylann Roof. Your turn… > [@](#): > > John Allan Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. That’s two. Okay, it’s 3-2 for the white guys. White has the ball. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/46 "2016-03-28T18:49:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Police Chief Benjamin Fox > I think that most police officers are finding the national rhetoric about police abuse and racial profiling quite upsetting. Profiling, racial or otherwise, has **it’s** place in law enforcement Chief Fox should have been fired for using it’s instead of its. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/47 "2016-03-28T19:02:04Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > John Allan Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. That’s two. Although I’m not aware of an official definition, the most common definition of mass shootings are usually something like four or more dead in a single incident. What single incident in which either of those two were involved qualifies? They are (were, in Muhammad’s case) serial killers, which incidentally is another demographic dominated by white males, but the Beltway attacks don’t quite qualify as mass shootings in the same way that the Aurora movie theater, or Newtown, or the Nickel Mines school shooting, do. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/48 "2016-03-28T19:18:32Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > Okay, it’s 3-2 for the white guys. White has the ball. Note, by the way, that Muhammad and Malvo were accomplices in the **same** murder spree (the DC area sniper shootings), carried out in 2002, as were Harris and Klebold in the 1999 Columbine shootings. Notorious mass shootings since then in civilian public spaces in the US include the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre (Korean-American male), the 2009 Binghamton murders (Vietnamese-American male), the 2011 Tucson shooting at an event with Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (white male), the 2011 California salon shooting (white male), the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting (white male), the 2012 Oakland college shooting (Korean male), the 2012 Sikh temple shooting (white male), the 2013 Sandy Hook school shooting (white male), the 2014 Isla Vista murders (biracial white/Malaysian male), the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting (white male), and the 2015 San Bernardino murders (Pakistani-American male, Pakistani female). So the people most disproportionately prominent among perpetrators of mass shootings appear to be males of East and Southeast Asian descent, who make up less than 1% of the US population. Where are the calls for profiling them? ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/49 "2016-03-28T19:32:24Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Note, by the way, that Muhammad and Malvo were accomplices in the **same** murder spree (the DC area sniper shootings), carried out in 2002, as were Harris and Klebold in the 1999 Columbine shootings. > > Notorious mass shootings since then in civilian public spaces in the US include the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre (Korean-American male), the 2009 Binghamton murders (Vietnamese-American male), the 2011 Tucson shooting at an event with Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (white male), the 2011 California salon shooting (white male), the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting (white male), the 2012 Oakland college shooting (Korean male), the 2012 Sikh temple shooting (white male), the 2013 Sandy Hook school shooting (white male), the 2014 Isla Vista murders (biracial white/Malaysian male), the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting (white male), and the 2015 San Bernardino murders (Pakistani-American male, Pakistani female). > > So the people most disproportionately prominent among perpetrators of mass shootings appear to be males of East and Southeast Asian descent, who make up less than 1% of the US population. Where are the calls for profiling them? That does it - I’m done keeping score. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/50 "2016-03-28T21:05:46Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > So the people most disproportionately prominent among perpetrators of mass shootings appear to be males of East and Southeast Asian descent, who make up less than 1% of the US population. Where are the calls for profiling them? Sorry, that should have been “make up less than 3% of the US population”. Still super-overrepresented as mass shooters, though. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/51 "2016-03-28T22:19:42Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > They do commit a disproportionate number of mass killings in theaters, schools, and business offices. That doesn’t appear to be the case. Using data tallied by Mother Jones, 45 out of 75 mass shootings were done by white people (almost always men). That’s 60% which is about the same as the percentage of white people. > **[US mass shootings, 1982–2024: Data from Mother Jones’ investigation](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/)** > > The full data set from our in-depth investigation into mass shootings. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/52 "2016-03-28T22:25:45Z")
Non-Hispanic whites are 64% of the population, but Mother Jones doesn’t specify who it includes in “Latino.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/53 "2016-03-28T23:01:21Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Using data tallied by Mother Jones, 45 out of 75 mass shootings were done by white people (almost always men). That’s 60% which is about the same as the percentage of white people. :dubious: We’re talking about white **men** being overrepresented as mass shooters, and you’re fudging that by comparing the percentage of **white male mass shooters** to the percentage of white **people** in the general population. I call foul. ---
**Author:** ![JBGUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JBGUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBGUSA)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/54 "2016-04-10T02:21:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Beating suspects until they confess is also an economical, common sense police tactic. Why don’t we do that too? That is a strawman argument. I have never suggested that. But if someone were walking around with explosives and wouldn’t say who their cohorts are maybe a bit of waterboarding would be in order, ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/55 "2016-04-10T03:58:12Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > :dubious: We’re talking about white **men** being overrepresented as mass shooters, and you’re fudging that by comparing the percentage of **white male mass shooters** to the percentage of white **people** in the general population. I call foul. Indeed. 44 of the 75 shooters listed there are white men. There are a few “others”. 59% of the mass shooters are white men, compared to 32% or so of general population. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/56 "2016-04-11T14:12:43Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > That is a strawman argument. I have never suggested that. But if someone were walking around with explosives and wouldn’t say who their cohorts are maybe a bit of waterboarding would be in order, No, it’s called _reductio ad absurdum_. Your argument is that racial profiling is an effective tactic, and that we should therefore employ it. That argument would also justify coerced confessions. But if you have no interest in the spirit of the Constitution, much less its letter (as your subsequent statement makes clear), it won’t be a very effective argument from your point of view. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/57 "2016-04-11T14:20:55Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > Specifically, majority people, as outlined in the e-mail, can also be subject to profiling. Is the implication that these things happen at comparable (or proportional) frequencies borne out by any evidence? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373.md?page=2)