We start with an idealized police force, where all the police officers have had it drilled into them to avoid racial profiling.
They discover, over time, that on average, say 1% of traffic stops result in finding more serious offenses like drugs or illegal guns. They also find that 10% of traffic stops involving young Black males result in finding those offenses.
How might you expect this knowledge to change the officers’ behaviour?
In case my point isn’t clear, what we’re dealing with here is a far deeper problem than just some police officers being racist assholes. It’s easy to get rid of racist assholes, but that’s a simplistic and basically useless judgment when the problem is systemic. What we’re dealing with here is a structural problem with our society. Until that’s fixed – until police bias against Black drivers stops turning up disproportionate offenses – no amount of training is going to change that, particularly considering that the Supreme Court has ruled “pretextual stops” to be legal and constitutional.
ETA: And curses on Discourse for deleting the quote, which I edited back in to be clear on what I’m talking about.
FIRST AND FOREMOST let me say that the ATTITUDES of the asshat cops is despicable, deplorable, and any other negative “d” word you can think of. The part of the video with the young kid handcuffed for no reason shows the racism.
That being said, how much of the differences in arrest counts has to do with financial differences more than racial? Police are more likely to find criminals on Skid Row than they are on the Gold Coast. That’s why they’re making stops in Skid Row. Unfortunately, the residents of Skid Row are more likely to be people of color, which means the people they stop there are more likely to be people of color. Not that I have data to prove this, but I’ve long thought that much (not all - there’s always going to be racist assholes) of the disproportion of arrests comes from financial differences.
By the way, it’s not “easy to get rid of racist assholes”. It’s easy to get rid of the stupid ones who are blatant and loud about their racism, but it’s far too easy for someone to not be vocal or obvious about their racism, but still have it affect their actions.
Further, it actually turns out that searches of the cars of black drivers are actually less likely to find something incriminating than searches of white peoples cars.
This probably isn’t because blacks are more law abiding, just that police have a lower standard of probable cause when it comes to black drivers than white drivers, so if they have enough probable cause to search a white driver there is a higher chance that there is actually something to find.
Maybe this was a bad idea for a thread, but last night’s deep-dive definitely deserves attention. I’m sure it’s all been discussed in various places before, but it’s important.
Dishonest dirtbags are trying to steal the election, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever been this angry over one of Oliver’s segments.
Boy… Ken Paxton’s such a enormous piece of shit. Raiding an 87 year-old’s home? I seriously don’t know what to say to someone without shame. Just awful.
I sincerely don’t know how to feel about the stupid suckers that love Trump so much. I’m so angy that these shit stains think that they’re entitled to act authoritative, while being so fucking stupid.
I wonder how all this will all play out. How disgusting. Paxton looks like he acts, like a piece of shit.
I must comment on this. I worked as a volunteer cop in a college town back in the 70s. I did it as a community service, but we wore the same uniforms and carried weapons, just like regular cops. We were there to provide another set of eyes and to provide backup if necessary.
Now, I got to know these guys pretty well, and there is definitely a very macho atmosphere going on, and at first you think “what a bunch of arrogant assholes”. But when you actually see what the job entails instead of just being on the receiving end of a speeding ticket, you realize just how incredibly difficult and dangerous it can be when split-second decision making is required, how much abuse they put up with on a daily basis, how much crushing boredom is part of the job, and just how much actual good they are doing on a day-to-day basis. The colossal failures make the news; the rest not so much.
Anyway, on to the late shows. I’ve never understood the attraction of Bill Maher. He’s a misogynistic dickhead, IMO, and not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. How he still has a TV show is beyond me. I’ve always appreciated John Oliver’s show. He’s entertaining while delivering serious subject matter, which is a credit to him and his writers. Can’t stand Seth Meyers. I usually get a laugh out of Kimmel’s takes on Trump, and I know that Trump hates him for it: suh-weeeet! Jon Stewart can still bring it. Fallon’s monologues are usually lame.
I worry because I don’t know if the cops are there to protect me from the military or to say, “Turn left two blocks before the school. His house is in the middle of the street. Good Hunting…!”
He’s a clear and present danger to our country, for sure. The only thing between a dictator and military in the streets is sensible people at the top refusing to follow his orders. It’s not a given.