Black Men, stats, and cops
Is the title harsh enough? I hope it is. There is a thin thread that runs from the murder-by-cop of every innocent black man that goes unpunished to the delusional evil of a man who kills good cops for vengeance. It is causal.
The media circus surrounding this tragic week is not helpful. They bring in bonafide racists on the right to defend cops that murdered innocent black men at each turn. The broadcast mainstream media makes no attempt to independently and objectively research the reality of being a person of color interacting with some police officers.
Those attempting to give balance to the conversation are not given the time to refute the fallacies from the right. At times it is clear that the media wants the conflicts to go unresolved.
A CNN panel erupted when a panelist said that Blacks are prone to criminality while speaking about their disproportionate dealings with the criminal justice system. This type of false rhetoric making its way on national TV is dangerous but allowed to happen to maintain the status quo, to paint a fallacy that justifies systemic racism.
Marc Lamont Hill pointed out that just like it is possible to say there are systemic problems in schools one should not cloak the systemic racism in police departments as some attack on all police. Harry Houck used the opportunity to skew New York crime data in a manner to promote a narrative of Blacks being prone to criminality. The CNN host allowed an unwieldy discussion to ensue without any real resolution. The audience was likely more confused after watching the interaction than before.
There is all kind of data out there. I am not going to examine the data Harry Houck is throwing out as I have done so ad nauseam. Here is the reality. If police concentrate its arrests in minority areas, then more minorities enter the criminal justice system. In my very conservative white town, young men drink, shoot guns in the park, speed, vandalize property, etc. However, they are generally not presented to the criminal justice system and as such, they do not appear in any stats. Likewise, New York has one of the worst economic disparities in the country. Crime follows poverty. If poverty is minority base, is there any doubt why the results he touts for Blacks is ‘explainable?’
Emergency room surgeons along with some police officers gave a press conference in Dallas that was very poignant. Everyone in the room was given kudos to the police. The press conference took a turn when the black surgeon began to speak. He spoke about being distressed. The black surgeon said that he attempts to placate police officers all of the times. He takes up their tabs. He buys them ice cream. But he still fears them.
I wrote a blog post a few months ago titled “What If White Violence Was Covered Like Minority Violence?” It is a must watch. The broadcast mainstream media is not complicit in the angst of the American population. They are responsible for allowing misinformation to take hold. They give plausibility to the false statistics promoted by right wing racist. This must be mitigated by us all lest the turmoil continues. The continual fight against a system that continues to keep a boot on one’s neck is tiring, but it is a must.