Thanks for engaging. I’ll take a few minutes to engage and basically refute every point you’re trying to make. I’ve expanded on my original Medium post to the point it’s 23,000 words long. I don’t expect anyone to read All through, but I included key excerpts below.
I find it hard to believe you went through all of this research and writing without realizing that the claim “black killings dropped 70% since 1968” which you rely on so heavily was rated Mostly False by Politifact, with a detailed debunking. (Or that the link you provide as citation for that evidence is completely broken.)
REBUTTAL HOT TAKE: Weak Politifact argument and multiple sources use it.
The link isn’t broke, it links to the liberal anti-incarceration group Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ). Their CDC data and chart showing the rate of black people killed by law enforcement is more than three times less than 40–50 years ago (70% less) is the same as Black conservative Larry Elder, who cites CDC data, one of the more trusted U.S agencies. And it’s the same for Bill O’Reilly. Here’s the chart both Elder and CJCJ use:
There’s a problem with the argument by Politifact. They don’t actually disprove the numbers, they just say “experts told us the data is likely incomplete because coroners and physicians are under no obligation to detail police involvement in the deaths that they encounter.” OK, but how are these trends inconsistent for all racial groups? If there was systemic and overt racism in 1972, to pick a year, isn’t there incentive NOT to include blacks being killed by the state? It makes no sense. It’s the same when people say official “hate crime” statistics are incomplete, due to slight decrease or increase in the number of jurisdictions and agencies reporting. But they still cover 80–90% of the population, and there’s no evidence the stats favor one race over another. Ditto in this situation. It’s strong data as it shows trends for multiple race and age groups over time. If it was saying “this is the X exact total of deaths in early 1970s compared to Y today” I would be more skeptical. But it’s rate.
I do agree that it’s difficult to drill down to the source of this data. But given that the social justice- minded CJCJ used it, while at the same time continually hyping current day disparities without contextualizing for crime behavior, I find the source highly credible.
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“I often say: If black lives don’t matter, why is it Americans know only the names of black individuals killed these past four years?”
You say that often? How embarrassing to say it at all.
REBUTTAL HOT TAKE: Not in mixed company, and I double-down on that point
I don’t say it on the street. I say it when generally people say “Black Lives Matter” without seriously considering what’s happening today. Ask any person on the street, or even an activist or media savvy person, and they won’t be able to name a white person or Latino, even if they make up 3 out of 4 people killed by police. There’s at least 5-10 black lives people can name instantly. Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, etc.
I’m not sure you read my article, as you omit the second part of that statement: “Who knows the name of any of the of the 750 out of 1000 people killed by cops annually who aren’t black, as well as two-thirds of the 5–10% unarmed deaths by law enforcement?” Of all the trials the past three years of police who shot someone, only one prominent one I can think of was about a white guy shot: Daniel Shaver, a drunk man crawling on his hands and knees in January 2016. And it was deemed a justifiable shooting was ruled there, too just a couple months ago. Yes, there was outrage. But yes, you can see him reach for his waist and the police didn’t know if he had a gun.
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White victims of this injustice were covered, at times by BLM activists, such as in this Shaun King piece on Dylan Noble. These didn’t gain as much traction for more interesting reasons…
REBUTTAL HOT TAKE: Ha, Shaun King (sorry I laugh at his name)
Shaun King is a single-note activist (not a journalist) who writes about this issue more than anything. He’s shifted to The Intercept from a New York mainstream paper that sought clicks more than facts. He’s a fraud. He’s deceitful. He wrote about a white guy! Wow! With his output and perception that USA’s police are out-of-control dangers to everyone in society, he should.
Me and Shaun go way back:
As I’m not convinced you read my article, I’ll just show you how those white names aren’t mentioned (from my original article):
And one more thing: White People. Out of 500 shootings of white people annually, there’s many shootings (and arguably excessive beatings) of white bodies on camera few Americans don’t know about. Indignation and national outrage often comes from a critical mass of consciousness, spurred on by media attention all-but-lacking context, even when doing important work like tracking police killings. (Google search “police killing unarmed black men” or “police killings” and see for yourself.) I took the time to compile several killings or attacks on video against white individuals here. I can name 5 unarmed white teens (or younger) killed in recent years: Zachary Hammond, Jeremy Mardis (age 6), Dillon Taylor, Dylan Noble, andGilbert Collar. Do people know their names?
To keep it focused, I’ll highlight two examples of police violence. Example 1: NPR tries to wrestle with the conundrum of an unarmed teenage citizen shooting of Zachary Hammondthat is as clear as any in existence of police wrongdoing, and asks, “A White Teen Was Killed By A Cop And No One Took To The Streets. Is That A Problem?” Example 2: “Black cops tackles white guy!” gets 900 views on YouTube. But what’s interesting is the excerpt of a white drunk man not obeying commands getting a full stiff-arm neck tackle comes directly from the TV show COPS (500,000 views). The move was likely legal, although it looks brutal and excessive. But reverse the optics, and there’s little doubt it would be a social media viral sensation with accusations of racism.
So yeah, there’s no evidence that #AllLivesMatter (dumb moniker) is stronger than #BlackLivesMatter — or that black lives don’t matter. Because they ARE the only ones we hear about despite being 25% of the people killed.
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Finally, you wrote:
Oh, and one other thing you might want to give some thought:
https://www.snopes.com/2016/07/15/harvard-study-officer-involved-shootings/https://scholar.harvard.edu/jfeldman/blog/roland-fryer-wrong-there-racial-bias-shootings-police
REBUTTAL HOT TAKE: Read them many times. They offer nothing new.
I’ve read those. They’re flawed. But I’ll state it simply: Is that Harvard blog author a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship winner Roland Fryer? Who’s the Snopes writer, who have their own bias issues as I’ve written about before? Fryer is a renowned Harvard economist. He also can analyze data like few others.
My theory is Fryer has more to say about this in the future, too.
These two links are not the final arbiters of truth. They’re critics. Because they’re scared of the results.
Here are 5 studies or analyses that show police aren’t shooting blacks disproportionately, and may be shooting whites slightly more: Here(Washington State), here (Roland Fryer), here (College of William and Mary), here (Center for Policing Equity) and here (The Social Cognition Laboratory).
Here are 3 studies to tell you how cops do not systemically impose racial bias against blacks: Here, here and here.
Keep reading.