You're right, and it has been pointed out in other places that until thug culture came along, the black community was doing quite well and were abnormally law-abiding. There is also culture among cops, though. There is no doubt that in my city (and province) the police tend to be a bit quick to pull the trigger, and in most cases, the person they shoot is black. Whether it is because they are racist, or because the person behaves in a threatening or crazy manner (the most recent case being someone who was black and had mental issues), is hard to say. You are right that it may not be as simple as A leads to B. As my vet says, when a cat gets liver disease, he gets nauseous after eating, and he ends up blaming the food. To the cat it is obvious; but in reality there is another non-visible underlying cause.
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
I've met my share of asshole cops. They definitely are out there. They may not actually be racist, though some of them definitely are. A lot of them are quick to make haste generalizations (stereotypes) and react to such things. However, that isn't really surprising. They are trained to watch for suspicious behavior. Trying to do this can lead people to believe they SEE something just because someone else in that neighborhood or who looked like them did something in the past. Culture cannot explain it all, just as race cannot. Though I do think it is likely the culture and neighborhoods fit the actual symptoms better than race does.
And in other countries cops are trained to see the person that needs help.
Strangely in those other countries both killings of cops and killings by cops is much lower. And I won't even mention the (until recently) famously gunless "Bobbies".
This is culture too - police culture.
Yes, but that doesn't explain the increase in black percentages here. That does explain the violence of police against everyone, but that isn't what Black Lives Matter is trying to bring attention to. So what is your point?
That factor would not explain the fact blacks are being killed by cops at a proportionally higher percentage rate (though whites still are killed more by them in total). So what you just said would not explain the higher percentage at all.
It seems more like someone trying to defend the norm without even truly reading, pausing, and thinking.
As you may reread my post you will see that I quoted the training. I did not quote any racial differences, because my post was not about that, but a different sort of culture.
But if you want, training and corps culture also influences the racial difference.
White man on the wheel of the car?
Make a friendly face and talk to him.
Black male?
Gun out and shout "get out of the car!"
Yep, and how often have those cops had to deal with neighborhoods where people say fuck the police, kill cops, and that drive by shootings happen occasionally?
I did say they were twitchy.
That again is a symptom. It is still wrong, it is not a cause.
There are SOME racist cops. I've encountered them. Yet I've also encountered a lot that were not at all racist.
So could this be also a case of the media over hyping the racist incidents so much that it makes us perceive cops overall as racist simply due to that being all the news bothers to put a lot of emphasis on?
That is indeed a possibility as black cops apparently act very similar when it comes to black deaths as well.
I am not ANYWHERE trying to justify the actions of the cops. I am trying to look at what may have lead to this. I do think there is something going on other than race, as depending upon where you live in the country these things don't happen even if you are black. It seems to cluster.
In some parts of our country having long hair and looking like you smoke marijuana is likely to get you harassed by the cops a lot more than your skin color. :) I do have a lot of friends that have been hit by this from where I grew up.