Comments on: More About Race And Police Violence http://popsych.org/more-about-race-and-police-violence/ The Internet's Best Evolutionary Psycholo-guy Wed, 03 Jan 2018 01:05:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Peter Gerdes http://popsych.org/more-about-race-and-police-violence/#comment-1056 Peter Gerdes Tue, 13 Dec 2016 03:30:23 +0000 http://popsych.org/?p=5664#comment-1056 However, I think the elephant in the room here is properly defining the kind of shooting one is interested in. The following two claims are totally consistent: 1) Blacks are no more (or even less) likely to be shot by the police once one controls for the level of violence in the area they live etc... 2) Innocent blacks are more likely to be shot by the police than innocent whites even controlling for violence level of their neighborhood. Why? Because presumably there are many fewer police shootings of innocent people than valid police shootings. Thus, the overall figures (and any variation from the regression...non-linearity of police shootings per crime rate) will hide what is happening to the innocent. -- Not claiming there is such a different but pointing out how important it is to be clear on what one is talking about. However, I think the elephant in the room here is properly defining the kind of shooting one is interested in.

The following two claims are totally consistent:

1) Blacks are no more (or even less) likely to be shot by the police once one controls for the level of violence in the area they live etc…

2) Innocent blacks are more likely to be shot by the police than innocent whites even controlling for violence level of their neighborhood.

Why? Because presumably there are many fewer police shootings of innocent people than valid police shootings. Thus, the overall figures (and any variation from the regression…non-linearity of police shootings per crime rate) will hide what is happening to the innocent.

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Not claiming there is such a different but pointing out how important it is to be clear on what one is talking about.

]]> By: Peter Gerdes http://popsych.org/more-about-race-and-police-violence/#comment-1055 Peter Gerdes Tue, 13 Dec 2016 03:19:42 +0000 http://popsych.org/?p=5664#comment-1055 The hypothesis has always been that blacks are more likely to be unjustly shot because they are more likely to be stereotyped as dangerous and criminal. No one ever claimed that blacks were being shot out of KKK style anti-black animus. As such one would actually expect black officers to be just as vulnerable (true one might hope they would have non-crime interactions with black family/friends that would apply corrective force but those family/friends will likely be seen in very different contexts and with different features than the criminals they profile). As for body cameras it is critical to state what kind of analysis says they have no effect. If all you mean is that departments that issue cameras don't see statistical differences in racial shooting patters this tells us almost nothing. First, body cameras are often turned off or erased after the fact in dubious circumstances. Secondly, the body cameras should only affect "bad" shootings...more in second comment. The hypothesis has always been that blacks are more likely to be unjustly shot because they are more likely to be stereotyped as dangerous and criminal. No one ever claimed that blacks were being shot out of KKK style anti-black animus. As such one would actually expect black officers to be just as vulnerable (true one might hope they would have non-crime interactions with black family/friends that would apply corrective force but those family/friends will likely be seen in very different contexts and with different features than the criminals they profile).

As for body cameras it is critical to state what kind of analysis says they have no effect. If all you mean is that departments that issue cameras don’t see statistical differences in racial shooting patters this tells us almost nothing. First, body cameras are often turned off or erased after the fact in dubious circumstances. Secondly, the body cameras should only affect “bad” shootings…more in second comment.

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