Black men have been killed by police in California at eight times the rate of other residents over the past decade, according to records released under the first in a series of new state initiatives to disclose data on the use of deadly force by law enforcement.Part of the devolution of the issue of the treatment of minorities by law enforcement has been driven by the Twitterization of the debate. I suspect that if the saying had been "Black Lives Also Matter", that there would have been harder for the Right Wing Noise Machine to get their collective panties in a wad.
Statistics published by the California attorney general, Kamala Harris, stated that about 19% of almost 1,000 homicides by law enforcement recorded between 2005 and 2014 were against African American men, who made up only about 3% of the state’s population.
And get them in a wad, they did. Nobody makes the assumption that saying "save the whales" means that it's OK to slaughter every other sea mammal. But that's precisely the assumption that the Wingnuts have been making.
Kamala Harris rode the Oscar Grant tragedy to state office; now she wants to be a Senator.
ReplyDeleteThat aside, this reflects a larger societal issue, not a law enforcement issue. There is a far higher proportion of young black men committing violent crimes for little gain; too many take resisting arrest too far. Are there asshole cops? Yes; I know some, and there is the backshooter this summer, the Baltimore group, and the New York asshole who violated choke hold procedure. But in general, people could maybe not commit stupid crimes.
Caucasians appear to commit more white collar crime which costs me more money, then that money is used for lawyers- but the best attorney in the world can't help you if you're dead while evading/ resisting.
Hands Up Don't Shoot is a better slogan.