What's the income level of these black citizens who are being targeted? Is it across the board or primarily low income? And if the latter, does the nature of targeting low income factor in as much as skin color?
I would love to see data on this. Propublica and the Southern Poverty Law Center have done some great work on the issue of racial bias, but the line between race and income always seems so blurry in the data. And reading today about Philando Castile's history with the police reminded me very strongly of the experiences of some of the poorer (white) people I know in my own community - dozens of stops, with most of the tickets being over equipment violations that they couldn't afford to fix (loud muffler, broken seatbelt, burnt out lights) or for subsequent charges of driving on a license that was suspended for non-payment of the tickets written for those equipment issues. It basically comes down to the crime of being poor - depending on an old car with problems, struggles to make the insurance payments on time (and what a racket that is - our agent told us the bad-credit rate hike is bigger than that for a DUI, and the penalty for a lapse in coverage - even if it is because of lack of a functional car - is larger still), not being able to pay tickets within the 10 days before the fine doubles or more due to late fees/court costs, etc.
In regards to the journalism party of your post...
That's reminds me of Buzzfeed. Now I know I'll probably get interesting responses but here goes. Buzzfeed is actually building itself a good invesitgative journalism team. Of course that doesn't really attract the readers though. They've been able to take the revenue from all that fluff and use some of it for real journalism. Of course when you mention something coming from Buzzfeed it doesn't sound too great because it's not known for serious journalism. They are trying to change that but without all the fluff it would be possible because there'd be no money in it.
It has been an interesting experiment to watch, that's for sure. I'm not convinced that it is going anywhere good, though. I think the challenge of building an audience for serious news while retaining the listicles-and-quizzes image that attracts much of their traffic may be insurmountable.
3) Lopez feels the Fryer study is flawed because it only included data that city police departments gave up willingly and didn't include cities with past histories of policing issues. While I'm sure that Lopez would have preferred that Ferguson, MO's data would have been used, the claim made by groups such as BLM is that deadly policing disparities are systemic to our country. That's why they've been protesting not just in Minnesota and Louisiana, but all over. Prof. Fryer also doesn't have the power of subpoena, so what's he supposed to do? He's left with the data that's available to him. If these problems are truly systemic, then which large cities you pick shouldn't really matter much.
This is the issue that hinders the research most, IMO. A lot of the data in question is only kept voluntarily and only made available to the public by certain police depts. I think that creates an inherent selection bias - those departments most committed to transparency are the ones who keep the best data, and usually that commitment goes hand-in-hand with other top-down community-oriented policing efforts and a healthier, less confrontational organizational culture. So the data that is made available is the best of the best, so to speak.
And I don't think the fact that some cities do it well refutes the claim of systemic bias. There are thousands of police departments in this country, each with its own rules and policies. If a significant minority of them exhibit the same traits of racially biased policing and use of force, that is a systemic problem. The existence of good apples doesn't make the bad ones irrelevant.
How in the world can a police officer or anyone else determine someone's income level just by looking at them?
Really? If you see someone driving down the street in a beat up 1995 Chevy, you don't make an assumption about their income? Or in a brand-new Lexus SUV?
The players were within their rights to wear the shirts... and the cops were within their rights to walk off the job in protest. It's a two-way street.
I disagree. If the duty is voluntary, they're within their rights to stop volunteering. But once they've signed up, or if working games is an expected part of their duties, they need to act professionally and do their jobs. Police can't pick and choose and only defend the people they agree with.
And my Dad was an officer for 28yrs, so I know about how they can sign up to help provide security at events in some cases if they choose to.
