First Nonsense. Let me put your statistics into context. Let's say that you are a cop and you are writing tickets to speeders. You have a stretch of road, a down hill stretch of road that you are on every day. Pretty much everyone is speeding. You don't like Red Cars, and you pull over more of them than any other color. In fact, half the cars you pull over are red. Perhaps the color attracts the eye easier, whatever. In a few months, the statistics say that Red Cars are more likely to be speeding than any other color car. So now, you have a Statistical proof that Red Cars are driven dangerously, and you can focus on the Red Cars even more, because statistically it is more likely that they are speeding than other cars. When the truth is that everyone is driving about the same speed, and it is merely your choice that makes the Red Cars the targets.
You have to go to a larger subset of statistics. Let's take Traffic Stops.
We are collecting, releasing, and analyzing data on millions of traffic stops across the United States.
openpolicing.stanford.edu
Now, what did we learn looking at over 200 million traffic stops? We learned that Blacks were pulled over more often than whites, statistically speaking. So obviously Black Drivers were more likely to be speeding and driving recklessly right? Yet, those same Black Drivers were pulled over less often at night, when the color or identity of the driver was harder to discern. So wait a minute, if Black Drivers were in fact more likely to be speeding, than that would continue through to the darkness wouldn't it? Yet, in the dark, when you could not tell the car was driven by a Black, they were less likely to be pulled over. Odd isn't it? Seeing Red Cars yet?
SO let's go with Searches. Blacks were more likely to have their cars searched, yet they were less likely statistically speaking to have actionable contraband. By that I mean enough drugs to warrant an arrest, or weapons, or other illegal items in the car. So wait a minute. If Whites were more likely statistically speaking, to have that contraband, why were they not searched more often than their Black counterparts? Red cars anyone?
But let's look at the arrest and conviction rates. Blacks being generally poorer than the Whites were often unable to afford quality Legal Council. Back to cars. A $15,000 hatchback is not going to be as good as a $150,000 sedan right? So quality cost money, and quality delivers better results.
What happened when a Black man was able to afford that quality legal representation? OJ Simpson anyone? Even now people are outraged that he got off. Several on this board will probably reply that it was because of his race, but it really wasn't. IT was because his lawyers were the best in the nation, and cost several million dollars to defend him. When the legal representation is that expensive, like the quality car we mentioned above, it usually gets much better results.
Then we have the Police. A survey of Judges, and Lawyers, indicated that they believed that police lied in about one case out of five. In other words, twenty percent of the court cases involving police have a lie in there somewhere. How they got the evidence, how they got something. Now, we know these lies are exposed when you have the high priced lawyers who have the money, time, and resources to check and double check every single assertion by the Police. They have investigators, junior lawyers, and others who go blind practically as they examine every thing the cop asserts. The statement of Mark Furman in the OJ Trial that he had never used the N word to describe a Black, and then the audio tape of him saying the word is a good example. At that point, everything that Mark Furman said was now suspect, and the Jury would doubt his assertions on the facts.
It wasn't that OJ was black, it was that OJ was represented by the finest Criminal Defense Lawyers in the Country. People who were legends before they took the case like F. Lee Baily. No public defenders office would have found that recording. No public Defender would have been able to attack the evidence piece by piece, and create the doubt that existed. Only a very skilled, and thus very expensive lawyer could.
Look at the Innocence Project. In nearly every single exoneration, we find that the Convicted Felon was represented by either a very cheap and thus not very good lawyer, or a Public Defender, who has fifty cases that he can't afford to spend the time, or resources to prove the defendant innocent. In every case, we find Police and Proprietorial Misconduct was rampant.
Now, lets step away from Statistics for a minute. We have shown I think that statistics can be made to show whatever you want, when you just look at the surface. Hence the old saying Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.
Let's talk about the Constitution. Every single citizen is entitled to the same rights as any other citizen. It is the basis of the idea, which has sadly never actually become reality, that no one is above the law. If we are to give the police a pass in their mistreatment of Blacks based upon demonstrably flawed statistics, we would be denying an entire group of people their rights under the Constitution. We would be driving one of the last, if not the last, nail in the coffin of our nation. We should demand that people, citizens, of this nation are treated fairly and equally. We should be voting anyone who makes such an argument out of office. And we should demand that any Judge who allows such nonsense to guide his actions be impeached and disbarred from ever working in the legal field ever again.
So the Statistics are at best questionable. The Actions of the police are certainly questionable, and the justification for those actions, the questionable statistics, is a weak reed to grasp.
Do you see the Red Cars yet? Because the red cars are right in front of you.
