George Floyd Changed My Mind
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
George Floyd Changed My Mind
For many years, I was skeptical about accusations of racism in the criminal justice system. Yes, I knew that blacks comprised only about 12 percent of the population yet represented 33 percent of the prison population. But those data alone did not prove that police are racists or that courts are tougher on blacks than others. The relevant criterion is not the percentage of the population, but the percentage of the criminal population, and when you consider the higher rates of offending among African Americans, the seemingly disproportionate rates of incarceration make sense.
Well, some countered, if you look at who winds up on death row, you can see the racism at work. Less than half of murder victims in the U.S. are white, yet a 2003 study found that 80 percent of inmates on death row had killed white people. I wasn't convinced. It might be evidence of racism, or it could be that when people kill others of their same race, they are more likely to know them. These could be crimes of passion and therefore less likely to draw the death penalty. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 2001 and 2005, nearly 78 percent of blacks were murdered by other blacks, and nearly 70 percent of whites were killed by other whites.
I thought Michael Brown's death at the hands of a cop in Ferguson was tragic, but the Obama Department of Justice investigation found that the forensic evidence supported the officer's version of events.
My views have changed though, bit by bit, over the past half-decade. Was it the sheer accumulation of cases? Eric Garner was choked to death. Yes, he was resisting arrest, but for what? For selling "loosies" — untaxed cigarettes. Freddie Gray, 25, was taken into custody in Baltimore. Handcuffed but not belted to his seat, police took him for what they called a "rough ride." Somehow, he snapped his spine in the police van. He lapsed into a coma and died a week later.
Walter Scott was stopped for a defective taillight. After initial questioning and a quick scuffle, Scott fled the officer (perhaps fearful because he owed back child support). Officer Michael Slager shot Scott in the back, killing him. He filed a police report saying that Scott had grabbed his Taser, but a bystander video showed that after the shooting, Officer Slager ran back to the site of the initial scrap, picked something up and dropped it next to Scott's body.
Laquan McDonald was a 17-year-old with PCP in his system and a knife in his hand. But contrary to the police report suggesting that McDonald was shot after lunging at police, the autopsy showed that he was hit 16 times, nine of them in the back.
Ahmaud Arbery was out jogging and was tracked and trapped by a two-car posse that included a former law enforcement officer. The last words Arbery heard before he died were "f——— n——-."
And, of course, there's the depraved murder of George Floyd, crushed to death under the knee of a pitiless cop while three others stood by.
I know there are videos of whites being shot by police. And as John McWhorter argues, it's likely that we haven't seen those videos because they don't fit the narrative of racist white cops.
And yet, I think of the testimony of black men that they are routinely pulled over and hassled for "driving while black." Is that their imagination? Can we dismiss Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who recalls a meeting at which one man after another recounted his experiences of being stopped by police, only to reveal that it was a conference of black physicists? What about Senator Tim Scott? He was stopped seven times in one year driving in his own neighborhood.
There's data about those traffic stops. A study looked at 95 million traffic stops by 56 different police agencies between 2011 and 2018. They found that blacks were far more likely than whites to be pulled over — but the disparity declined at night, when it's harder to detect the race of the driver.
A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in February 2020 looked at responses to 2 million 911 calls in two cities. It found that white officers were five times as likely to use force, including deadly force, in minority neighborhoods than African American officers.
There's a lot more where that came from.
Some conservatives object that African American men are far more likely to die at the hands of other African American men than at the hands of police and demand to know where the outrage is about deaths in Chicago. But criminals are criminals. The police, by contrast, are hired, trained and armed by all of us. They are sworn to protect and to serve. There is no equivalence between the acts of Derek Chauvin and a Chicago gang member.
I've long believed that police have a difficult job and deal with the worst of the worst on a daily basis. I'm grateful for their protection. And there's a lot of crying wolf in the race business. See Smollett, Jussie. But I've come to believe that mistreatment of African Americans is not a myth and is not uncommon. I'm glad that so many Americans are signaling their dismay at these outcomes. People's minds can change. Mine did.
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We never see "conservatives" discussing police mistreatment of minorities on sites like this anymore. "Conservatives" watch fools like Tucker Carlson blather on about "rioters" and leftists anarchists every night . Every night.
Mona Charen, who wrote this piece , is a long time conservative pundit who probably avoids Fox News like the plague.
That's progress......
Does anyone actually believe there won't be consequences for burning, pillaging, and vandalizing? The murder of George Floyd isn't a justification for what has transpired. It's not about George Floyd or the police any longer.
The protests, which have turned into race riots, isn't about the behavior of individuals. The protests have been about the behavior of a population. And that population has proven to be violent and destructive. And now that population expects that uncivilized behavior will not have consequences.
What goes around, comes around. The not so peaceful protesters have plowed the field and sowed a crop. It's too late to complain about the harvest.
yes, the caucasion Race has proven to be violent and destructive ! I notice how when those that have been abused for so long finally have had enough, and are also violent and destructive, you don't seem to like it. Believe there is a word that describes that sort of thingy.
White privilege doesn't like it when they get a taste of what they so willingly dish out.....
Not yet. The Caucasian race hasn't responded as a population yet. You are pointing out the history of what happens when the Caucasian race does adopt uncivilized behavior as a population. That history isn't pretty, is it?
The hope is that the Caucasian race, as a population, retains a modicum of civilized behavior. If there is a white race riot comparable to the black race riots, we'll have another Tulsa.
I am not ashamed of being white. I cannot change the color of my skin; I was born this way. And I have my own heritage and culture, I don't need another so, thanks but no thanks.
It's not white privilege that should be frightening. White outrage can be deadly, as history shows.
Wow, those dog whistles, LOUD AND CLEAR!
Your imagination has run away with you.
It was. It was tragically a stupid death that he brought on himself.
WTF does that have to do with Taco's Stand ?
That white cop murdered unarmed Michael Brown.
You should post that more often. Remind everyone where you stand with regards to reality.
Wasn't justified.
That cop was a cold blooded KILLER
You're talking to me about reality?
What a hoot!
Who told you that? The Tooth Fairy? [Deleted]
[Deleted]
If that thug Brown has not reached for the cop's gun he probably would still be alive. Bottom line.
And that is because Brown failed in his attempt to get that officers firearm. If he would have just kept his mouth shut and kept walking the most that would have happened is a ticket for being a dumbass walking down the center of the road.
That's the lie that the cop told because he murdered him, like you said, for jaywalking.
That's as believable as you telling me Trump is unfit for office.
Like I said, is that all you have, projection and denial?
No projection. No denial. Unlike every other putz, I go with actual facts presented. Not propaganda to push a facade. You should try that sometime. Your life would be much simpler.
4 years ago the Mass. Supreme Court ruled that black men have legitimate reason to flee from police that had nothing to do with any sense of guilt.
I was rooting for O.J. during the bronco chase.
Of course you did!
I'm not sure what the OJ case has to do with this, but whatever.
He was a black guy fleeing the police with no sense of guilt.
BUT HE WAS GUILTY.
He was looking for the real killer.
Yeahhh....no. Pretty sure he had a sense of guilt.