Hey David! Thanks for weighing in. You’re correct that the 6% number I cited was not correctly stated. I should have qualified it as unarmed black men. But this is precisely the dialog I wanted to avoid — the battle of statistics. I think reasonable people can agree that we have a serious problem with police violence in this country and it affects minority communities disproportionately for a number of reasons.
Keep in mind as well, Prof. Fryer’s report found significant bias in use of force against black people in his limited sample, though there was no significant differentiation in police shootings of black vs. white people. (And I think you also acknowledged that bias exists in your statement above about police judgement.)
And the WaPo has extensively documented their findings (and addressed some of the misuse of many statistics) here:
You and I are in lockstep on the issue of Policing For Profit and aggressive community policing policies and practices. And the EPI report I cited provides a good deal of depth to understanding how most of those policies and practices were formed and implemented.
The point about Chicago and the police union contract is also spot on. I was part of the research team that compiled and analyzed the police union contracts for 81 cities for Campaign Zero. Here’s the report:
