Having looked at some very good statistical analysis of police violence based on race it appears that I was wrong in accepting the opinion that death rates resulting from police action are out of line. In years past this was almost impossible to accomplish due to inconsistencies in both reporting of police violence and the race or ethnicity of either assailants or victims. The lack of statistics on police shootings has begun to be corrected by the Washington Post as cited in the following article:
We have a complex problem with racism in this country that was exacerbated by Trump and, now, white supremacists on one side and an emotional response to the highly publicised killings of unarmed individuals on the other now heightened by fear among people of color. This is exactly the type of confusion that results from the loss of a common language and trust in a society.
The underlying problems are one of violence in general in this country, the planet’s highest incarceration rates and an issue with police increasingly seeing themselves as a military force. This could very easily turn the existing racial fear and confusion into something far uglier. The problem of statistical delay needs to be watched as the data showing the absence of race as a factor in arrests, police violence, and incarceration is from Obama administration. Hopefully this can be maintained.
