Apparently the PBA of New York is blaming the mayor in the wake of the murder of two cops in Brooklyn yesterday.
The two police officers were sitting in their car when they were shot.
The killings have widened the divide between the NYPD—under fire following a grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer who killed unarmed Staten Island man Eric Garner in July—and Mayor Bill De Blasio.
Officers turned their backs on De Blasio when he arrived at police headquarters for a press conference, and police union head Patrick Lynch told reporters “there’s blood on many hands”— apparently singling out the mayor for blame alongside anti-brutality protesters.
Because we shouldn’t object to police brutality? We should smile approvingly on it, lest someone take revenge on random cops?
I wonder if it occurs to Patrick Lynch to blame the police officers who – however accidentally – killed Eric Garner.
There’s more.
During a press conference held outside Woodhull Hospital, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said, “there’s blood on many hands tonight” and “that blood on the hands starts on the steps of city hall in the office of the mayor.”
Former New York Governor George Pataki shared a similar statement via Twitter, calling the shocking murders “a predictable outcome” of Mayor de Blasio and Attorney General Eric Holder’s “divisive anti-cop rhetoric.”
That’s what he said:
George E. Pataki @GovernorPataki
Sickened by these barbaric acts, which sadly are a predictable outcome of divisive anti-cop rhetoric of #ericholder & #mayordeblasio. #NYPD
Is it “anti-cop rhetoric” to say that cops shouldn’t have killed Eric Garner? Are the police supposed to have unlimited unchecked power over us no matter what? Are we supposed to just resign ourselves to police over-reactions?
Do they really think anti-cop rhetoric just started now with DeBlasio? Clearly they all stuck in their lily white ivory towers since the Vietnam war
Sickened by these barbaric acts
Sure wish the cops would stop doing these barbaric acts and then whitewashing them. Because it’s reasonable to expect a backlash when you act like an occupying power.
Or is this about ethics in game journalism? I’m so easily confused.
Officers turned their backs on De Blasio when he arrived at police headquarters for a press conference, and police union head Patrick Lynch told reporters “there’s blood on many hands”— apparently singling out the mayor for blame alongside anti-brutality protesters.
De Blasio is a real fool. The fact he revealed on numerous occasions how he’d lectured his son on how to behave around policemen lest they kill him is the height of irresponsibility. In doing so he just contributed to these atmospherics wherein police, especially the Whites ones, set out every morning with the intention of killing a Black person. In anticipation of trouble the Policeman’s Association has already stated, nearly a month ago, that were officers to die in the line of duty, De Blasio would not be allowed to attend the funeral services.
This horseshit has to end. The people responsible are the numpties participating in die ins and the “I-can’t-breath” demos.You know, every six months more Blacks are killed by other Blacks than in the entire history of the KKK.
1000’s and 1000’s and 1000’s of Black are being murdered, almost always at the hands of other Blacks, but for some strange reason she mustn’t look at that. We have to tie all the troubles of America’s Black community back to Whites and their privilege. For as long as we continue to play pin-the-tale-on-the-Honkey, the myriad of problemes facing the Black community will never be addressed in any meaningful way.
And when you think the one officer was Hispanic and the other Chinese, the tragedy almost becomes farce.
Except, of course, for this; Latino criminal gangs in New York, among the most ruthless the city has ever seen, may well start going after Blacks.
What a way to usher in ‘Post Racial America’.
Funny how the cops think the blood is on De Blasio’s hands but didn’t think Rudy G. had any blood on his hands on 9/11. I guess only Dems are considered responsible by fasccists.
Here are your people, Marcus, protesting in
NY.
I presume you are happy today. An eye for an eye and all that.
md, do you really not get it? Some people (me, for instance) are quite capable of condemning these murders, while also completely being understanding of the pent up rage that lead to these kind of actions.
Also, the various statements are, to me, indicative of the larger problem that has been pointed out many times in the last few months. The police themselves. They continue to escalate, both directly in physical confrontations, and in these kind of press releases. It’s like the word ‘de-escalate’ has been erased from their vocabulary.
When the police are treating the citizens like enemy combatants, why should they be so surprised when some of the citizens start acting like that?
Also, snark for the NRA crowd: If only these police officers had been armed, this would have never happened…..
Do you want ‘Dead cops’, Crimson, like the protesters I shared with you?
Are you in solidarity with those protesters? Do you let their calls for dead cops pass in silence? Because we know ‘Silence is consent’. They should be happy today – they reality of their chants came to pass. It must be awfully satisfying for them. For you?
A tragic accidental death, in the case of Garner, is not equivalent to walking up behind two people and pulling the trigger. Marcus seems to think so.
Do you really get it, Crimson? I hope so.
@3 Decker:
That’s pretty fucking racist.
You really think DeBlasio saying the opposite, that he doesn’t think black people have to worry more about the police than white people, in fucking stop and frisk NY, was going to calm sentiments more? Who do you think you’re fooling? Do you think black people in NY wouldn’t balk at such an utterly fantastical delusion concerning their daily lived experiences?
At least saying it meant someone in government was taking the brutality and racial profiling bullshit somewhat seriously (though he still kept Bratton), and not just blaming black people for being so much more criminal despite all real-world evidence and statistics to the fucking contrary. You’re being as short-sighted as the cops.
Also? Fuck that “black on black crime” bullshit.
Whites commit the vast majority of crimes committed against other white people at 80+ %. We don’t then say “I guess we shouldn’t arrest that person of color who murdered 5 white people: thousands of white people die every year to other white people!” That’d be stupid.
Guess what: We already punish those black people for killing black people. We execute more black people than whites for the same crimes. We punish them exceeding their actual share of crimes of all kinds, and with harsher sentences.
And unlike the police killing people, black people are not killing black people on our fucking authority, with the backing and approval of the goddamn state. Because THAT is what our lack of prosecution for Eric Garner’s killer means. We are executing people in public and the murderer is going free by law, without a trial.
We are literally paying for this miscarriage of justice, paying for an order of society where black people are understandably, reasonably afraid of our lawkeepers, who are more likely to harass them, hurt them, or kill them on sight than other races.
If you don’t understand how legally-“justified” state crimes against citizens is different from obviously illegal personal crimes or the KKK murdering people, you’ve got issues.
md @ 7 – it’s a considerable distortion to call the killing of Eric Garner “tragic accidental.” The cops who killed him didn’t set out to kill him, true, but they treated him with very disproportionate violence and he died as a result. That’s not simply a tragic accident.
The situation is hopeless. We have long standing traditions of urban police forces protecting and enforcing the will of organized political/criminal machines. AND we have a powerful identification of Blackness with criminality.
Urban poverty, and the drug war, have accomplished what the Dredd Scott decision could not: skin color is linked to an inferior status. Unlike slavery, the criminal subculture has been embraced and glorified by large swathes of Americans.
The public celebration of the murder of two policemen demonstrates WHY the police are so violent and hostile. They have reason to see themselves as ‘occupiers.’
md, which part of ‘I condemn those murders’ don’t you understand? Should I try to find smaller words?
The world isn’t back and white, and I can entirely sympathize with the protestors’ attitude/feelings, if not their stated goals.
How is that so hard to understand?
Also, does the reaction (in the post and the next) by the police not lead exactly to more of what they claim they are trying to avoid?
There was an incident a few months ago when a guy set a dumpster on fire, called 911, and opened fire on the cops/firemen when they showed up. The only differences are 1) he was a poor shot and didn’t actually hurt anyone, and 2) he was white. Yet, the police in that instance managed to apprehend the man with no casualties.
Can you spot the main difference? Can you understand why people are upset, even to the point of violence (whether or not you condone the violence itself)?
also, md, since you quoted this part of Marcus Ranum’s post:
Can you tell me which part of it you disagree with?
Saying Garner’s death was an ‘accident’ is entirely too forgiving of the NYPD. The man was murdered, choked to death, and not given CPR after he passed out. That’s not accidental.
MD
On the same day on which this story broke, I read another in which a cop attacked someone who was asleep in a hospital.
The cop arrested his victim for assault, it was probably only that hospital waiting rooms have cameras that resulted in the cop being found out.
Last week meanwhile I subbed a story about a cop who was suspended, for not tear-gassing a suicidal university student he had just talked down when his fellow officers felt the need to forcibly restrain the said student for no apparent reason.
America’s police force blames the media, but who was it that killed a 12-year-old for carrying a toy gun? Who killed a man for picking up a toy gun in a toy store? Who choked a man to death on the streets? Who killed an unarmed teenager?
And what did each case demonstrate?
There is little recourse to the law when the criminal is a cop. The issue is not simply the police force, but the entire legal system.
So what happens when people don’t trust the law anymore? I can tell you what happens in South Africa.
You get people attacking the police because they’re just one more rival gang. They aren’t keepers of the peace, they’re thugs and crime lords abusing a position of authority to build their little empires.
You get mob justice, you get riots and you get deaths. The best cops become worthless – because they cannot do their jobs without the trust of the public, and without the ability to trust their coworkers.
My country has serious problems with distrust of the police force, and not reporting on it doesn’t solve the base problems that caused that distrust. You can shut the media up all you like – but people still know the cops will take bribes and lose dockets.
You can shut the media up all you like, but people still know the American police force kills children for being black. A silent media is deadlier than a noisy one, because in the absence of information action cannot be taken to correct major problems, while allowing far darker imaginings than the bald truth to become seen as fact.
You want to prevent this happening again? Then you need to stop whining at the protesters and start taking a serious look at your police culture, which has gone so far overboard on the macho bullshit that the decent, sane cops are more likely to be punished than the thugs with badges.
Otherwise all you’re doing is wanking self-righteously about how mean people are for pointing out how your police force’s shit stinks.
That’s pretty fucking racist.
Oh eat shit. If Black lives mattered the way those demonstrating against the police claim, then they’d address the biggest source of Black murder; Black on Black crime.
In the time since Trayvon Martin died/was killed, how many Blakc males have been murderedf by other male members of their own community?
The focus on policemen as the primary danger to Black males is so misplaced it’s downright surreal. Since when is it official police policy to kill Black people? What the fuck are you on about?
And when idiots march through the streets of New York openly calling for the murder of policemen, is it surprising that cops then get murdered? And De Blasiao’s blasé reaction to those incitements to murder just egged people on.
The fucking idiot that did this didn’t have the brains to even target White cops.
Yes, of course Black Lives matter, but so do ‘Blue Lives’.
Not long ago I was stopped for burning a red light ( I had to take a leak!). When the cop came to my window I turned and leaned towards the passenger side in order to undo my seatbelt ( both he and I were White). When I turned back around to address the officer, I found myself staring down the barrel of a revolver.
I put my hands up and told the cop I had only wanted to undo the belt in order to get my licence and registration our of my wallet. Did you know that training videos teach cops that criminals who turn and bend to undo their belts will do so in order to grab a gun kept handy?
Now when I’m stopped, I put the car in park, roll down the window so the cop can clearly see me, and I place BOTH hands on the steering wheel where they can easily be seen. After exchanging hellos with the cop, I then ask him/her if I can reach down ,undo my seat belt and get my wallet out.
This is something that happens often, is it? So often that you have a regular practice that you can tell us about?
Maybe you should consider driving more responsibly.
Decker
Read kagekiri’s post again, you haven’t addressed anything in it, you’ve just repeated the same racist bullshit.
Black people in America are systemically disadvantaged, as kagekiri already illustrated. Any group of people placed under increased stress with reduced power is more likely to react violently to it.
Particularly when the law does not act as a trustworthy alternative.
Further, I looked up the FBI stats on murder and non-negligent manslaughter.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/2013/table-pdfs/murder-and-nonnegligent-manslaughter-and-aggravated-assault-by-circumstance-2013
By your logic we should rather be policing arguments (which accounted for 773 murders in 2013) while ignoring organised crime, street gangs and drug dealing which totally about 151 between them. And note according to the Washington Post, based on self-reported figures the cops kill about 400 people a year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/09/08/how-many-police-shootings-a-year-no-one-knows/
I envy your ability to read peoples feelings\ attitudes, particularly when they contradict, as you imply, their stated goals. Not being a mind/feeling-reader I only have their spoken words to respond to. The next time you are out in a protest, and you hear people chanting for ‘dead cops – Now!’ tell them to cut it out would you. These are from the same protesters everyone here at FTB and all GoodThinking media sites have been talking up all summer. Your side really needs to police its own right now. You might save someones life.
Sure. ‘doing these barbaric acts and then whitewashing them’ Somewhere some cop is acting barbarically, sure. I don’t believe its possible to live in a country completely free of barbarism while still maintaining a modicum of personal freedom. The death of Garner though? Doesn’t qualify and there was no whitewashing. Its not reasonable to expect police not to engage a lawbreaking citizen, no matter how small the law, who wont’ comply with their requests. Its not reasonable to expect the NYPD to know of Garner’s exceptional health condition before they engaged him. Its not reasonable to call those police racist when an African American woman sergeant stood right on the scene and watched the whole thing go down.
But this is the real disgusting phrase
Posted on a thread after two cops were murdered in cold blood. Protests are reasonable after the Garner/Brown killings. Heated arguments about police policy are reasonable after these killings. The random murder of two cops is not reasonable to expect.
Perhaps I’m misreading Marcus. Perhaps he means that ‘after all that’s gone on, its reasonable for cops to expect a violent backlash and should prepare for it accordingly, even if that means being even more suspicious of approaching civilians, because Id hate to see anyone else killed.” I dont think thats what he means, but I don’t know, I read words, not feelings. Perhaps you can help me out.
NYC has had periods where cops avoided swaths of the city. The crime rate was just as you’d think it would be. Giuliani’s real policy reform wasn’t any magic doctrine, he just got a bunch of his guys to get out of the donut shops and to start putting in 8 hour days again. Crime rates then did what you’d expect them to do.
You want to protest can call for policy reform that might lower violent police interactions with citizens? I like the sound of it, though I’ll wait and see what the reform is.
You want to chant for Dead cops or patronize those who do? That’s anarchy. Here’s some spit in your eye.
Can anyone confirm that the video md linked to is unedited? Because I saw a nearly identical footage clip elsewhere and the people were shouting ‘Justice’ where in the one he linked to, it was hard to tell, but it sounded like (and it is claimed) that they are saying ‘dead cops’.
In light of this: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-wbff-edit-protest-kill-a-cop
I’m going to wait until further evidence comes to light for that video.
Is there anyone in the world who has a consistent opinion on whether heated rhetoric is to blame for acts of violence? A lonely madman commits an act of political violence and the victimized side will instantly use him as a cudgel against their opponents and the madman’s side will absolve themselves of all responsibility. It’s the same song and dance whether the madman is a leftist or a rightist, the only difference is that the roles are reversed.
md, being dishonest:
So you’re admitting you don’t have any sympathy or empathy for people whose friends/family get murdured by cops? That’s good to know.
I’m trying to figure out what you think is contradicting what? Maybe the implying done was your own?
I thought you said you didn’t read minds.
You’re off to a decent start here. Let’s compare and contrast these next two statements of yours, though:
Ok, so you think it’s ‘reasonable’ for cop to ‘engage’ someone selling cigarettes with a chokehold and kill them, but you don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a backlash to that behavior.
Are you a cop?
Also, you are now taking one incident out of context as if it is isolated. These are, as we have seen these past few months, and many more have been shown by ‘my side’ that this is a pattern of abuse, particularly aimed against minorities.
Neither is the random murder of a twelve year old with a toy gun, or any of hundreds of other similar incidents in the last year, to restrict this to a reasonable time frame (It only starts to look worse for ‘your’ side if you want to delve further into the past.).
What’s it like being an authoritarian bootlicker? Your side seems to think ‘jackbooted thugs’ is a terrible insult, but then you practically worship them. Make up your mind.
On Black on Black crime – once we address the issue of why Black people have been dumped in ghettos (thanks redlining, read a history book people) and when police have decided to ruin the job prospects of Black males through the war on drugs and ‘stop and frisk’ then we can talk about Black on Black crime. Maybe it has something to do with a lack of other opportunities.
With cops, cops have made it abundantly clear that the public *dare not* criticize them or ask for accountability, and that we should be fortunate that if we submit (even to contradictory and nonsensical orders or when a clear medical emergency is going on) that they won’t bust our heads open.
Here are your people, Marcus, protesting in NY
My people are pacifists, asshole. We don’t care who’s being violent, we don’t approve of it as a solution to any kind of problem.
I wrote about how much I distrust and dislike cops. Show me where I suggested I wish them harm? On the contrary, I wish they’d all go home and stop hurting people. I wish everyone would go home and stop hurting people.
I envy your ability to read peoples feelings\ attitudes
Says the asshole who seems to think he knows who “my people” are.
@Decker 14:
Wow, way to read for comprehension! That’s *totally* the claim I made…oh wait, it’s not. I said it was legally justified after the fact. I guess you’re full of shit.
Stop and frisk is fucking explicitly racist in its targeting: that is what I was talking about. The police kill black people and don’t even have to try to justify themselves to prosecutors, who help tank their grand juries: that’s what I’m talking about. “Official policy” or not, any fucking idiot can see that police treatment of black people, as actually practiced by police departments, is racist.
Eric Frein kills 2 cops as a white man, pledges to keep killing cops, has a 51 day manhunt, and gets taken in non-violently instead of shot on sight. Of all the people a cop could encounter, a trained sniper who is armed and explicitly out to kill cops on sight is the one you could justifiably execute without warning first. The cops keep their cool: good.
Tamir Rice holds a bb gun as a black boy, gets shot in 2 seconds, and people defend the officers and try to demonize the 12 year old victim and his parents.
A police officer in Tennessee is caught on film choking a white man, who was already cuffed and being held by another officer, for a few seconds: the choking officer is fired immediately.
Eric Garner is killed on film via a non-approved choke-hold as a black man, when he was already restrained by 4 other officers: Officer Pantaleo isn’t indicted, and people blame Garner for being a former convict and overweight, as if that justified public execution.
The killings and abuses of black people by police are reported, then the justice system and far too much of the public sides with the cops and clears them of wrongdoing in a blatantly imbalanced fashion: THAT is the fucking racism in actual practice, regardless of official policy. The system doesn’t back cops nearly as consistently as when white people are killed or abused by police, and those killings and abuses happen less too.
White Bundy Ranch “protesters” can point loaded rifles at cops, and the cops back down. A white man can steal a loaded rifle from a police car in Pennsylvania, and the police don’t kill them, but arrest the man after asking for the gun 3 fucking times.
Black people protest, and cops shut down Ferguson with tear gas and rubber bullets, all with loaded weapons openly aimed to intimidate the vast majority of peaceful, unarmed, legal protesters. No one is punished for the police over-reaction. John Crawford holds a BB gun on his shoulder, in the store selling it, as a black man in open-carry Ohio, and is immediately shot when officers arrive, with the officers again let off the hook.
Any fucking idiot paying any amount of attention can see the truth that something is off about the way police treat black people, and that our system fails to hold them accountable in a blatantly racist manner. What the fuck is your excuse?
I don’t believe its possible to live in a country completely free of barbarism while still maintaining a modicum of personal freedom.
Philosophy fail. How can you have a modicum of personal freedom in a society where you can periodically be subjected to barbarism? Oh! WAIT! I KNOW!!! Let me guess: you’re a white male, right? Could it be that you’re mistaking privilege for freedom? A lot of dumbfucks do that.
Let me guess: you’re a white male, right? Could it be that you’re mistaking privilege for freedom? A lot of dumbfucks do that.
I’ll tell you what dumbfucks do.
White dumb-fucks
They live in Berkely, worship the 60s, are in their 60 and ride bikes.
When Blacks demonstrate they sympathize with them, create home made t-shirts say “stop killing Blacks” and then head off to the demo to show their support.
Once there they witness Blacks looting, attempt to stop the looters, and then get pounded on the head with a hammer by the people they’re attempting to “save” and protect from the evil police.
And here’s the grave site of Eric Garner whose murder kicked all this off. It’s known as 8B-1. No one has visited since the day of his burial. The impeccable state of his grave, the way in which it is carefully tended and that tasteful tombstone ( courtesy of Sharpton, I guess) tells you just how much his life mattered…
http://www.vocativ.com/usa/race/eric-garners-grave/
I’ll tell you what dumbfucks do. White dumb-fucks They live in Berkely, worship the 60s, are in their 60 and ride bikes.
Dude, you’re not even being coherent. And what’s wrong with riding bikes, and what does that have to do with anything?
@kagekiri
So were there a resurgence in KKK crimes, it would be racist on the part of the police to profile Whites.
Similarly if The Nation of Islam to go on the warpath, it would be racist to profile Black males.
It isn’t racist to target a particular group if members of that group are way over-represented in certain criminal activities.
When that happens theses groups send signals to the larger society that their members are far more likely to be involved in certain criminal activities. They’re flagging themselves down, for god’s sakes.
Top detect recurring patterns of behavior, dangerous behavior, that occur far more in one group than in another isn’t racism. It’s how the human mind works.
It isn’t racist to target a particular group if members of that group are way over-represented in certain criminal activities.
It is when the alleged over-representation is simply assumed, with no attempt made to either verify the assumption or acknowledge that the situation may not be as simple as your stereotypes suggest.
Also, it is when suspects of one skin color tend to be consistently treated differently from those of another color.
To detect recurring patterns of behavior, dangerous behavior, that occur far more in one group than in another isn’t racism. It’s how the human mind works.
Yeah, racism is part of how the human mind works.
Yeah, racism is part of how the human mind works.
So detecting behavioral patterns in certain groups is now racist.
Well, detecting patterns of all sorts is precisely how the human mind works, so the human mind is now racist?
Dude, you’re not even being coherent. And what’s wrong with riding bikes, and what does that have to do with anything?
You’re not aware of that Darwin Award’ incident in Berkely, are you?
What’s racist is the thinking here:
Yes it is.
For a start, it’s racist to think “a particular group” is even meaningful in that context. What “particular group”? How many drops of blood? What percentage? Shall we start talking about quadroons and octoroons again?
And yes, it’s racist to think that idea is meaningful and then to jump from that to saying it’s not racist to target everyone else who matches whatever the hell you mean by “a particular group.”
I could go on, but it’s pointless.
So detecting behavioral patterns in certain groups is now racist.
I (and others, I’m sure) have already given a few bits of explanation of what is and isn’t racist. You ignored all of it, so I’m really not sure there’s any more point in paying attention to you.
You’re not aware of that Darwin Award’ incident in Berkely, are you?
I’m not aware of how said incident is at all relevant to any of the subjects of this thread. And BTW, it’s spelled “Berkeley.”
@28 Decker:
Those are voluntary groups with specific racial rules: that’s not the same thing as being born into a race and then profiled solely for something you have no control over, like how you look. Don’t be stupid.
You’re making shit up: it’s embarrassing. You’re also ignoring that I literally just mentioned tons of incredibly recent examples where with the same crime committed, or with worse crimes committed by white people: white people were arrested, black people were injured or killed by police without consequences for the officers involved.
You’re also giving credit for the murders of two policemen to a black protest movement about prosecuting cops for killing unarmed black men, when the black murderer didn’t even participate (no, tweeting with the same hash tags is not actually the same as being a protester), and where he killed his black girlfriend first (solidarity with black victims…by making new black victims; totally legit!)?
I assume you also publicly and loudly blamed the very white Bundy Ranch anti-government protests for the Las Vegas cop killings, where two white protesters, who personally participated in the armed protest that openly threatened violence against police in support of breaking the law, went and murdered police while laying down a swastika flag?
But let’s ignore the media for second: maybe they’re biased, you say? The statistics of arrests, convictions, and sentencing versus actual crime rates still make you blatantly ignorant, or a fucking liar.
Stop and frisk just harasses the vast, vast majority of people stopped (according to the NYPD, 9 out of 10 are innocent), as they aren’t committing crimes, and the vast majority of people stopped are black people. In areas that are 24% black or latino, they make up 75% of stops, and given only 11% of stops are ones where police actually have a suspect they’re looking for, that means 89% are just “random” (read: racist as fuck), so it’s not even mostly explained by having more black and latino suspects they’re looking for. It’s just plainly racist and authoritarian, and not even particularly effective for it: it doesn’t catch many illegal guns, gun murder rates haven’t gone down, and you’re fucking over innocent black people who get harassed disproportionately.
Our drug laws literally require 18 times (until recently, it was 100 times) the prison sentence for crack use versus cocaine powder use. Guess who smokes crack most? Poor black people. Who sniffs cocaine powder most? White people. Why the difference? It’s two forms of the same drug, but racism is fucking enshrined in our laws and practiced by our lawkeepers.
Drug use rates among different races are fairly similar, differing a few percentage points at most (12% of white people used marijuana in the past year, around 14% of black people). Black people are convicted almost 4 times more often of those crimes than white people. This is NOT in proportion to crimes committed by any stretch of the imagination.
Again, even if there were significantly different crime committing rates, Black people are convicted at higher rates for the same crimes than white people. Black people receive harsher sentencing than white people for the exact same crimes, and are more likely to end up on death rows for the same crimes. Black people who are convicts have worse wages in the long term than white convicts, controlling for all other factors but race. The justice system fucks over black people disproportionately to the actual crimes they commit, regardless of the rates they commit them at.
And it fucking rolls over to each new generation, even if we were to suddenly stop being as racist in our arrest habits and sentencing habits. Convicts aren’t there to raise their kids, kids with parents in jail are more likely to have less supervision and care, less likely to succeed in school, and are then more likely to end up in jail themselves. It’s a fucking rolling disaster fucking over black communities generation by generation, where 1 in 3 black men will be jailed in their lifetimes, and still we stoke it with ridiculous drug wars that we primarily wage on the poor, where people of color are overly represented, and then even with that, we target them more than white people in the same communities committing the same crimes.
The justice system’s failure obviously doesn’t excuse crimes that actually hurt people, but nor does this mean we should want to continue this bullshit, racist status quo.
For fuck’s sake, educate yourself.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/11/the-gospel-of-rudy-giuliani/380498/
Seems some folks need to brush up on their Ta-Nehisi Coates.