<p>Ferguson is an area that has a relatively high crime rate compared, to, oh, say, Clayton, or Chesterfield, or Creve Coeur, or other areas of St. Louis that you know nothing about because you haven’t lived there and I have (though I’m sure you’re going to make pretend you have “a friend” in St. Louis with which you discussed racial segregation and crime patterns with years ago, prior to the current Ferguson situation).</p>
<p>It is not beyond the pale that cops in areas where there are a lot of black people committing crimes are going to be suspicious of black people. That’s how it goes. And the best way to stop that suspicion - so the good, upright blacks don’t get tarred by the brush of the bad ones – would be to not commit those crimes. Here’s a concept: Go into a convenience store and pay for what you want. </p>
<p>This goes for ANYTHING. The “bad” of anything reflect, however unfairly, on the “good.”<br>
You stereotype people when it fits your needs all the time. You stereotype well-to-do-white suburbanites, people in the Greek system, people who go to certain colleges, etc. all the livelong day.</p>
<p>And you have been told repeatedly that your comparisons to French aristocrats or southern segregationalists just make you look foolish. </p>
<p>“I can’t imagine why they’d think they are enemy combatants. Why, it’s not like any of them steal from conv…”</p>
<p>There is crime in my town which is overwhelming white and upper middle class, and where the crimes are comitted by white people, including shoplifting by teenagers. The police here do not think of the people in my town as enemy combatants and the people in my town don’t think the police view us this way either. </p>
<p>It’s my opinion that the police in Ferguson and other communities like it view their role as one of putting the people of their community in their place. </p>
<p>I would probably riot, too, given how outraged I am over minorities treatment by the police and justice system as just an observer. </p>
<p>Yeah, the profiling is troubling. In my community we see a lot of young men arrested for drug-related crimes (including robbing convenience stores and banks). They are often strung out on heroin and looking for cash so they can buy more. They are almost always white. But I don’t see the cops treating all young men in this demographic (which would include my son and his friends) like “enemy combatants.” We’d have some new issues if they did. </p>
<p>Why are WE the only race to be “tarred” by others in our race. The only thing beyond the pale is your response! Your attitude is the reason we have SOME of these white cop/black victim shootings. I dont care what neighborhood I am in, NO I expected to be treated as a law abiding citizen until I prove otherwise. This is no different than the stop and frisk in NY. If middle class whites in certain areas, were stopped and frisked, they would find more drugs, but they are never stopped, only black citizens, so we look like the bad actors.</p>
<p>Stereotyping isn’t necessarily unreasonable… Seeing patterns, making connections and inferences, however provisional - those are instinctive analyses we make every day, and we shouldn’t be expected to simply turn that capacity off when our conclusions are politically incorrect.</p>
<p>We do, however, have an obligation to a) interrogate our stereotypes to make sure they aren’t baseless b) acknowledge that not all, or even most members of a population will fulfill the stereotype, and c) work really hard not to let our stereotypes influence our treatment of individuals in pernicious ways. I can think of few ways more pernicious than being quicker on the trigger - or even to write a ticket or adopt a confrontational tone – simply because of race-based assumptions.</p>
<p>Police officers have a right to defend themselves. But they also need to be trained to recognize their own potential for bias and really think about how their view of minorities is shaping their actions. Being extra-vigilant because you’re in a high crime area is one thing. Totally unequal treatment of otherwise similarly-situated individuals is quite another.</p>
<p>As I said before, if the Ohio police authorities and local/state governments wanted an easy target for a publicized large scale drug bust, all they needed to do was to carry out a massive raid of my private LAC while I attended. Instead, nothing happened despite the fact drug use was well known among us students, campus community, and the residents in the area. </p>
<p>Wonder if the fact most of the students happened to be upper/upper-middle class, suburban, and White(74% when I attended) like PG had anything to do with it? </p>
<p>On the other hand, LEOs have been documented as practicing racial profiling so no surprise, if you’re inclined to suspect a certain group to the point of stopping/searching them more often…you’re naturally going to find more individuals who have committed crimes than groups whom you don’t stop/search as much. </p>
<p>Some have documented that while White teens are just as or sometimes more likely to be violating drug/alcohol laws as Black and other heavily profiled groups, it’s the latter who tend to be arrested and caught up at far higher rates. </p>
<p>let’s use a simple example so everyone could understand. Say there are 2 police cars in a town with 4 traffic lights. Rather than randomly monitor red light violations at all 4 lights, they park the 2 cars at only one of the 4 lights. Net results - the statistics will say that the drivers passing that particular light would have more red light violation. The assumption is that people run red lights at about the same rate in all 4 lights. </p>
<p>The first question then is this - why do they put all the 2 cars on that light area at the first place?</p>
<p>The second question is - why the drivers around that light do not change their driving habits, i.e. stop running the red lights?</p>
<p>Are you asking why there’s more law enforcement presence in high crime areas? Or suggesting that there is no such thing as a high crime area just more cops catching robbers in the bad part of town because that’s where the cops are?</p>
<p>How about this?</p>
<p>Are police more likely to shoot black suspects who bust into the patrol car and grab their guns or would a white teenager who tried that be facing the same unfortunate fate? Would a black cop fire at a 300-pound Hispanic suspect who was charging at him after he yelled freeze? </p>
<p>Even race-baiter Jesse Jackson admitted,
“There is nothing more painful to me … than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”</p>
<p>@marie1234 Are you asking me? @Cobrat said that there are just as much drugs at his private LAC as any other neighborhoods in town. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Does any one has any data to argue that is not true?</p>
<p>Also, does any one has any data of how many unarmed black teenagers have been shot by policemen this year? Are these recent two cases the only ones this year? </p>
<p>Imo, I don’t think a cop would even stop two white kids walking down the middle of a road in a residential area. At most maybe roll down window and say something. And even if these kids said something nasty back to the cop I don’t believe a cop in a “nice” area would then back up and try to contain the kids. </p>
<p>I also don’t believe it’s illegal or a crime to tell a police officer to “fill in the blank” off. </p>
<p>Why did Darren Wilson back up and try to contain these two kids in the first place? Was he going to arrest them for walking down the middle of the street and not obeying his orders? </p>
<p>Minor quibble. There are likely to be a higher concentration of drugs/drug users at my private LAC than your average neighborhood due to the campus culture and how there’s little/no scrutiny because of the dominant SES and racial demographic of the student population. </p>
<p>One thing I found quite shocking when I started was how openly commonplace drug use and its evidence was at the private LAC even though I grew up in what was a crime-ridden working-class NYC neighborhood where there was a concentration of heroin and crack addicts. </p>
<p>However, the drug laws and NYPD enforcement of them meant they couldn’t be as concentrated or open even back in the '80s when budgetary factors meant NYPD were stretched due to insufficient personnel to provide enough beat cops. </p>
<p>Actually, the radio calls with time stamps have been released. So, we do really know this part happened the way he claims. Witness accounts are irrelevant. They can’t possibly know any of this anyway. But, it is factual and proven that he returned from the sick baby call and radioed for back-up when he recognized the robbery suspects on Canfield. Then everything escalated</p>