The subject of race and policing is as complex as it is important. Addressing the multi-faceted issues involved calls for objective, fact-based, contextual analysis. Unfortunately, that is not what we get from many activists and their media echo chamber. Two examples:
(1) One popular narrative advanced by activists, and seemingly accepted uncritically by many liberal media outlets, is that police target African-Americans for killing. The proof is that the percentage of fatal police shootings of blacks far exceeds their representation in the general population. Looking at statistical disparities in any outcome for any group in relation to their percentage of the population may be a useful starting point for inquiry. However, such disparities prove nothing in themselves. If they did, they would prove that police are wildly sexist and engaged in a massive war against males since roughly 95 percent of police killing victims are men. They would also prove significant disproportionate police targeting by age. What this “proof” leaves out, of course, is that men commit violent crimes at a much higher proportion than women, and that younger people are responsible for a disproportionately greater share of such crimes than seniors. Likewise, blacks, particularly young males, commit violent crimes at a much higher rate than their representation in the general population. When this violent crime disparity is factored in, it more than accounts for the racial disparity in police killings. The causes underlying racial disparities in violent crime rates are undoubtedly complicated and varied. Focusing on identifying and addressing these causes would be far better than simplistically pushing the false narrative of a police war on blacks.
(2) All fatal police shootings deserve scrutiny. When it comes to media coverage of these tragic events, however, black lives evidently matter a lot more than white lives. The recent police killings of two African-Americans–Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina–have attracted intense nationwide media coverage and much instant analysis over whether their shootings were justified. Contrast the Crutcher and Scott cases with the two latest cases listed on the Washington Post’s database of 2016 fatal police shootings (as of 9/24/2016): In one case, an “unidentified person” was killed in Fair Oaks, California, by sheriff’s deputies who were investigating a burglary. The victim reportedly pointed “an object” at the deputies. In the other case, Austin Baier, was fatally shot in Louisville, Nebraska. After being stopped for driving around in circles on someone’s lawn, Baier got out of his vehicle and a “confrontation” ensued. Baier was reportedly unarmed. Inexplicably, the Post lists the race of these two latest victims as “unknown.” A simple web site search reveals that both were white. (The “unidentified person” was Jesse Attaway.) Were the shootings of Baier and Attaway justified? Based on the minimal information reported, who knows. Sadly, the media’s answer seems to be who cares.