Liars, damned liars, and...
This one's so sad, it's almost funny: The Portland police union says that the city's police officers don't engage in racial profiling, and here's proof:
[D]uring daytime hours black drivers constitute 9.1 percent of all stops, while at night that figure grows to 17.3 percent of all stops.... [The union's expert] cited data showing that black drivers make up twice the share of drivers pulled over at night as they do during daylight hours, when officers are more able to determine ethnicity — as evidence that racial profiling does not go on.Let me get this straight: As a percentage of all stops, we pull over twice as many African-Americans at night as we do during the day, and it's darker at night and harder to see, and so that must mean we're not racially profiling.
Glad that's settled.
| Posted at 10:00 AM | Permalink |
|
Comments (10)
The only thing one needs to look at is the crime stats. I wish I had more than just the street robbery numbers from one PDX precinct, however, in my experience these numbers are fairly consistent when it comes to major felony crimes (Robbery, Assault, Etc.) Here are the numbers for street robbery in SE PDX in a two month period. These are from a couple of months ago.
There were 23 total suspects reported by the robbery victims.
White = 5 or 22%
Black = 9 or 39%
Hispanic = 8 or 35%
Native American = 1 or 4%
Of those 8 suspects were armed
White = 1
Black = 4
Hispanic = 3
These are numbers reported BY THE VICTIMS...These numbers were not gathered through police stops. This is what the community is reporting. Based on these numbers, and like I said, I wish I had more to show they are consistent, the police are stopping fewer minorities than they represent in the crime stats. It also shows minority suspects are more likely to be armed. It's a shame that these special interest groups and "community leaders" CHOOSE to ignore the facts and instead blame everyone else.
Posted by Officer | March 28, 2008 1:26 PM
Both sides of this issue are going to come up with complacently simple minded spins; which would be really entertaining if it weren't damned serious.
Posted by David E Gilmore | March 28, 2008 1:33 PM
How do the facts represented by "Officer" above represent a "simple minded spin" as implied by the opinion of "E Gilmore?"
Posted by Don't Understand | March 28, 2008 5:41 PM
Facts don't matter when they get in the way of ones beliefs.
Posted by Pdx632 | March 28, 2008 6:50 PM
Portland cops profile bad guys. If a bad guy turns out to be black, what to do? Give him a pass?
Posted by Thomas | March 28, 2008 8:20 PM
Rather than debating the merits and appropriateness of profiling (racial or otherwise), this statement really shows how out of touch the police union is. What are they thinking?
Posted by Chris Coyle | March 28, 2008 10:12 PM
oh come on! what do you expect from these
double-digit IQ holders? This is nothing
more than the product of GROUPTHINK in which
they've cast intellectual rigor to the side
and spin--in whatever manner seems all the
more likely to obfuscate the matter all the
more--their way out of the obvious. Please
do recall that some of them are not totally
stupid and are well aware that in these times
it is NOT wise to be seen as engaging in the
practice of RACIAL PROFILING and certainly it
not something they'd willingly admit to doing.
Let us keep our wits about us and not fall
for their GROUPTHINK tactics and very hollow
rhetoric and be duped into their cause.
Posted by Bad Robot | March 28, 2008 11:42 PM
BAHAHAHAHAHAH! That was a good one!
Oh wait, your serious. That quote was real.
Posted by kda | March 29, 2008 10:26 AM
Could Black(or Hispanic)crime statistics have any bearing on police racial profiling? No?? Not even a teensy bit??
Posted by Geoff | March 29, 2008 11:55 AM
Was, or I should say, is there any direct relationship between La Cosa Nostra (the Mafia) and Italian extraction? No? Not even a teensy bit? By the way, I am "cento per cento Italiano" and damn proud of it.
Posted by Don't Understand | March 29, 2008 4:38 PM