In a report on CNN we learn that in Houston, 67% of people tasered are black. They go on to basically say that it is because of racism. Not that I don’t think that racism plays a part, the problem is that they really don’t give us the full picture. They tell us that 25% of Houston’s population is black so that means the 67% taserings is way out of wack. But in reality, that 25% is meaningless, what they need to tell us is the percentage of crime committed by whites and blacks. If say 67% of all crimes committed are committed by blacks then there is no racism problem, Granted, I don’t believe this, I just say that to illustrate my point as CNNs report does not give us the percentages we need.
But let’s say that 25% of crime is by blacks and 67% off taserings are on blacks, can there be other reasons for the higher proportions of blacks getting tasered? How about the ‘angry black man’? When a cop approaches a white man or black man, even if it is just to ask a question, what percentage of whites vs blacks get defense and maybe angry? I can understand why a black man/woman would feel harassed if (s)he feels the cops are always questioning them, but it may also cause the incident to spiral and the officer the feel understandably defensive. Once again, the officer may not be acting on racism but defensively. Yet once again, CNN doesn’t give us the numbers, but here the study may not have even taken those factors into consideration.
Something else to consider is family and friends. When an officer is questioning or trying to arrest a black man/woman, one thing I’ve noticed in life, on Cops and in news reports is that family, friends and even strangers come out and start yelling at the cops, once again, a crowd gathering around can quickly escalate what could have been a simple questioning or arrest. I have noticed this more with blacks as opposed to whites. This could lead to the suspect or someone in the crowd getting tasered.
How about running or fighting? What percentage of white suspects run or fight or just plainly resist as opposed to blacks? This is one I don’t know and CNN doesn’t say if it does either. But seeing that a suspect that resists is much more likely to get tasered then knowing this percentage is probably the most important. Yet this is probably the number we’ll never know. If a cop tasers someone, they can say the suspect resisted while the suspect will say he didn’t. Unless independent observers go out with every cop to video the arrests, this may be the study that shows the truth, yet would cops and/or the suspect act differently knowing a camera is capturing them?
How many black officers taser blacks as opposed to white officers tasering blacks? Another factor that CNN fails to provide. If the numbers are similar then is there a problem? I doubt this but I don’t know. I imagine that a black officer doesn’t get as much grief as a white officer when questioning a black suspect, but once again, this is something I’m unsure of.
So does racism play a role? Of course, it is just how much of a role it plays the is in question. CNN would like you to believe that the 67% should only be 25% and that the higher percentage is caused completely because of racism. I happen to believe the percentage that could be considered to be caused by racism is much lower. The report that Houston did may look at some of these factors, but if they did, CNN did not report on them so we don’t know what percentage the report considers as caused by racism or if it even gives a percentage, I would doubt that it does.
In this post I am lumping all other races into the white category just to make it easier then saying white/hispanic/asian and so forth