The Party of science goes with their gut feelings...

Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in Shootings

A new study confirms that black men and women are treated differently in the hands of law enforcement. They are more likely to be touched, handcuffed, pushed to the ground or pepper-sprayed by a police officer, even after accounting for how, where and when they encounter the police

But when it comes to the most lethal form of force — police shootings — the study finds no racial bias.

“It is the most surprising result of my career,” said Roland G. Fryer Jr., the author of the study and a professor of economics at Harvard. The study examined more than 1,000 shootings in 10 major police departments, in Texas, Florida and California.

Based on the media coverage and the constant drumbeat from liberal politicians trying to fire up the Black vote coming into 2016, it would appear obvious that studies would find overwhelming evidence that law enforcement are much more trigger happy when it comes to Black suspects as they are with other races. 

Of course, media coverage and liberal rhetoric does not make something true. In this case, it would appear that there is little evidence to support the rhetoric that White cops are predisposed to shoot at Black suspects. In fact, contrary to popular belief, it may actually be the opposite. White cops may be "less" likely to shoot at a Black suspect. Of course, that seems counter-intuitive. But just because we don't hear about it, doesn't mean that White people are not shot down by the police as well.

The difference is that White people do not march in the street every time it happens White people do not burn down their neighborhoods in protest. White people do not shoot cops for revenge. And most certainly, we do not have a White President telling Americans that Cops are prone to unjustifiably shoot White people.

Police in Houston "less" likely to shoot at at a Black suspect 

The truth is that this particular Harvard study should not have come as a surprise to Roland G Freyer Jr. There have been multiple studies on the subject, all suggesting similar results. Even Obama's own Department of Justice did an analysis on the subject that showed White officers less likely than Hispanic and Black officers to shoot at a Black suspect. A Washington State study showed that participants were biased "against" shooting Black suspects, even as they saw Black suspects as generally more dangerous.  In fact, is anyone aware of any studies that can positively show that Black suspects are shot more often (all things being equal)? 

President not going to let facts get in the way of good political fodder!

Reality is that Black people are stopped more often, arrested more often, and generally deal more often with the police. But that is consistent with the fact that Black people commit more crime than other races. Substantially more crime. Moreover, a Police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a Black suspect than that Police officer is to shoot and kill an unarmed Black suspect. 

Lastly, it should be also noted that the higher levels of physical contact between the Police and Black suspects (approximately 20% higher across the board) does not, in and of itself, prove racial bias. We have no way of knowing to what degree an average Black suspect may be more or less cooperative with the Police than other suspects. Certainly with the sort or animosity that the Black community has towards Law enforcement in general, it would not be too hard to generalize a theory that they are simply less cooperative on average than races who don't have the same level of animosity. The concept that the Police are simply "reacting" to the behavior of the suspects cannot be discounted in favor of an assumption of racial bias.