Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

propublica.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 650 posts

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#351

Post by snug »

> The boys were driven to our local precinct, the 76th. I eventually made my way there, too. The families of all the boys were there. The police are required to notify families when a minor is arrested. But the families told me that hadn’t happened. They’d learned about the boys’ arrests from friends. (The police later said the families showed up so quickly they didn’t have time to make notifications.)

Wow this is really scary to read. There's a miniseries on Netflix I would urge everyone to watch "When they see us" about "The Central Park 5" kids that were coerced into confessing they raped a white woman in the park. They were interrogated for hours and promised to go home if they confessed.

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#352

Post by symlinkk »

SuoDuanDao wrote: post #316
pjc50 wrote: post #22

> “I blame myself,” she kept saying. “I never let him out on Halloween. A bunch of Black boys together. I shouldn’t have let him out. But he begged me.” Notice that while average white parents might worry about criminals before letting their kids out on the street, the black parents worry (with good reason) about the police. (Just to spell it out: this is why so many BLM activists feel comfortable saying "abolish the…

Coming from a poor (and incidentally very white) area myself, I understand the sentiment behind 'defund the police', but being comfortably middle class now, I also recognize it's something of a nonstarter with people who don't have that experience. I prefer 'Police Out Of Poor Neighborhoods'. Police actually add value in rich neighborhoods (maybe by definition), and it's got a humorous acronym. Edit: And police are m…

You’re joking right? Poor neighborhoods have the highest rates of crime.

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#353

Post by dagnabbit »

jeffdavis wrote: post #330
Anechoic wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blacks are killed by police disproportionately by a factor of around 2-3x The fear may be there, but I don't see it justified in the numbers. It's not just about getting killed - it's about getting unfairly fined, arrested, beaten, jailed, and so on. From my own life experience, the fear is warranted.

Do you have aggregate numbers on how that compares to getting similar treatment from criminals?

You were able to find the statistics that justified your stance that black people are just paranoid.

Stop arguing in bad faith, you fucking bigot.

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#355

Post by dagnabbit »

jeffdavis wrote: post #328
Kluny wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How confident are you that your numbers are accurate, given that police self-report their numbers? For instance, I've been reading lately that black men have been found hanging from trees by nooses in California recently, and that the deaths were ruled suicide. Do you believe that these deaths were suicide?

I have quite a bit of faith in numbers related to deaths. There is a lot of paperwork involved, a body (with bullet holes), perhaps a 911 call, often a medical examiner or coroner's report, potentially lawsuits, funerals, etc. And now there are cameras a lot of places. I guess there could be outright premeditated cold-blooded murders that are disguised as suicides, but I can't imagine that's very common. I mean, you…

The paperwork for Breonna Taylor said she had no injuries.

She had been shot eight times while sleeping.

You're a white supremacist and you are arguing in bad faith. Get the fuck into the sea, you vile fucking bigot.

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#356

Post by noobaccount »

Wohlf wrote: post #320
asjw wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to disagree with the post in general, but at a thousand/year shot and killed by the police in US, they probably are one of the most dangerous threat For comparison in Italy in 2019 there have been 3 people killed by the police, and people have - rightfully IMO - complained every single time. In US more than 1k (1040 to be precise) died shot by cops If we compare the population, there should have been at least 180…

>Or, from another angle, it means that criminality in US is so much worse than the average EU country that it's ok to kill so many people in the name of safety. Number of homicides in the USA in 2017: 19,510 Deaths per 100,000 population: 6.0 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm Number of homicides in Italy in 2017: 357 Deaths per 100,000 population: 0.6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Italy

Wow, how can we be more like Italy?

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#357

Post by dagnabbit »

jeffdavis wrote: post #310
brm wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If being black caused police cars to steer towards my car when in their vicinity I'd find that perilous.

Going to the beach increases your chance of getting eaten by a shark by 1000X. My point is just that 2-3X of a small number is still a small number. It shouldn't affect your decision about whether to go outside or not when there are much larger numbers to worry about (like the risk of getting murdered).

Only a bad faith bigot would pretend that the _only_ risk police pose to blacks is their death.

Fuck you, and fuck dang for making HN a place where bigots like you feel welcome. Y'all are both absolute fucking trash.

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#358

Post by e40 »

pjc50 wrote: post #22

> “I blame myself,” she kept saying. “I never let him out on Halloween. A bunch of Black boys together. I shouldn’t have let him out. But he begged me.” Notice that while average white parents might worry about criminals before letting their kids out on the street, the black parents worry (with good reason) about the police. (Just to spell it out: this is why so many BLM activists feel comfortable saying "abolish the…

As a white parent with a non-white son, I get both worries!

I 100% agree with your comment.

I cannot believe how many people I see here saying (in other places, not in the comments in this story) "see, this is proof that systemic racism is gone" ... just blows my mind.

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#359

Post by swiley »

pjc50 wrote: post #22

> “I blame myself,” she kept saying. “I never let him out on Halloween. A bunch of Black boys together. I shouldn’t have let him out. But he begged me.” Notice that while average white parents might worry about criminals before letting their kids out on the street, the black parents worry (with good reason) about the police. (Just to spell it out: this is why so many BLM activists feel comfortable saying "abolish the…

I’m not a parent, but as a white person: the police have scared me much more than random people on the street for my entire adult life.

Re: My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works

#360

Post by Erem »

jeffdavis wrote: post #330
Anechoic wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blacks are killed by police disproportionately by a factor of around 2-3x The fear may be there, but I don't see it justified in the numbers. It's not just about getting killed - it's about getting unfairly fined, arrested, beaten, jailed, and so on. From my own life experience, the fear is warranted.

Do you have aggregate numbers on how that compares to getting similar treatment from criminals?

Let's not compare fear of cops to fear of criminals just based on stats -- there are qualitative differences that matter too. For example, when criminals target you, you have recourse: calling the cops. Having that option can assuage fear.

However, when you learn through experience that cops themselves seek to harm you, then what? There is no recourse! Who will try the cops? If you do fight back publicly, who will stop them from endlessly patrolling outside your house seeking some minor infraction? Who will stop them from burying you in fines? Your elected representatives are your only option and good luck with that. I'll assert that in human psychology this helplessness reasonably magnifies fear beyond the statistics.

In fact, when you come through experience to fear the cops it also makes the _criminals_ more terrifying -- calling the cops becomes like running to the lions because you are being chased by wolves. So you just give up and let the wolves consume you.

And pure conjecture here maybe criminals know that, which emboldens them to preferentially predate upon black people thereby producing your original murder statistic.

Post reply on HN