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Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

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Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#611
post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making a lot of (intentional or not) dogwhistles. So let's dive in to a few of them: > Blacks kill more blacks than any other race or ethinicity.[1] Blacks also kill more whites, than whites kill blacks in pure numbers. Indeed, let's rephrase this: races in the US continue to be relatively segregated[0]. And crimes, even violent ones, are usually committed within-community. So the meme around "black on black v…

> [Atwater] (F) essentially admits the racism at the core of the southern strategy, and the need to, over time, move from explicit and overt racism to more systematic changes that, while not explicitly racist, help white people at the expense of black people. Well, that's a pretty tall claim! All it lacks is a "what about Atwater" at the start. I can play that game too, pal. What about Biden's racist remarks? Man, I…

I'll remind you that you asked for us to have this discussion in a respectful manner. You don't seem to be doing that. So I'll just leave you with a few questions to ponder:

If Black people and White people use cannabis at the same rate, why are Black people more than 3x more likely to be arrested for marijuana use?

> The only guys responsible for that, are the fathers themselves, in that case, because what they did is inexcusable.

So given the above fact (that black people are more likely to be punished for the same crimes), you're saying that it is ultimately black people's responsibility to be more law abiding than white people?

> On top of that, such behaviour naturally incurrs some legitimate prejudice, because why should you respect someone who themselves communicate that they are weaker than others?

How does saying "the cards are stacked against us" imply weakness? Again, based on the facts, you want Black people to hold themselves to a higher standard than white people to stay out of the justice system. You're asking them to work harder. How is them recognizing that they are held to a higher standard recognizing some kind of weakness?

> What's some quaint southern strategy from the 70's to do with the current FBI dataset on racial crime anyway?

Do you think drug laws passed in the 70s, but which are still on the books today, and which define what is criminal might influence the statistics on crime today?

Do you think it might be worth looking at the disparate impact of some of those laws if people admitted that the strategy at the time was to pass laws that had negative impact on certain communities?

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#612
post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Focusing on one piece at a time is how we do logic. You need to defend the weakest link in your case. Or are you suggesting that the various pieces of systemic racism are not themselves racism, until aggregated together? As for one-off events, it seems like just a matter of degree, not principle. Though surely genocide continue to have negative affects on the victimized group to this day.

Regardless of whether you think it's a "weak link", this isn't a logical proof where you can disprove one statement rendering the entire proof invalid. Rather, you have to disprove each piece of evidence for systemic racism in order to disprove it exists. Your argument is mostly "whataboutism" - you point out that terrible things have happened to groups of people in the past and those things have inter-generational e…

I'd call it reductio ad absurdum personally, an application of your logic elsewhere to reach absurd conclusions. And the existence of inter-generational effects are the undisputed facts I started with, not the conclusions reached via your logic, which are that the existence of these effects support the charge of systemic war/famine/etc. Whether it's just semantics depends on what you think the supposed existence of these "systemic evils" requires morally.

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#613
post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making a lot of (intentional or not) dogwhistles. So let's dive in to a few of them: > Blacks kill more blacks than any other race or ethinicity.[1] Blacks also kill more whites, than whites kill blacks in pure numbers. Indeed, let's rephrase this: races in the US continue to be relatively segregated[0]. And crimes, even violent ones, are usually committed within-community. So the meme around "black on black v…

> He starts by noting that white men and black men are killed by police at around the same rate. This is, again true. But this means that Black people are killed at around 5 times the rate of White people. > These racial differences show more police violence towards minorities. Naturally. Don't you think it's completely logical that people who also commit far mor crimes, also get into far more tussles with the police…

> Dude, what has the obviously political and administrative policy of "stop and frisk" to do with the racial composition of NY cops? I'll tell you: Nothing!

That's exactly my point. When I said that Larry Elder's video mentions a number of true but irrelevant facts, this is what I meant. The fact that the police force is relatively diverse doesn't actually matter if the policies and culture of the police perpetuate systemic injustice and violence.

> And for good reason, because AFAIK it was wildly successful, and made New York a lot safer for most people.

Not really, crime in NYC didn't fall at a rate particularly faster than anywhere else. Freakonomics has a good chapter on this that suggests that the general drop in crime may have been caused by social policies across the US that helped stabilize the black community, notably the legalization of Abortion. Yeah, the legalization of Abortion in 1973 caused a drop in crime in the mid 90s.

> Naturally. Don't you think it's completely logical that people who also commit far mor crimes, also get into far more tussles with the police?

No, because the study controlled for other factors including violence of the person the police was interacting with. The conclusion of the paper (which if you'd read, you'd already know) was that police were more likely to escalate force with a black person compared to a white person exhibiting the same behavior. The caveat to this was that as the level of force increased, the racial disparity decreased. So while police were significantly much more likely to grab or manhandle a black person than a white person (again, controlling for the behavior), they were only mildly more likely to tase a black person and statically equivalently likely to shoot people of all races.

> That's because there is no opposite here... Abuse ≠ Legitimate use of force.

No, like I said this was controlling for the behavior of the civilian. So police were more likely to use force on black people for exhibiting the same behavior.

It's also worth mentioning here that crime is in many ways socially constructed. And the US justice system does a lot of things to make poor (and especially poor black) people admit to crimes that they didn't commit[0].

District Attorneys and police work together to put the most people behind bars (in some cases because they have quotas to meet, again watch 13th for more here), and they can do so most effectively by overpolicing poor communities.

This is for two reasons, one, yes, those communities often have more crime occurring in them, but two the people in them can't defend themselves. So if you're innocent put charged with a crime, you are forced to take a plea bargain or be stuck in jail (unless you can afford bail, which affluent people can, but poor people can't). So you admit to a crime which you didn't commit just so that you can get out of jail and maintain your employment.

Notice how this means that even innocent people are admitting to crimes they didn't commit, because it's actually in their best interest to do so. Notice how this means that crime numbers in some of these over-policed communities could be artificially inflated since even people are admitting to crimes they didn't commit.

> One way to do it, is to ask for policies that open up for more social community work, where the first responder to economical, drug related or abusive behaviour stops being the police, but rather a social worker, or some other community representative. It's just a suggestion. Should be right down your lane since you are a left winger!

Yes, this is the entire idea of Defund The Police, an idea being pushed by BlackLivesMatter[1].

> Were these fears unfounded then?

It doesn't matter. People being afraid isn't an excuse to enact literally explicitly racist laws.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalief_Browder

[1]: https://blacklivesmatter.com/defundthepolice/

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#614
post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few facts to note: Blacks kill more blacks than any other race or ethinicity.[1] Blacks also kill more whites, than whites kill blacks in pure numbers.[1] When you factor in the size of the respective populations on a per capita ratio, then the numbers just get worse.[2] On a more positive note, though, crimes are reported to generally have gone down over the last few years. In fact there's nothing in the data to s…

You're making a lot of (intentional or not) dogwhistles. So let's dive in to a few of them: > Blacks kill more blacks than any other race or ethinicity.[1] Blacks also kill more whites, than whites kill blacks in pure numbers. Indeed, let's rephrase this: races in the US continue to be relatively segregated[0]. And crimes, even violent ones, are usually committed within-community. So the meme around "black on black v…

"You're making a lot of (intentional or not) dogwhistles."

And you're not, of course...

"races in the US continue to be relatively segregated[0]."

Yes, similar groups, culturally or otherwise, tend to want to live among their own. Is this a problem?

"crimes, even violent ones, are usually committed within-community."

Of course.

"So the meme around "black on black violence" is a bit of a distraction unless you also are concerned about "white on white" violence."

I disagree. The most logical thing to do, is to look closer at the groups that actually commit the most crime, if you want to fight that crime. You have to remember that the decision to do something illegal is individual, so you have to put the blame where the blame is due. You can't blame the system, because it's equal for everyone. And if it's not, well, then you have to prove that it's unfair, and so far haven't really been very persuasive. This doesn't make white-on-white violence unimportant. Only less important thatn black-on-black violence under this discussion.

"organizations like stop the violence[1] do exist to address specifically violence within the black community."

Has it helped? I think we both agree on the answer here.

"So you start by stating true, but ultimately misleading claims that are often used to justify racial prejudice."

Make up your mind, please! Are the facts "true" or not? Facts are just facts, man. It's how you respond to them that matters. And by the way, facts aren't "claims." The fact that blacks kill most blacks isn't a claim; it's a fact! The proof is in the pudding, as it where, or in this case in the FBI statistics.

Look, if one group pesters you daily, and tries to steal your candy, then yeah, you're probably justified in being somewhat prejudiced against them, no matter the colour of their skin...

But guess what, if one groups steals and murders way more than another group, then probably this will cause the authorities to look closer at that group. Sadly this will also lead to more false positives being produced when the police finally starts doing their job. Of course, it's easy to label that as "institutional racism," especially when there's political power and money in it, but let's face it, it's really just an excuse, and a poor one at that.

"you justify this opinion with two videos from black people."

Of course I do. Otherwise you'd just call me a racist. I assume you're now going to do your best to discredit these two gentlemen instead of answering the facts...

"Neither Larry Elder nor Denzel Washington is an expert on incarceration or the US justice system."

But you are, of course...

"Larry Elder, in fact, is a right wing political pundit, so his income relies on his viewership. This calls into question his reliability."

Yes, only left wing pundits like yourself have the monopoly on truth, I see... Look, I have no horse in this race, but I can only assume that you're a flaming Democrat. :D

"I'd suggest you watch the documentary 13th[2] or read up on these issues from actual experts."

Thanks, I might look into it.

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#615
post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [Atwater] (F) essentially admits the racism at the core of the southern strategy, and the need to, over time, move from explicit and overt racism to more systematic changes that, while not explicitly racist, help white people at the expense of black people. Well, that's a pretty tall claim! All it lacks is a "what about Atwater" at the start. I can play that game too, pal. What about Biden's racist remarks? Man, I…

I'll remind you that you asked for us to have this discussion in a respectful manner. You don't seem to be doing that. So I'll just leave you with a few questions to ponder: If Black people and White people use cannabis at the same rate, why are Black people more than 3x more likely to be arrested for marijuana use? > The only guys responsible for that, are the fathers themselves, in that case, because what they did…

> you that you asked for us to have this discussion in a respectful manner. You don't seem to be doing that.

Do you think this is respectful: "You're making a lot of (intentional or not) dogwhistles"?

You might not believe it, but I actually do respect you. That's why I'm not treating you like a snowflake, and instead answering in kind. But also because you deserve to hear the truth.

> If Black people and White people use cannabis at the same rate, why are Black people more than 3x more likely to be arrested for marijuana use?

I don't buy the equivalence. Obviously, if blacks sell more drugs, then they will also be more closely followed by cops. This is certainly the case in Norway, where there are far less native drug pushers than non-Westerners, for instance. On top of that, if they already are followed more by cops, why aren't they changing their bad habits?

> So given the above fact (that black people are more likely to be punished for the same crimes), you're saying that it is ultimately black people's responsibility to be more law abiding than white people?

There is no "more" in this equation. Either you abide by the law, or you don't. And if you don't, then there can be consequences. If there is already more police present in your community, because more crimes are being committed there, then yeah, you'll get caught more often for committing those crimes. That isn't unfair. That is a consequence of you doing something illegal.

Does this mean that more whites probably get away with smoking pot? Probably. But then they commit far less crimes anyway.

> How does saying "the cards are stacked against us" imply weakness?

Because they're not saying that "the cards are stacked against us". They're instead claiming victimhood, spesifically at the hands of whites, as an excuse for committing more crimes, and doing more murders than any other community, and most of all among themselves. The fact is, that they have every opportunity to not commit those crimes, and instead become productive members of society. Nobody is forcing them to pick up that gun, that blunt or that screwdriver. Not even the policies you claim are so unfairly targetted at them. It's just not true. And so the only conclusion you can draw from such moaning, is that they are weaker and softer than other men, and so they probably don't deserve as much respect. The only way to turn that around, is to suck it up and accept responsibility for their own lives. Then added respect, and peace and prosperity, will effortlessly follow.

> Again, based on the facts, you want Black people to hold themselves to a higher standard than white people to stay out of the justice system.

No. Just a high enough standard to don't do drugs, don't do crime, and don't murder people, and instead be productive members of society. It's not exactly rocket science.

> You're asking them to work harder.

No, I don't. I'm merely asking them to follow the law, and stop pandering to a destructive and self-victimizing culture.

> How is them recognizing that they are held to a higher standard recognizing some kind of weakness?

That's not true. I'm holding them to the same standard as everyone else. Anything else would indeed be racism. Or wait, are you suggesting that blacks should be held to a lower standard than the rest of the communy then?

> Do you think drug laws passed in the 70s, but which are still on the books today, and which define what is criminal might influence the statistics on crime today?

Do you think the earth is revolving around the sun?

> Do you think it might be worth looking at the disparate impact of some of those laws if people admitted that the strategy at the time was to pass laws that had negative impact on certain communities?

All laws should always be reviewed and amended if they aren't serving the purpose they were originally made to serve. Why aren't BLM protesting these laws, then, and lobbying to have them changed, instead of tearing down statues? That is, if these laws really aren't serving their purpose. As I said before, pushing drugs still seriously and adversely affects the lives of others, and people doing that deserve the full wrath of the law.

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#616
post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll remind you that you asked for us to have this discussion in a respectful manner. You don't seem to be doing that. So I'll just leave you with a few questions to ponder: If Black people and White people use cannabis at the same rate, why are Black people more than 3x more likely to be arrested for marijuana use? > The only guys responsible for that, are the fathers themselves, in that case, because what they did…

> you that you asked for us to have this discussion in a respectful manner. You don't seem to be doing that. Do you think this is respectful: "You're making a lot of (intentional or not) dogwhistles"? You might not believe it, but I actually do respect you. That's why I'm not treating you like a snowflake, and instead answering in kind. But also because you deserve to hear the truth. > If Black people and White peopl…

> Do you think this is respectful: "You're making a lot of (intentional or not) dogwhistles"?

Absolutely! I'd certainly want to know if there were connotations to my words that could offend people or cause them to misconstrue my words.

> But also because you deserve to hear the truth.

I also want to make want to make something very clear before continuing: I have done nothing but correct you so far. There is no truth you have revealed to me. You have opinions that are based in misinformation, and I'm doing my best to correctly inform you. This is not a comment on you personally. We all are misinformed about things. But this isn't and hasn't been a debate. It's been me giving you information you didn't have before. I haven't been exposed to anything I haven't heard before. I'm spending my time trying to educate you and others, because I think that's a worthwhile thing to do.

> Does this mean that more whites probably get away with smoking pot? Probably. But then they commit far less crimes anyway.

No, that's the point I've made 3x now: the rates of marijuana use are basically the same (technically they're slightly higher) among white Americans. In other words, white people are committing, per capita, more drug crime, but being arrested 3x less per capita. That isn't the same standard.

And keep in mind here I'm only focusing on the crime of drug use. Nothing else. You keep mentioning murder and violent crime, but there is no reason that someone else choosing to murder people should affect how likely or not I am to be prosecuted for smoking weed.

> Because they're not saying that "the cards are stacked against us".

Yes they are. Saying that laws are enforced unequally is saying the cards are stacked against them.

> Just a high enough standard to don't do drugs, don't do crime, and don't murder people, and instead be productive members of society.

But again, this isn't the standard you're holding white members of society to. So you're holding black members of society to a higher standard.

> I'm merely asking them to follow the law

But you're not asking white members of society to follow the law. They can break the same laws you want black people to follow without facing consequences.

> I'm holding them to the same standard as everyone else. Anything else would indeed be racism. Or wait, are you suggesting that blacks should be held to a lower standard than the rest of the communy then?

No, I'm suggesting that they should be held to the same standard.

You can claim that you just want everyone to follow the law, but the reality is that the laws are enforced unevenly. Again, for crimes that we know white and black people commit at the same rate, black people are arrested 3x more often. You are asking black people to commit 3x less crime to be treated equally under the laws. That is a far higher standard for one race than another.

Let me perhaps explain this one more way. Let's compare exactly two people. One black, one white. If we hold them to the same standard, we would expect that if they committed the same number of criminal acts over their lifetime they would be arrested the same number of times. Anything else is a different standard. They are currently held to a different, higher standard. This should change.

> I'm holding them to the same standard as everyone else. Anything else would indeed be racism. Or wait, are you suggesting that blacks should be held to a lower standard than the rest of the communy then?

They are. Organizations are more than capable of doing multiple things.

But it's worth mentioning that many people have learned a ton about US history in the past month or so due to these actions. US history is whitewashed (both literally and figuratively) when taught in most schools. Even the idea that the civil war was fought over slavery is not always taught to some kids.

Similarly, the US forms a sort of cult of personality around various historical figures: the founding fathers, Lincoln, etc. These people did good things for the nation, yes, but weren't without fault. Washington for example owned hundreds of slaves, and even abused legal loopholes in laws he helped pass to maintain ownership of his slaves[0].

When we ignore the flaws and negative aspects of our history, and the normalization of oppression that is laced into the history of the US, it's much easier to pretend that things were, and are, better than reality. It's still possible to admire people's good acts in context, in museums for example. But cults of personality and cults of nationalism don't help anyone. And tearing them down helped encourage me and may others to learn some more history.

[0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/opinion/george-washington...

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#617
post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are there actual, current examples of systemic racism where an entirely non-racist staff would still produce racially-based biased outcomes? If you removed all racists from the economy, black people as a demographic would still be at a huge disadvantage for a very long time (or forever?). The playing field might not level on it's own. If a system starts out with biased functions and runs long enough so that the dis…

Your idea of "justice" is based upon group membership, as unfortunately for many other people. I see absolutely no difference between a poor white person vs. a poor black person. Sure, there might be more poor black people, but so what? Do you seriously believe that rich white people would actively be trying to help poor white people and not poor black people? No, everybody wants riches for themselves, poor whites ar…

I am a man and worked in fastfood during my studies.

I was offered a permanent contract immediatly after my first month, while there were also a lot of women with kids working there who had been on temp contracts for years. Probably because I could work at night; the mothers worked during schooltimes. Any time someone got pregnant, their contract was not renewed.

In this situation I had an advantage because of my gender. This was not because the business itself was specifically sexist, in fact almost all of management were women. Instead, the systems in place made it so that financially smart decisions negatively impacted women.

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#619
post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People saying “defund the police” are not advocating the complete elimination of police forces; they’re advocating for the elimination of the 75-90% of things that police spend their time on that has zero or negative ROI for society. “Responding to legitimate crimes” is not one of those things.

Imagine arguing for a better world, instead of arguing about what your slogan means. You might be able to secure majority support for your policy proposal, instead of... checks YouGov poll again ... 16% support, for the phrase "defund the police".

It’s also a nascent movement so it’s not surprising that many people don’t understand it. There are many successful policies that began with very low public support.

Re: Santa Cruz, California bans predictive policing in U.S. first

#620
post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the areas that are dismantling their police forces. The expression means different things to different people

Could you be more specific, preferably with a link?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZevgdbMIB0&feature=youtu.be...

This is from Obama's town hall on June 3rd. The speaker is on the city council in Minneapolis, which seems to be leading the charge on this issue.

*This isn't an example of an area that is actively dismantling their police force. But this person's view is that the target should be no police at all, not reduced police responsibilities.

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