Studies Show Black Officers are Harder on Black Suspects

Bubba-Smith

This isn’t surprising to anyone who lives in an actual urban area. Fit it into John Perrazo noting that

Most cases where police killed suspects during 1976-98 were same-race incidents: When W&H officers were the killers, the suspects were usually W&H (63%). And when black officers were the killers, the suspects were usually black (81%).

In 1998 specifically, 3.2 out of every 10,000 black officers killed a black suspect sometime that year, whereas only 1.4 out of every 10,000 W&H officers killed a black suspect.

… so it’s not surprising that diversity isn’t the answer

But do racially-balanced police forces actually treat their communities any more fairly than those as skewed as Ferguson’s?…

From the studies that have been done, however, there’s no conclusive evidence to show that white and black police officers treat suspects differently — if anything, some of the studies show that black officers can be can be harder on black criminal suspects.

In 2004, for instance, criminologists found in an analysis of observational and survey data from St. Petersburg, Fla., and Indianapolis, Ind., that in resolving conflicts, “black officers are more likely to conduct coercive actions” — which could mean anything from verbal orders to physical confinement — than white officers. A 2006 study of Cincinnati police records concluded that white officers were more likely to arrest suspects than black officers overall — but it also found that black officers were significantly more likely to make an arrest when the suspect was black.

What’s more, polls show that black communities do not necessarily trust police forces more when they are more racially representative. In Washington D.C., according to a 2011 Washington Post poll, the police department got a relatively low 60 percent rating from black residents, despite the fact that the force is highly integrated. The New York Police Department’s demographics are close to those of the rest of the city, but a Quinnipiac poll from 2014 found that only 54 percent of black residents approved of its performance. The Detroit police department is so dominated by African Americans that it’s been sued for discrimination against whites, and yet only 18 percent of black Wayne County residents approved of its work in 2009.

The determinant is not how black the police force is… but how criminal the local residents are. If the locals have a lot of contact with police, they aren’t going to like them very much.

“There is a sense of security in joining the police force, and being on the ‘protected’ side of the line,” says Nguyen. “If you join the police force because you feel like it’s the only way to protect yourself, that is the cycle that is reproducing itself in the name of public safety.”

Strip away the community organizer garbage and that’s semi correct. Professionals are often members of a profession first. Black cops are cops. And cops and civilians are almost races unto themselves.

And if anything they’re likely to have less patience and more suspicions.

Anecdotally speaking, my own experience has been that black cops are less likely to behave thuggishly than white cops. But of course that’s anecdotal and based on a rather small range of experience in one place.

 

  • Rann Xeroxx

    This is the same that I saw in the military, esp. In basic training with black drills. They were really hard on the black guys that came off as street wise or punks almost as an embarrassment to them. But maybe it was tough love.

    • *Sharpshooter

      Yup, and I remember white DIs being mercilessness against white punks and dumb rednecks, while trying to mentor the blacks making an honest effort.

  • Una Salus

    These studies are racist but don’t worry because Holder isn’t Attorney General for nuthink.

    • *Sharpshooter

      So the numbers are fudged? What?

      • Una Salus

        If you were not embedded in the hegemony of white male corporate oppression you would understand why that question is based on a racist premise. You racist.

  • Elizabeth capecod

    That studies show that black officers are harder on black suspects isn’t a problem, because blacks and liberals only care about white vs black; not black vs black, or black vs white, for that matter..

  • Boots

    What I’d really be interested in is if there’s a study showing by race… the race of officers killed in the line of duty and the races of the persons killing the officers. I don’t know if there’s a racial correlation… but the racial grievance industry studies officer on suspect violence from a racial standpoint… so why not the other way?

    • http://sultanknish.blogspot.com Daniel Greenfield

      Probably wouldn’t differ too much from race of those arrested for drug dealing, armed robbery and gang violence.

  • truebearing

    It wouldn’t matter if black cops killed all but one black criminal. The one killed by the white cop would be cause for looting, lying, and burning down buildings. Al Dull-ton would still bellow his racist gibberish and Eric Holder would send the entire FBI to investigate. If 5000 witnesses corroborated the white officers account of the black guy attacking him with a machete, in broad daylight, it wouldn’t matter. The Left, and in particular the black Left, would have to rant, rave, and riot (the three R’s) in order to maintain the credibility of their their threat to white people. That is what the black leadership is rewarded for. The capacity for racial violence is arguably the main reason blacks are protected and rewarded by the Left. The other reasons are their gullibility and willingness to commit voter fraud. Without blacks, the Left couldn’t win an election.

  • http://sultanknish.blogspot.com Daniel Greenfield

    They have little experience with on the street reporting and they stick to a narrative there, as everywhere else.

    • *Sharpshooter

      And it’s incredible how fast your BS meter becomes honed after just a bit of street time, something the Mushroom Media and the race hustlers don’t realize.

      • http://sultanknish.blogspot.com Daniel Greenfield

        You either learn or you drop out.

  • http://sultanknish.blogspot.com Daniel Greenfield

    In a morally sane country, I wouldn’t be needed. And that would be a good thing

    • *Sharpshooter

      Quite so…you could be spending your time doing REAL work, like maybe golfing at Martha’s Vineyard or sumthin’! :-)

  • *Sharpshooter

    Back in my cop days (mid 70s thru early 80s) I fondly recall some of my black brother officers, when being appealed “Hey, bro” by suspects, telling them, most vociferously, “I AIN’T YOUR BROTHER!!”…WHAP!