LAL #011 — The Plain Truth About Police Shootings

Law and Legitimacy

The unvarnished truth is that there is a steady rate of police shootings in the United States, roughly 1,000 per year. And, each year, roughly 51 police officers are gunned down in the line of duty.

On balance, when deaths are population adjusted, police officers are more likely to be killed doing their job than they are to be kill. Policing is dangerous. We are a violent people. We always have been. A nation awash in guns will suffer gun-related deaths. But there is no evidence to support the notion that police are systemically racist, much less that they are targeting young black males. Transforming each police shooting into a racially charged narrative goes nowhere. In the past week, six (6) people have been shot to death by police officers. In four of those cases, the decedent was armed with a knife; in one, the decedent was armed with a gun. Only Duante Wright, in Minnesota, appears to have been unarmed. So what about the shooting of unarmed people?

Since 2015, 168 white males have been shot to death by police; 135 black males have been shot. Yes, people of color are but 13 percent of the population, and therefore were shot at a disproportionate rate. It raises questions that require answers. But you cannot fairly and sanely look at these numbers and cry "epidemic." So why does The New York Times run columns like Charles Blow's piece today: "Rage is the Only Language I Have Left"? Is such incendiary nonsense making police work more dangerous?

Maybe it's time to scale back the rhetoric and focus on the common obligations of citizenship rather than the rhetoric of racial grievance. Seriously, Charles? The Old Gray Lady's been kidnapped by hysterics.

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/support