Gawker: Police reform is impossible in America
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The gist of it...
The rest of the article is pretty spot on.
http://justice.gawker.com/police-reform-is-impossible-in-america-1683262551
Rates of violent crime are down and have been falling sharply for more than 20 years. In fact, since the early 90s, the national homicide rate has fallen by 51 percent, forcible rapes have declined by 35 percent, robberies have decreased by 56 percent and the rate of aggravated assault has been cut by 45 percent. And black Americans have contributed to the decline. For blacks, rates of robbery and serious property offenses are the lowest they've been in more than 40 years. Murder, rape, assault, domestic violence—all down.
In fact, nearly half of white Americans polled believe that violent crime has increased in the last 20 years. Another 13 percent believe that it's stayed the same. Less than a quarter of whites realize there are less violent crimes today than there were in the 90s when the crack epidemic and gang violence were at their height. Even more, whites overestimate just how much blacks are involved in "serious street crime" and, on average, believe that black people commit a larger proportion of crime than whites do. According to a 2012 study by researchers at the University at Albany, whites significantly overestimate the share of armed robberies, break-ins and drug crimes committed by black people.
So, this is how we get to Rudy Giuliani, a man once in charge of the nation's largest police force, insisting that, "White police officers wouldn't be [in black neighborhoods] if [blacks] weren't killing each other" as a justification for the killings of unarmed black people.
In a country that has identified black people as its criminal element, public safety (and perceived security) is more tied to the suppression of blacks than it is to the suppression of crime. And as long as the public insists on its myth of black criminality—almost as an article of faith—police practices will be impossible to reform.
The rest of the article is pretty spot on.
http://justice.gawker.com/police-reform-is-impossible-in-america-1683262551
So, this is how we get to Rudy Giuliani, a man once in charge of the nation's largest police force, insisting that, "White police officers wouldn't be [in black neighborhoods] if [blacks] weren't killing each other" as a justification for the killings of unarmed black people.
I have some news.
Especially about domestic violence.
"What white people have to do," Baldwin offers, "is try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a Nigger in the first place…If I'm not a Nigger here and you invented him, you, the white people, invented him, then you've got to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that."
"Nigger" as used by Baldwin is, of course, more than an epithet. It is arguably the very articulation of racism in this country. Its utterance summons a phantom that is as essential to American identity as the American Dream and the Pursuit of Happiness. So, when Baldwin talks about the creation of the Nigger, he's speaking to more than the word. He is assigning responsibility for a construct that has permeated every single American institution, one essential to the nation's founding and development.
The focus of the article concentrates on whites in general. They are free to interpret the statistics how they want, but I look at things like the question "has crime increased or decreased in the past 20 years in the US," and of the women polled, 60% believe that crime has increased. Also, 56% of blacks believe in the increase compared to 49% of whites and 47% of Hispanics, but only white people take the L? And that is just looking at the very link the blog post provided.
???
I'd look at that other link, but I'm at work and don't want to login to my department's research database from here.
The reason why everyone believes that crime has increased has always already been explained by intellectuals like Baldwin quoted above. Even as minorities have entered into the middle class existence, like European immigrants before them who had forsaken their ethnicity conformed and adhered "whiteness" before them, they, too as susceptible to the ideology of "the Nigger" as threat. The dissonance caused by the usage of the term in popular culture (like Hispanics and white people calling each other "my nigga") does not assuage the residual damage from Baldwin's time.
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The increase among women I would attribute to the blogsphere and the internet in general. When they were dragging those women off busses and raping them, we knew. ISIS, that one chick on a college campus who brings her dorm mat to class, the military, Jameis Winston, etc, women are bombarded with the threat of rape, and "rape culture." Oh yeah, 50 Shades of Grey is coming out for S&M fans. To those who consider themselves "sexually progressive," S&M is healthy, normal, and nuanced, but then you pair that with those stories coming out of Austria and Australia (IIRC the latter) with the "sex dungeons," and juxtapose "sex work" with "human trafficking," and it all sounds the same.
By Zero Tolerance"What white people have to do," Baldwin offers, "is try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a Nigger in the first place…If I'm not a Nigger here and you invented him, you, the white people, invented him, then you've got to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that."
"Nigger" as used by Baldwin is, of course, more than an epithet. It is arguably the very articulation of racism in this country. Its utterance summons a phantom that is as essential to American identity as the American Dream and the Pursuit of Happiness. So, when Baldwin talks about the creation of the Nigger, he's speaking to more than the word. He is assigning responsibility for a construct that has permeated every single American institution, one essential to the nation's founding and development.
The focus of the article concentrates on whites in general. They are free to interpret the statistics how they want, but I look at things like the question "has crime increased or decreased in the past 20 years in the US," and of the women polled, 60% believe that crime has increased. Also, 56% of blacks believe in the increase compared to 49% of whites and 47% of Hispanics, but only white people take the L? And that is just looking at the very link the blog post provided.
???
I'd look at that other link, but I'm at work and don't want to login to my department's research database from here.
The reason why everyone believes that crime has increased has always already been explained by intellectuals like Baldwin quoted above. Even as minorities have entered into the middle class existence, like European immigrants before them who had forsaken their ethnicity conformed and adhered "whiteness" before them, they, too as susceptible to the ideology of "the Nigger" as threat. The dissonance caused by the usage of the term in popular culture (like Hispanics and white people calling each other "my nigga") does not assuage the residual damage from Baldwin's time.
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The increase among women I would attribute to the blogsphere and the internet in general. When they were dragging those women off busses and raping them, we knew. ISIS, that one chick on a college campus who brings her dorm mat to class, the military, Jameis Winston, etc, women are bombarded with the threat of rape, and "rape culture." Oh yeah, 50 Shades of Grey is coming out for S&M fans. To those who consider themselves "sexually progressive," S&M is healthy, normal, and nuanced, but then you pair that with those stories coming out of Austria and Australia (IIRC the latter) with the "sex dungeons," and juxtapose "sex work" with "human trafficking," and it all sounds the same.
The reasons why whites are taking the L is because apparently
According to a 2012 study by researchers at the University at Albany, whites significantly overestimate the share of armed robberies, break-ins and drug crimes committed by black people.
Not just crime in general but who is doing it..
Also, 49% of whites is a bit more than 56% of blacks pure numbers-wise..
I blame the media more than anything for this...
Yeah, I didn't miss that detail. Again, I don't have access to the data from work, but if Gawker finessed the stats from one source, I suspect that the stats from the other are not as misaligned as the article claims.
I absolutely agree that in terms of sheer numbers 49% of white people is more than 56% of black people. But in terms of the cultural perception problem that is perpetuated almost exclusively by (racist) white people as suggested in the article? Naw, the data does not support that kind of hyperbole. In fact, it suggests what we have always known, and that black people are at the bottom, even in the eyes of other blacks.
I absolutely agree that in terms of sheer numbers 49% of white people is more than 56% of black people. But in terms of the cultural perception problem that is perpetuated almost exclusively by (racist) white people as suggested in the article? Naw, the data does not support that kind of hyperbole. In fact, it suggests what we have always known, and that black people are at the bottom, even in the eyes of other blacks.
By Zero ToleranceYeah, I didn't miss that detail. Again, I don't have access to the data from work, but if Gawker finessed the stats from one source, I suspect that the stats from the other are not as misaligned as the article claims.
I absolutely agree that in terms of sheer numbers 49% of white people is more than 56% of black people. But in terms of the cultural perception problem that is perpetuated almost exclusively by (racist) white people as suggested in the article? Naw, the data does not support that kind of hyperbole. In fact, it suggests what we have always known, and that black people are at the bottom, even in the eyes of other blacks.
funny to use the word culturally because the US is still culturally shaped by the majority. When you make the rules and the social norms it makes since to look at them when talking social reform.
Again the news and media is nothing short of propagandic when it comes to instilling these fears and stereotypes
By ApolloArticle should be named people are stupid.That sells the issue a bit short. What it really means is that the media over-reports on crime so much that people can't see the change that's been happening for every other news report telling them we're going to hell in a hand basket.
Turn on your 7-o'clock news and tell me you see any less reports of rape and/or murder than you saw in the 90s. If someone isn't actively looking to parse the numbers, it's no surprise they'd believe rates were the same if not higher (now in particular given the well-chronicled issues in Chicago and Saint Louis in particular.
People are, perhaps too dependent on their news broadcasts to get their information. Then again, your average person gets home from a long, tiring day of work and just wants to chill the fuck out. The local news broadcast might be all they feel like they have time for. Maybe the media should be more responsible and report news like this as well instead of going after every story that will keep people watching.
By Dreams-VisionsThe movie Nightcrawler actually exemplifies this very well. Even as a fictional movie, the issue of news room pressure for ratings and the unhealthy obsession with "minority violence", "creeping into suburban neighborhoods" (two quotes from the film) are both very real. I refuse to watch TV news for this reason.By ApolloArticle should be named people are stupid.That sells the issue a bit short. What it really means is that the media over-reports on crime so much that people can't see the change that's been happening for every other news report telling them we're going to hell in a hand basket.
Turn on your 7-o'clock news and tell me you see any less reports of rape and/or murder than you saw in the 90s. If someone isn't actively looking to parse the numbers, it's no surprise they'd believe rates were the same if not higher (now in particular given the well-chronicled issues in Chicago and Saint Louis in particular.
People are, perhaps too dependent on their news broadcasts to get their information. Then again, your average person gets home from a long, tiring day of work and just wants to chill the fuck out. The local news broadcast might be all they feel like they have time for. Maybe the media should be more responsible and report news like this as well instead of going after every story that will keep people watching.