Why Cops Kill More Blacks

Before you read, I just want to share my view that what Chauvin did to, and what the other officers didn’t do for, George Floyd, is outside what I’m discussing below. It is good people in society are out there catching with cell phone cameras criminal police officers who are supposed to protect us from criminals. But those are rare and really has little to do with the statistics I discuss here. Regardless, even one ever is one too many. 

Preventing such incidents in the future requires much more police training and oversight on police behavior outside the police department. Police can become bad from the job (though they are still culpable). Of course, every cop is uniquely vulnerable. We need to learn how to detect early when a cop might go bad - even if that means the cop must be taken off the street.

To put it into perspective, a retired Phoenix police officer once told me he had to get out of a beat because of all the crime. He developed a very low opinion of certain demographic groups - and human beings overall.

The purpose of this post is to share a discussion of some findings (see below) from 2009 to 2012 regarding the disparity of white vs. black in the police use of force and corollary deaths. Bear in mind this period is during Obama’s administration. I point this out for two reasons. 

One, he won by a landslide and won twice, indicating the country cannot actually be as racist against blacks that the political platform claims. And it was despite the results of Harvard Project Implicit, which indicated the majority of participants - including blacks, preferred whites (actually white faces).

See how you fare: Project Implicit

The second reason is the President does not have nearly the kind of influence they are often accredited with - especially with the allusive and unsupported concept of institutionalized racism or systemic racism. If it was a tangible thing white people did that remained tangible, a black President surely could have made a dent in it. Thing is, it isn’t a tangible thing. And we still saw the disparity and racial tensions during his tenure.

Whether it’s a Presidential candidate saying you ain’t black if you consider Trump or Trump referring to gun violence following looting misuses an old cliché, neither really matter in the greater scheme of things. And both aren’t really reflecting what people think they reflect.

Back to the study showing the disparity in the police use of force related to black vs. white deaths, it revealed blacks are nearly three times as likely to die when police use force. However, to think that the government isn’t concerned about it is to be absolutely wrong. There are so much data and studies and efforts to understand and fix such problems that it would be a full-time job just keeping up with the summaries.

Below show the results of the study I referred to above. Notice how more white people seem to commit the lion share of crimes, contrary to the stereotype blacks commit the most crimes.

“Victims were majority white (52%) but disproportionately black (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites. Most victims were reported to be armed (83%); however, black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) or Hispanic (5.8%) victims. Fatality rates among military veterans/active duty service members were 1.4 times greater than among their civilian counterparts. Four case subtypes were examined based on themes that emerged in incident narratives: about 22% of cases were mental health related; 18% were suspected ‘suicide by cop’ incidents, with white victims more likely than black or Hispanic victims to die in these circumstances.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080222/

Now to share what I believe is a more accurate problem statement about the disparity of deaths between blacks and whites when police use force. First is to inform that race is purely an invented social idea. Keep that in mind, as the racial stereotypes mentioned below are also not true. 

The following is the involved human nature.

1. Threat avoidance is biological, built into our limbic brain. We are wired to notice differences in others for threat avoidance. Briefly study the Stone Age and you’ll understand why (genes of those who didn’t have this ability didn’t survive the Stone Age). What we do with noticed differences, is programed, is learned. And can be unlearned, reprogrammed.

2. Racial stereotypes remain prevalent in America. A stereotype is not an act but a preconscious attitude we associate to the differences our limbic brain notices. Most of this input comes from society, and the environment around us (politics, media, socializing ideas, culture, entertainment, literature, etc.). The three most white/black stereotypes are: Whites are smarter than blacks, blacks are more athletic than whites, and blacks commit the most crimes (i.e. Stereotype Threat). 

(Sidebar: Blacks can hold black stereotypes of other blacks. A fellow Diversity Council board member, an African-American doctoral graduate, once shared a time when two black men came to his door at night needing to use the phone because their car broke down. He told me he was afraid and felt like he shouldn’t be. This is the result of society building our implicit associations, and how we begin to overcome it.)

3. Responding with explicit prejudice (overt racism) is rare. This is the responding to limbic red flags with explicit and consciously mediated racism. Regarding #1 above, we can easily unlearn, reprogram and relearn, when it becomes important to us, when we are consciously aware of our response, and/or the context highlights it (e.g. work team, sports teams). Overcoming requires the brain’s executive function. And it can be as easy to overcome as it is learned.

Finally, the following is why I believe blacks vs. whites disproportionately die from police use of force.

1. The use of force contexts are threat avoidance on steroids. When police face situations that escalate or escalation is perceived as imminent, it is easy for the limbic system (emotions) to remain in control. An active limbic system hogs the neurotransmitters the executive brain needs to operate. Special forces train in ways to keep the limbic system in check, but such contemporary training is rare in law enforcement.

2. Basic police involvement demands to control the situation and to protect their weapons. This means they have to win. If the situation escalates their duty is to (minimally) escalate their use of force until the situation is in control. The easiest way to get shot is to make a police officer concerned you may get his gun and not back off. Due to common associations in society (revealed by Project Implicit) and their interaction with active threat detection, and an impaired executive brain, biased against blacks is probable. I believe this is why more blacks than whites die when police use force.

3. De-escalation prevents but is hard to accomplish in real situations. Executive function is necessary to de-escalate, but impaired when the limbic system is raging in self-protection. Also, from what I read from various sources, requiring de-escalation is not common in policy and if it is, the training may be insufficient and lacking emphasis.

Bear in mind there are many other variables that could mediate or moderate the statistics here. 

Some further reading: http://useofforceproject.org/#project