White People More Confident Than Ever That Police Treat Black People Fairly

[Cali_Democrat]

Most White People Are Really Confident Their Local Police Treat Races Equally
By Ariel Edwards-Levy

Most white Americans think their police departments treat black and white people equally -- and some polling suggests recent events have left them more sure than ever.

An NBC/Marist poll released Sunday found that 52 percent of whites, compared with just 12 percent of blacks, have a great deal of confidence that police officers in their community treat blacks and whites equally. More broadly, 82 percent of blacks, and just 39 percent of whites, say law enforcement applies different standards to whites and blacks.

As The Washington Post's Scott Clement notes, while black Americans' ratings haven't changed all that much from past surveys, white confidence in officers' fairness appears to have actually grown 11 points from what was found in a September NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. It's now higher than it's been in six different surveys conducted by other pollsters, dating back to 1995

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/10/white-police-poll_n_6302614.html

What's up with white people? Allergic to statistics perhaps?

[steve2470]

1. big kick and rec! nt

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Thanks!

[etherealtruth]

2. How is this even possible?

Don't answer ... I know

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. Yup. White people see this as blacks complaining about NOTHING.

[hifiguy]

4. The flood of denial here might just beat

the flood coming from climate change. How can people BE so goddamn blind and stupid??

[Quasimodem]

28. Cliché quote:

"There are none so blind as those who will not see." - John Heywood (c. 1497 – c. 1580)

And there are those who willfully WILL NOT SEE!

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. This is completely unsurprising ...

this disconnect plays out in other ways, as well. Look at the low polling numbers regarding Congress, in general, and who the public blames, and who we are more confident in governing; then, look at the recent elections.

Everyone's Rep sucks, but mine!

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Yup

Exactly right.

[xfundy]

6. Blindness.

I wish there was a way to make everyone walk in each others' shoes for a day.

[JI7]

8. when even sites like this with people trying to out liberal each other

have a bunch of people who feel this way you know how bad it is.

[951-Riverside]

9. The police and the corporate media work hand in hand.

There seems to be a push within these two powerful interests to make this about race instead of about psycho police officers killing people with impunity because they know when a black person gets killed, many whites sit and look the other way and when a white person gets killed many blacks sit and look the other way. The last thing they want are the families of Eric Garner and Kelly Thomas standing side by side.

Divide and conquer.

They can take this "poll" and shove it.

[uppityperson]

10. "police officers in THEIR community treat blacks and whites equally" could be the problem because,

after all, the problem is There, not Here. Them, not us.

as that is in no way how I feel, but too many it seems do.

[starroute]

16. Same as people hating Congress but voting for the incumbent

They figure their own representative can't possibly be part of the problem.

[Jamaal510]

11. Some of them

who believe the police have been fair towards us would probably be singing a different tune if those type of events were to ever happen to them. Normally I'm not a gambling man, but that'd be something I'd bet on.

[uponit7771]

12. 9 out of 10 blacks say cops don't treat blacks fairly, you can't get 9 out of 10 people ...

...to agree what day of the week it is!!!

[gollygee]

13. willful ignorance. n/t

[KingCharlemagne]

14. I was sure this had to be a headline from The Onion. When even

satire pales before reality, we're down the rabbit hole.

[RufusTFirefly]

34. That was exactly my reaction!

The capacity for denial in this country is truly mind-boggling.

[bullwinkle428]

47. My money was on the "Borowitz Report", but I think we're thinking

along the same lines!

[malthaussen]

15. Talk about none so blind...

... the people who responded that they think the police treat all races equally are either amazingly naive or wilfully blind. This is depressing.

-- Mal

[Dustlawyer]

17. Those white people look at the above stat of shootings by race and see their fear of young

black men confirmed. It confirms all of their stereotypes. The media oligarchy is an arm of the Plutocrats which they use to inflame white fear and blame blacks for all of their problems. Displaced anger is the biggest weapon they have. That is why poor and middle class whites overlook the corporate welfare and focus on the social safety net.
I call for a novel approach for all of us here at DU to embrace. Let's actually attack the root problem! Electing this Democrat or that one does not work because when they get to Washington they get co opted, if not before. The corporate money does work to get them to D.C. and keep them there, so let's take that money out of the equation. Let's work to build a large coalition joining various groups together who have all been frustrated that they cannot get their issues properly addressed due to the corporate control/ownership of our politicians. This morning they are reporting that TPP looks like it will pass with Democrats helping. Those of us who recognize TPP for the final nail in the coffin for our middle class that it is, should join with those of us who are fighting for an end to the abuse of blacks by the police and the court system, as well as those of us fighting for better public education, unionization, environmentalist such as the one fighting Keystone XL, food safety...
With all of the groups brought together we can mobilize to demand an end to campaign contributions, Super PACS, the revolving door, and institute PUBLICLY FUNDED ELECTIONS!!! We can send candidates to Washington that will fight to get the legalized bribery of our politicians outlawed! They will promise to fight to bust up the mind control of our out of control media oligopolies. They will show Wall Street that their days of only paying a fine for crashing the economy and stealing our pensions are over!
We have two years before the next election, we can do a lot before then. For any of this to have a chance to work we have to have a HUGE mass of committed people behind this movement. If politicians see this they will change their stripes and join the only one currently willing to say these things, Senator Bernie Sanders. We must start by getting those of us here who are active members in some of these specific fights/groups, to get their group involved in this effort and join the other groups. For a focus point I believe it should be around Bernie as the leader of the coalition. He can help to bring these issues into the mainstream, whether or not you will eventually vote for someone else. The TPP and Climate change are time sensitive issues that cannot wait until people are ready to get off their couches. Please do what you can to advance this cause! I am open to ideas, but if you are just going to post about how it won't work or whatever keep it to yourself!

[marble falls]

18. Being able to confidently hold this kind of uninformed opinion is another perk of white privilege.

[joeybee12]

19. That's pretty amazing...and scary...

Is it simply the ingrained belief that those in authority know what they're doing that causes this? Certainly there's racism, but how can so many people give police the benefit of the doubt?

[TeeYiYi]

20. The for profit prison system...

TYY

[ybbor]

21. Totally disgusting, but...

unfortunately completely believable.

Sad state of affairs in the good ole USA!

[Arugula Latte]

22. What The Ever-Lovin' Eff?

[Dopers_Greed]

23. I believe this is called "doublethink"

eom

[AverageJoe90]

24. That honestly smells like RW agitprop to me.

We all KNOW by now that a lot of people have been starting to wake up since the Eric Garner decision came down.....and the fact that the MSM has had a long history of being manipulated by TPTB for their own nasty ends, I don't buy this for a second; it's now rather clear to me they are trying to set white against black, and vice versa: this is scaring them, and they know they're in trouble.

[marym625]

50. Good for you! n/t

[Derek V]

25. Take it away, Doobies!

[daredtowork]

26. Deliberate Blindness to What You Don't Want to Be True

I think the will to filter facts to fit our worldview and ideologies has always been part of the human make up, but in recent decade aspects of our culture (mass media, customized social media, not sure what it is) has enhanced "echo chamber effects", increased the amount of noise jamming any possible counterclaims, and just made it a lot darned easier to believe only what you want to believe. Thus rich folk live in disneyfied gated communities, white folk live in bubbles of unacknowledged privilege, young and healthy people believe they shouldn't have to pay for insurance for "everyone" and that the elderly should fend for themselves. Magical thinking can go right on being magical until some abrupt personal calamity stops it.

Whenever there is a problem somewhere in the world, we talk about society "having a conversation" (for the 5 minutes it's in the news cycle), but we never do because there is no reason we have to unless it affects are personal lives. We have a government to deal with all that don't we? Don't we?

[AnnieBW]

30. Not this white person

Sorry, but not all white people are clueless.

[Brigid]

31. Not this white person.

I've been hearing stories to the contrary all my life.

[polichick]

32. Delusions arise in the face of inconvenient truths.

[americannightmare]

33. Well, white americans are delusional about...

a lot of things, no reason for this issue to be any different.

[Cha]

36. And, which "white people" did they ask? the "I am Darren Willson and Daniel Panteleo" crowd?

Because Black People aren't treated fairly by the Police and there's evidence to prove.

Thank you, Cali.

[santroy79]

37. That picture that is posted

says ) AGE 15-19)

why is that? That picture makes no sense? Why only break down ages 15-19 if your comparing black shootings to white shootings by police? Why wouldnt it just include all ages? Thats a red flag to me. Like picking a stat to try and prove a point. If they included all ages is the numbers closer? Or do whites get shot more? Just seems like someone is picking a stat.

[Glassunion]

38. They treat folks quite equally here.

Just some are more equal than others.

[santroy79]

39. I know people will hate this

but police shooting by race might have something to do with this government data:

A 2012 study by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention revealed that in 2010 black youths committed six times more murders, three times more rapes, 10 times more robberies and three times more assaults than did their white counterparts.

Similar statistics were released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the “Uniform Crime Reports.” They determined, “In the year 2008, black youths, who make up 16% of the youth population, accounted for 52% of juvenile violent crime arrests, including 58% for homicide and 67% for robbery.” By contrast, the only categories where white youths surpassed blacks were in liquor law violations and driving under the influence.

[steve2470]

40. you got links for all this ?

You better be ready for a huge fight, because it's coming to you now. Get your data ready, or not.

[NaturalHigh]

49. Nice, ahem, rally-the-troops post in that other thread.

The whole rally-the-troops thing used to be specifically against DU rules.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

42. Amazing how that works....

You selectively spend your time policing minority neighbourhoods and you wind up arresting more minorities... who would have ever thought?

There are statistics out there showing, for instance, that rates of drug use are the same for blacks and whites, but drug arrests are far higher among blacks. Ditto many other sorts of crime.

So yeah, the statistics on arrests among minorities are going to be at far higher rates. Because that's who the police bother to arrest.

[steve2470]

43. +1000000000000000000 nt

[santroy79]

52. did you read the stats?

its not for drugs. Its for serious crimes.

Murder, Rape , Robbery

Do you think the police only go to minority neighborhoods for reports of murder or rape? But let the people murdered in rich neighborhoods go without a investigation? Silly to even think that.

Police go where the crime is.

Your living in a fantasy world if you do not think more crime is happening in the poorer neighborhoods.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

55. I notice you switched from 'race' as the basis to 'poverty'.

Do I think that more crime is happening in poorer neighbourhoods? Sure, because society isn't set up to afford poor people all of the same opportunities as wealthy people. A hungry person with no money is more likely to shoplift food than a rich hungry person. A rich person has no real incentive to mug someone for a paltry amount, but a poor person might.

On the other hand, I think there are tons of rapes that go unreported in all sorts of neighbourhoods. There's maybe even more pressure not to report such in better off neighbourhoods. It's not the 'done thing' to create scandal.

So yes, there will be some types of crime that are linked to poverty, just as there are certain types of crime linked to wealth. Poor people don't create schemes that crash the entire economy.

[MADem]

44. People will "hate" it because it's from that Woo "American Free Press" site.

Is that why you neglected the link? http://americanfreepress.net/?p=14864

Those people make Fauxsnooze look like pillars of rectitude.

You should delete this post--it is taken from a website that has disturbing and bigoted overtones that aren't as subtle as you might think they are.

[jtuck004]

45. So let's say all that's correct - it may mean they were policed more, and that raises a real

question as to why you would police 13% of your country harder than the rest of it.

Drive down the street - if you are black your chances of getting stopped are far higher than any white person, for the same infraction. Recently, during the time when the government was helping banks steal even greater amounts of money during our "financial crisis", black applicants were charged more for the same loans - even with identical credit histories and good jobs - than white applicants. It got so flagrant mortgage companies started targeting their neighborhoods with sub-standard loans and no requirements, knowing they would default and they could keep the fees. Black unemployment is in many cases 5 times higher than it is for white folk among people with the same educational and training background.

Heck, look around - here there are people celebrating a deficit reduction. What they fail to mention is that since the Federal government is one of the few more-or-less color blind places to work, and a place that has been one of the only places a black person could get a decent job to feed their family, their celebration of deficit reduction also glorifies kids not eating, and families now in poverty. Would it be your contention that such unemployment should also be laid at the feet of black folk as well?

All your numbers say that those things are happening within a cocoon of white racism, by a society that put into law that black folk are not worth a whole person, and even with the law changed, the nation acts like it's still that way.

I don't think people will hate the stats at all. What they hate is the bias that ignores the racism around those numbers, the racism of the "non-racist", the biased and tunnel-visioned so-called "friends" that let it all go on. With friend like those, you might as well be dead.

[JustAnotherGen]

48. Why would people hate this?

[NOLALady]

51. Of Course.

Police are justified for murdering non whites because they commit more crimes.

[santroy79]

53. that statement makes no sense

if you commit crime your are at the same time increasing your chances of interacting with police.... which increase your chances of getting shot... justified or not.

[NOLALady]

57. Your chances of getting shot or arrested

depends on your paint job, justified or not!

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/04/us/criming-while-white-hashtag/index.html

[kelliekat44]

41. They lie! They know it isn't true but are more confident in lying about it since the lies prevail

in court and throughout the justice system. It's a form of predominant arrogance.

[FLPanhandle]

46. Talking to folks around here in a very conservative area

There is ZERO sympathy for anyone killed/hurt/arrested when that person is committing a crime or resisting an officer.

To most people here in conservative bible-belt land, if you are guilty then you deserve what you get. So their definition of "fair" isn't the same as here.

[sofa king]

54. A shame.

Whitey doesn't seem to know it yet, but now they're in the same cracker barrel with the black people they fear and hate.

If we came together to demand functional freedom and equality for all of us, applying the rule that we are all only as free as our most oppressed subjects, we could quickly push this nation back toward something we could admire.

But instead, white conservatives traded in our liberty--and their jobs, homes, and savings--for the illusion of safety. Now we're all exactly as free as a dead black kid, and those chumps will largely fail to learn the lessons they'll need to survive as permanent suspects.

Their own actions are guaranteeing the realization of their own worst fears, and we all suffer for it.

[joeglow3]

56. Is that graphic made up?

I ask this honestly. I agree with the sentiment, but I have a hard time believing 28,465 blacks between the ages of 15-19 are being shot by police every day for 3 years straight.