Quote Originally Posted by MadMojoMonkey View Post
I didn't find the source on your data.
I pulled it from historian/professor Thaddeus Russell. The source appears to be Washington Post's database, but that's behind a paywall. It might be possible to go one-by-one through their list of 1,003 killed by cops to find the number.

If we just look at your numbers, it seems like you're saying that when ( 9 / 41 = ) 21% of police killings affect 13% of the population, that's somehow less than should be expected. I don't see why that's not 50% more than expected.
I am not saying that. I believe black people are treated differently by the police than white people. But I don't believe the data supports (1) that the cause is unknown-by-us racist thoughts, and (2) that cops kill black people more unjustly than others.

I also don't want to get into this too hard (but thank you for asking) because non-experimental data is sooooo hard to talk about wisely. Like that which is accredited to Ronald Coase: "If you torture the data long enough, it will confess."

But I DID mention data here because you smartly asked me for my feelings. My feelings are not convinced by the claims cops act upon racist thoughts and unjustly kill black people more than others. I am, however, extremely convinced that inequality of treatment exists elsewhere.

Patrice O'Neal, for example, once told about how he and several other black kids were railroaded into prison from a white girl and a white judge and jury. And I believe every single word of his story.