Studying stats indeed, the mathematical discipline that is. Blacks make up 14% of the population, whites make up 73%. If an equal proportion of blacks were killed by police as whites, the since whites make up about 5 times more of the population than blacks then 5 times as many whites would be killed by police as blacks. If it is indeed only twice as many (you provided no support for that assertion) then that would horrifically demonstrate how much more likely you are to be killed by a police officer if you're black than if you're white!
Protests in at least 140 US cities
- Thread starter Real Money
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The two rookie officers, only been on the job a total of 3 days, probably still on probation, did try to tell the senior officer perhaps he should get his knee off but the senior officer just ignored them.
I do have some sympathy for the two new cops, trained hard to get the job, probably afraid to lose it. Police are trained to obey order and not question their superior or authority. I don't think they realize the gravity of the man being pinned. I don't know what more I would do in that situation myself.
You might find it interesting to find a corollary to this in military aviation that was successfully overcome. Like the police, the military trains to obey orders and not question superiors. The aviation safety community began to realize that there were a large number of entirely preventable mishaps occuring where the copilot or crew members realized that something was wrong and could easily have prevented the mishap entirely, but because of this training they either didn't say anything or were very passive in pointing out what was wrong. As a result, the military implemented a very rigorous crew resource management program, one aspect of which that is strongly emphasized is that it is a crew member's duty to speak up if they think something is wrong regardless of who the aircraft commander is, and not only is there no retribution for doing so but you will get in trouble if you don't speak up. This is heavily emphasized in initial and annual recurrent training, there's a strong safety department set up at every unit to enforce it, and most importantly COs get relieved of command if they either allow retribution, if a mishap happens and it turns out there is a climate where junior folks don't feel comfortable speaking up, or sometimes even if the climate is there and it's detected before a mishap.
It wasn't an easy change to make, it took years and a few people losing their jobs to make it clear that this was serious. But by the time I was a pilot it was pretty well inculcated into the system and the few cowboys who were left were on good behavior because they knew they were on a very short leash. There's no reason police departments can't do something similar, while still maintaining respect for the chain of command. It won't be easy or fast, but that's no reason not to do it.
You can argue statistics from both sides. If you look at the # of people committing crime vs the # killed by police you might get a different conclusion. So, let's don't use statistics to argue the case.
That said, I am sadden but encouraged by the protests. Sadden in realizing the inequalities, discrimination and brutality of those public servants who are supposed to protect us. Encouraged by seeing in the latest LA protests, the universal outrage by people of all races, the multiracial mix of the protestors and the peaceful nature of the latest protest. There is still hope for America.
As someone who has a pretty thorough background in stats this type of response is immensely frustrating to me. Those who understand the mathematics of statistics can certainly use them improperly to dupe those who do not. Those who do not understand the mathematics of statistics can also knowingly or unknowingly improperly use statistics to dupe those who to do not or be duped themselves. None of those are reasons to stop "arguing" statistics, if anything they're imperatives for pointing out when someone either improperly uses statistics or doesn't understand what they mean and draws an erroneous conclusion from them, as occurred here.
Evaluating statistics is one of those areas where standard human intuition is often wrong. It's precisely because human intuition breaks down with statistics that it is so valuable to study and understand it. If you take the time to learn it you can find a lot of non-obvious insights, which is rare in life.
And even better, if you engage in a discussion with someone who understands statistics (and they know you do as well), you'll never see the type of manipulations or false conclusions that we saw in this thread. Instead you'll see rigorous application of a science, and you can base conclusions on that. Something that we do in everything from designing electronics to evaluating medication to evaluating aviation mishaps (to pull in my other point). There's absolutely no reason to throw that rigor out when discussing something as critical as how likely you are to be killed by the police if you're black versus if you're white. And certainly throwing it out because people draw incorrect conclusions from the data because they don't understand statistics or purposely try to take advantage of that ignorance to dupe others is the opposite of what we want to do if we want to live in a more just, enlightened country.
https://news.yahoo.com/george-floyd-know-officers-charged-184539019.html
One of the rookie police officers Thomas Lane who asked the senior officer whose knee was on Floyd's neck if they should roll him on his side and the senior guy said no. Lane didn't take any further action. Before he became an officer this was what he did: Mr Lane used to work as a guard at a juvenile detention centre and volunteered to mentor Somali school children.
So sad. Someone with potential to become a good officer, instead is now charged with murder.
One of the rookie police officers Thomas Lane who asked the senior officer whose knee was on Floyd's neck if they should roll him on his side and the senior guy said no. Lane didn't take any further action. Before he became an officer this was what he did: Mr Lane used to work as a guard at a juvenile detention centre and volunteered to mentor Somali school children.
So sad. Someone with potential to become a good officer, instead is now charged with murder.