Texas Officer says Blacks Have "Violent Tendencies"

[sloane7777]

Precisely. We are totally blind to the degree to which economic segregation influences all our lives. An area near where I live is currently facing an issue. A golf course has been bought by developers who wants to build houses. The neighbors are attempting to ensure that zoning requires that all the new houses have 3 car garages. That's a shady way of them saying, we don't want to live close to anyone who cannot afford a bunch of cars--or surplus space in their house. What the proliferation of such enclaves does is to leave behind areas where the majority of residents have very low incomes, and while these are precisely the folks who benefit most from things like well-developed park systems, safe roadways and walkways, library and school systems and the like, they are also the least likely to be able to maintain them well. Meanwhile, the three-car families, who can well-afford a tax structure to support these kinds of things, are typically located in another geopolitical area (suburb) and tend to be blind to the decay of such services as they have their own spacious yards and home gyms, have access to books and such resources of their own and either support a high-quality suburban school system or send their children to private schools.

These conditions are created and sustained by public policy. But we tend to be completely unaware--instead blaming the least powerful among us for their very powerlessness.

This is THE best post thus far, period. (we would not have a lot of the issues if everyone understood as you do )

 

[bwt42]

What I said:
The lives of residents in their communities should matter to law enforcement officers no matter the zip code, street name, or skin color.

It's not whether they were right or wrong, or whether or not you should have continued into the neighborhood. What would the officers have done if you told them you lived there? What were they regularly doing to protect and serve the residents of that neighborhood? Did your lives matter more to them than the people who lived up the street?

I don't know why you would pose the question of whose lives mattered more. I assume our lives and the residents lives mattered the same. jmo

 

[bluesneakers]

I don't know why you would pose the question of whose lives mattered more. I assume our lives and the residents lives mattered the same. jmo

Perhaps you didn't read back far enough. This is what I was responding to:

rsbm

But to solve ONE problem, we all just be realistic about the other. Many of our cities are hellholes and war zones. Nobody's lives matter there.

So... my point was to LEOs the people who live in those communities SHOULD matter. I'm not sure what your warning had to do with that point, but you asked whether the officers were right or wrong to steer you away. I merely posed some questions for you to consider and come up with an answer for yourself. eace:

 

[oceanblueeyes]

What a ridiculous thing to say ; "blacks have violent tendencies..." ?? Really ???

Anyone who voices such statements have clearly never met a certain family in the city where my husband and I lived soon after our wedding.
Blonde, blue-eyed with a Norwegian surname --this family was spoken of by many for being the worst family in town and not just them, but their parents and grandparents for the last 3 or 4 generations.
Out of respect for their privacy I'll not name them --but nearly everyone in that city will know who they are if you were to speak their name.

Churches had tried to help them to better themselves and had sometimes donated food or money.
The monetary donations were a failure as some of them spent it on drugs and booze .
We've since moved from that city and state... but a friend whom I've kept in touch with said just last year one of the daughters of the family died three days after getting out of rehab -- she had purchased what turned out to be a lethal dose of cocaine from some teenage friends of hers and was found deceased behind a Dollar General store.
Sad and tragic.
But it has nothing to do with ethnicity and everything to do with how you are raised and the choices you make.
Everyone makes decisions every day. You can choose to better yourself and make wise choices, no matter what your culture or upbringing.

I'm not trying to offend or make generalizations about anyone. And I will not label anyone.
End of rant.
:moo:

I really don't know the answer. I've never really thought about it until I just now read the article for this thread.

Perhaps the answer could be found... if there is even one... by looking at some type of statistical record which shows the population percentages of all races and how many... percentage wise based on their population in each race commits violent crimes? I think that would be the only way to see if any race has tendencies to act out violently. Who knows maybe another race is the one who is prone to act out more violently.

When I was growing up in the south our family often went into the black neighborhoods because they had the best fresh vegetable stands everywhere and one of the best BBQ restaurants in the county. My mom and I would go into areas every Saturday where only blacks lived or worked and we never felt afraid at any time. Everyone who lived or worked there was very friendly with all races. However that was before the drug-prostitution gangs took over and now there is constant violent crime occurring on a daily basis. I know many good black families who still live there and they are terrified too of the gangs but cant afford to move to another part of the city. Several of them have been robbed, mugged or their homes invaded by gang members. I wouldn't go down in that area at all now because it has drastically changed so much. People are being shot when they are just walking down the sidewalk minding their own business. It use to be a very safe town of 200K in all areas of town but now it is rated in the top #20 for most violent crime ridden cities in Georgia. Because of the crimes that has taken hold of that city, most who can afford to move, have, and live in a neighboring county with very little crime whatsoever. My family moved to the neighboring county when I was 16.

One time my mom, dad, and I went to NYC for the first time when I was 15. To say the least my dad got lost while trying to locate our hotel and we had no clue where we were. He left us in the car to go in and ask a desk clerk at a little hotel there how to get to our hotel. The man looked out the window and saw my mother and I sitting there and he told him to get back in his car immediately and get out of there telling him to stay on that road but go the opposite direction until he got to a certain street. He told him it was very dangerous for us to be in that area especially after dark. My dad didn't think there was any danger just because we were in a section where blacks congregated and lived since we always went into predominantly black areas of town back home where we lived at that time without any problems.

IMO

 

[oceanblueeyes]

I don't know why you would pose the question of whose lives mattered more. I assume our lives and the residents lives mattered the same. jmo

I was listening to Sheriff David Clarke one time when he was talking to the media and he said sometimes he feels it is only him and his police officers who cares about all the children being shot and killed in drive by shootings. He said most who live there where the children are killed couldn't even tell you the names of the children who have been murdered but instantly knows the names of all the ones who have been shot by a cop. He said it is he and his officers who go down in these areas where most people wouldn't step foot in. He said he and his officers go into dangerous places in order to see that those who are shot, and murdered receive justice even though they know its a dangerous place for them to be with so many against all cops in general nowadays.

I think the vast majority of our 800 thousand police officers nationwide cares deeply about the horrific things they see occurring in so many areas they have to constantly enter trying to get justice for the victims. They are the ones who try to get witnesses to speak with them so they can gather evidence in order to see that justice is served no matter how rich or poor the victim/s happen to be or where they may live.

I have seen police officers cry like babies when another innocent child has senselessly been murdered. They are the ones who sees the little dead bodies and what senseless violence can do to them. I have seen countless stories of police officers helping those who have fallen on hard times opening their heart and their own personal wallet. Even helping those who may have a dark view of the uniform they wear or the color of their skin.

IMO

 

[bluesneakers]

I really don't know the answer. I've never really thought about it until I just now read the article for this thread.

Perhaps the answer could be found... if there is even one... by looking at some type of statistical record which shows the population percentages of all races and how many... percentage wise based on their population in each race commits violent crimes? I think that would be the only way to see if any race has tendencies to act out violently. Who knows maybe another race is the one who is prone to act out more violently.

rsbm

There is no way to do this without adding to the racist attitudes and beliefs people already have. Crime is related to a lot more than race - poverty, education, age, drugs and alcohol, culture, gender, access to weapons, etc. I think there is probably a difference between crimes committed and criminals caught. So are people of one age group/race/gender more likely to be caught and prosecuted than others? How would that factor in?

Who knows how the meme Trump retweeted got so twisted, but a lot of people believed it because it reinforced their own prejudices/misconceptions. I believe even with the FBI numbers the story is more complex than a simple (correct or incorrect) graph can show. Which is why I think a "Which Race is more violent?" study wouldn't do anyone any good.

In the end, IMO, there is no way to back up what the officer in Texas said. He made an ignorant and racist comment that is unacceptable from anyone in ANY profession, but especially from a public servant.

PS:
This is a good article about the declining crime rate. Race isn't mentioned.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2015/05/28/whats-behind-the-decline-in-crime/#64aa5fdf7733

 

[oceanblueeyes]

rsbm

There is no way to do this without adding to the racist attitudes and beliefs people already have. Crime is related to a lot more than race - poverty, education, age, drugs and alcohol, culture, gender, access to weapons, etc. I think there is probably a difference between crimes committed and criminals caught. So are people of one age group/race/gender more likely to be caught and prosecuted than others? How would that factor in?

Who knows how the meme Trump retweeted got so twisted, but a lot of people believed it because it reinforced their own prejudices/misconceptions. I believe even with the FBI numbers the story is more complex than a simple (correct or incorrect) graph can show. Which is why I think a "Which Race is more violent?" study wouldn't do anyone any good.

In the end, IMO, there is no way to back up what the officer in Texas said. He made an ignorant and racist comment that is unacceptable from anyone in ANY profession, but especially from a public servant.

PS:
This is a good article about the declining crime rate. Race isn't mentioned.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2015/05/28/whats-behind-the-decline-in-crime/#64aa5fdf7733

Thank you but I honestly don't know how a record of violent crimes that are committed by individual races based on their percentage of the population could be biased. They are what they are. I haven't looked at any recent crime statistics as far as races go but I may do that when I have more time since my interest has been peaked now.

I am already aware that our overall homicide rate has steadily declined in recent years which is a good thing. I also know that in certain cities the homicide and attempted homicides are soaring in the past two years. So while it is down overall there are several big cities with climbing homicide rates.

 

[Doghairrules]

Thank you but I honestly don't know how a record of violent crimes that are committed by individual races based on their percentage of the population could be biased. They are what they are. I haven't looked at any recent crime statistics as far as races go but I may do that when I have more time since my interest has been peaked now.

I am already aware that our overall homicide rate has steadily declined in recent years which is a good thing. I also know that in certain cities the homicide and attempted homicides are soaring in the past two years. So while it is down overall there are several big cities with climbing homicide rates.

They can be biased because in this country, the white majority has made sure that people of color do not have access to property, money, good jobs and good educations for almost as long as we've been a country. When we stopped enslaving people of color, we still didn't let them vote or give them access to the same things white people had access to. Well into the last century we did everything in our power to ensure that they didn't have the same opportunities. From separate schools to neighborhoods that were redlined, to neighborhoods that were destroyed by freeways and interstates being cut through them to communities that have now been destroyed by our ridiculously high incarceration rates for people of color, particularly black males.

In my town, they used redlining to decide where to plant trees in the 1950s! We wouldn't even let them have trees, for gods sake. The resulting poverty, lack of job opportunities, etc., have kept them from attaining what we were born into. Once you are stuck in the cycle of poverty it is very very difficult to get out of it. With no options, guess what happens?

And also there is no genetic difference between races. It is purely a social construct for the express purpose of keeping power and wealth in the hands of white folks.


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[BayouBelle_LA]

They can be biased because in this country, the white majority has made sure that people of color do not have access to property, money, good jobs and good educations for almost as long as we've been a country. When we stopped enslaving people of color, we still didn't let them vote or give them access to the same things white people had access to. Well into the last century we did everything in our power to ensure that they didn't have the same opportunities. From separate schools to neighborhoods that were redlined, to neighborhoods that were destroyed by freeways and interstates being cut through them to communities that have now been destroyed by our ridiculously high incarceration rates for people of color, particularly black males.

In my town, they used redlining to decide where to plant trees in the 1950s! We wouldn't even let them have trees, for gods sake. The resulting poverty, lack of job opportunities, etc., have kept them from attaining what we were born into. Once you are stuck in the cycle of poverty it is very very difficult to get out of it. With no options, guess what happens?

And also there is no genetic difference between races. It is purely a social construct for the express purpose of keeping power and wealth in the hands of white folks.


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The nerve of those white folks, not handing over property, money, and good jobs to everyone. They're responsible for the downfall of all the lazy people in the country. I think that's what the left would have you believe. What about the people (of all races) who have studied and worked hard and made something of themselves. They don't rely on anyone to give it to them.

One of the keys in breaking the cycle of poverty is education. IMO. But as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

 

[bluesneakers]

They can be biased because in this country, the white majority has made sure that people of color do not have access to property, money, good jobs and good educations for almost as long as we've been a country. When we stopped enslaving people of color, we still didn't let them vote or give them access to the same things white people had access to. Well into the last century we did everything in our power to ensure that they didn't have the same opportunities. From separate schools to neighborhoods that were redlined, to neighborhoods that were destroyed by freeways and interstates being cut through them to communities that have now been destroyed by our ridiculously high incarceration rates for people of color, particularly black males.

In my town, they used redlining to decide where to plant trees in the 1950s! We wouldn't even let them have trees, for gods sake. The resulting poverty, lack of job opportunities, etc., have kept them from attaining what we were born into. Once you are stuck in the cycle of poverty it is very very difficult to get out of it. With no options, guess what happens?

And also there is no genetic difference between races. It is purely a social construct for the express purpose of keeping power and wealth in the hands of white folks.


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Well said! Thank you.

I don't think the numbers (if factual and not from that crazy meme) would be biased (the FBI keeps a list) but without the other missing information you mentioned it wouldn't prove anything.

Add in race as a social construct and racial profiling, systemic racism, etc., and it's impossible to show one race is more violent or more likely to commit crimes. (Which imo is malarkey anyway. No race is more violent than another.)

Oh, and where do the stats for people who are biracial or multiracial go?

 

[human]

The nerve of those white folks, not handing over property, money, and good jobs to everyone. They're responsible for the downfall of all the lazy people in the country. I think that's what the left would have you believe. What about the people (of all races) who have studied and worked hard and made something of themselves. They don't rely on anyone to give it to them.

One of the keys in breaking the cycle of poverty is education. IMO. But as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

I am really really sad when I read this. Remember Brown vs Bd of Ed 1954? Some people did not like that idea. For instance, in Louisiana private schools were made which were not subject to the rules of integration. Since children who went to private schools did not use the public school, the taxes were not allocated to schools. Guess what number Louisiana is in education?

When I was in college, we went on a trip to visit a town in Georgia. This was in the early 70's. We were brought on a tour. The black elementary school looked like something out of Grapes of Wrath. Then we were proudly led to the white school which was all modern.

The leader told us how disgusting the black part of town was as there was sewage running down the dirt roads of the town, Hm. Why were those streets in the town not paved?

Whites greatly benefited from the unpaid labor of the slaves. Their relatives should get some of that money that was denied to the slaves.

And when the GI's returned from fighting in WW2, they did not get all of the benefits such as the ability to live in those nice new subdivisions being made for the GI's.

What year was it that it was no longer a crime to date a black person much less marry one?

 

[Doghairrules]

The nerve of those white folks, not handing over property, money, and good jobs to everyone. They're responsible for the downfall of all the lazy people in the country. I think that's what the left would have you believe. What about the people (of all races) who have studied and worked hard and made something of themselves. They don't rely on anyone to give it to them.

One of the keys in breaking the cycle of poverty is education. IMO. But as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

You misunderstand. I'm not saying we didn't hand over things to other races, I'm saying we completely stacked the deck against people of color by hoarding all the land, power and wealth to ourselves. That is the truth of our history.

Imagine starting a monopoly game two hours after everyone else and then trying to win. A select few will be able to do it, but not the vast majority.


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[human]

You misunderstand. I'm not saying we didn't hand over things to other races, I'm saying we completely stacked the deck against people of color by hoarding all the land, power and wealth to ourselves. That is the truth of our history.

Imagine starting a monopoly game two hours after everyone else and then trying to win. A select few will be able to do it, but not the vast majority.


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And how would you get it when there were rules against your participation ?

 

[animlzrule]

The nerve of those white folks, not handing over property, money, and good jobs to everyone. They're responsible for the downfall of all the lazy people in the country. I think that's what the left would have you believe. What about the people (of all races) who have studied and worked hard and made something of themselves. They don't rely on anyone to give it to them.

One of the keys in breaking the cycle of poverty is education. IMO. But as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

A horse can't drink water when you continuously and deliberately move his trough and place impediments and obstacles in his way. And, by the way, "lazy" is a well known dog whistle, yet has been proven time and time again to be irrelevant and specious when speaking of the systemic suppression of black economic viability in this country.

 

[animlzrule]

They can be biased because in this country, the white majority has made sure that people of color do not have access to property, money, good jobs and good educations for almost as long as we've been a country. When we stopped enslaving people of color, we still didn't let them vote or give them access to the same things white people had access to. Well into the last century we did everything in our power to ensure that they didn't have the same opportunities. From separate schools to neighborhoods that were redlined, to neighborhoods that were destroyed by freeways and interstates being cut through them to communities that have now been destroyed by our ridiculously high incarceration rates for people of color, particularly black males.

In my town, they used redlining to decide where to plant trees in the 1950s! We wouldn't even let them have trees, for gods sake. The resulting poverty, lack of job opportunities, etc., have kept them from attaining what we were born into. Once you are stuck in the cycle of poverty it is very very difficult to get out of it. With no options, guess what happens?

And also there is no genetic difference between races. It is purely a social construct for the express purpose of keeping power and wealth in the hands of white folks.


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On that note, here are some excellent links discussing this issue:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/512/house-rules " Where you live is important. It can dictate quality of schools and hospitals, as well as things like cancer rates, unemployment, or whether the city repairs roads in your neighborhood. On this week's show, stories about destiny by address."

https://www.propublica.org/article/...vernment-betrayed-a-landmark-civil-rights-law
Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law "The authors of the 1968 Fair Housing Act wanted to reverse decades of government-fostered segregation. But presidents from both parties declined to enforce a law that stirred vehement opposition."

The Crisis in Black Homeownership "How the recession turned owners into renters and obliterated black American wealth."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...rned_owners_into_renters_and_obliterated.html

"In 2005, three years before the Great Recession, the median black household had a net worth of $12,124. Yes, this was far behind the median white household—which had a net worth of $134,992—but it was a huge improvement from previous decades, in which housing discrimination made wealth accumulation difficult (if not impossible) for the large majority of African-American families." I found this article to be particularly stunning and shameful.

 

[squish]

They can be biased because in this country, the white majority has made sure that people of color do not have access to property, money, good jobs and good educations for almost as long as we've been a country. When we stopped enslaving people of color, we still didn't let them vote or give them access to the same things white people had access to. Well into the last century we did everything in our power to ensure that they didn't have the same opportunities. From separate schools to neighborhoods that were redlined, to neighborhoods that were destroyed by freeways and interstates being cut through them to communities that have now been destroyed by our ridiculously high incarceration rates for people of color, particularly black males.

In my town, they used redlining to decide where to plant trees in the 1950s! We wouldn't even let them have trees, for gods sake. The resulting poverty, lack of job opportunities, etc., have kept them from attaining what we were born into. Once you are stuck in the cycle of poverty it is very very difficult to get out of it. With no options, guess what happens?

And also there is no genetic difference between races. It is purely a social construct for the express purpose of keeping power and wealth in the hands of white folks.


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Hold on one second. Race is genetic, and there are SIGNIFICANT differences between human populations.

Race has been noticed since the different races first came into contact with each other. It's nothing to do with white people; that's a very US-centric way of looking at the world.

 

[bwt42]

The solution for racial disparities is just around the corner. The white race will all but disappear in this country within a generation or two. jmo.

 

[Mollyandme]

Precisely. We are totally blind to the degree to which economic segregation influences all our lives. An area near where I live is currently facing an issue. A golf course has been bought by developers who wants to build houses. The neighbors are attempting to ensure that zoning requires that all the new houses have 3 car garages. That's a shady way of them saying, we don't want to live close to anyone who cannot afford a bunch of cars--or surplus space in their house. What the proliferation of such enclaves does is to leave behind areas where the majority of residents have very low incomes, and while these are precisely the folks who benefit most from things like well-developed park systems, safe roadways and walkways, library and school systems and the like, they are also the least likely to be able to maintain them well. Meanwhile, the three-car families, who can well-afford a tax structure to support these kinds of things, are typically located in another geopolitical area (suburb) and tend to be blind to the decay of such services as they have their own spacious yards and home gyms, have access to books and such resources of their own and either support a high-quality suburban school system or send their children to private schools.

These conditions are created and sustained by public policy. But we tend to be completely unaware--instead blaming the least powerful among us for their very powerlessness.

Thank you thank you thank you for posting this. I sincerely wish this post could be broadcast everywhere because it is the truth. I attempted to type a post in this thread multiple times but kept deleting it bc no matter how I tried to word it, I felt it still wasn't getting the point across and sounded too political but you have really captured a significant and crucial point with this post.

 

[bwt42]

How can we force the economically advantaged to live where they don't want to live?

 

[bluesneakers]

Hold on one second. Race is genetic, and there are SIGNIFICANT differences between human populations.

Race has been noticed since the different races first came into contact with each other. It's nothing to do with white people; that's a very US-centric way of looking at the world.

From Time magazine:

What Science Says About Race And Genetics

Racism and discrimination are wrong as a matter of principle, not of science. That said, it is hard to see anything in the new understanding of race that gives ammunition to racists. The reverse is the case. Exploration of the genome has shown that all humans, whatever their race, share the same set of genes.

Each gene exists in a variety of alternative forms known as alleles, so one might suppose that races have distinguishing alleles, but even this is not the case. A few alleles have highly skewed distributions but these do not suffice to explain the difference between races.

The difference between races seems to rest on the subtle matter of relative allele frequencies. The overwhelming verdict of the genome is to declare the basic unity of humankind.

http://time.com/91081/what-science-says-about-race-and-genetics/