If this is a real person and she is a much of a bigot to throw this out there, she will be deleting this account in...3...2...1... How many times do we need to say this? The only people that believe that African ancestry means an inferior human being are liberals. The concept of treating everyone as equal (in the eyes of the law) seems to be an impossible concept for them. Yes, some people have more advantages than others, some are more athletic, some are more intelligent, some are more charismatic, some are born into wealthier or mentally healthier families. Everyone else has to overcome their own shortcomings and work harder to achieve the same goals. Is it fair? Not particularly, however anyone spouting that life should be fair is trying to sell you something. These are the same people who dole out the most unfair circumstances to future humans through abortion. When you have the same life prospects of any aborted child, then you can complain about how unfair your life has been.
I think police operate on a criminal bias. The super dark tint, the neighborhoods the vehicles are driving in, the familiarity with certain vehicles being more pronounced in the gang style culture. I am certain there are police that pick out ethnic minorities because they have a concious bias, but I believe that the vast majority operate in a bias toward certain targets, not because of their ethnicity, but by the likelihood that certain types of vehicles are more likely to be driven by criminal elements. There is also the fact that they pulled over drivers that are simply breaking the law. This can be seen by black, asian, middle eastern and other ethnic police officers that simply play the odds and pick on folks that have a higher probability of being criminals. Profiling is a useful tool and everyone uses it, not just law enforcement. This is how most people avoid placing themselves in bad situations based on the appearance and attitudes exuded by people in their path. Having grown up in Richmond California in the 80's, I can assure you that body language and type of clothing is a pretty clear indicator of who is aggressive and who is not. You either learned to spot potential trouble halfway down the block or you got robbed/assaulted or killed.
Thanks for the detailed reply. So it comes down to: Black people are more likely to dress/behave in ways that provoke police response ?
How do you think this correlates with black people being less likely to be stopped at night (vs comparitive rate against white people) than during the day? i.e. when they're more visible
Some other interesting tidbits can be found in the study based on data from hundreds of millions of traffic stops.
I think this is more complicated than can be summarized in ahort lists. I definitely don't have all the data, nor do I think anyone else does. Everything boils down to personal experience and anecdotal evidence. The scientifically collected data is always somewhat suspect. 20 years ago, I always believed scientific studies and scientific papers as being honestly researched, analyzed and presented. I no longer believe that. Unfortunately, these studies seem to be biased and manipulated. Not all of them, but a significant enough number that you have to check on who conducted the study and who funded the study.
All that being said, my personal experience and belief is that certain driving habits, certain styles of vehicle and certain vehicle attributes are more likely to provoke a police stop. I do not believe the majority of police pick vehicles to pull over due to race. The reasons I don't believe this is that the vast majority of the vehicles where I live have dark window tint. You cannot tell the race of driver from the outside of a vehicle here. I live in the southeast with subtropical heat. You can't even tell the gender of drivers here. The amount of people driving poorly seems to have increased dramatically in the last ten years, possibly because of cell phone usage. The police can pick almost any vehicle from around them and see some sort of vehicle violation. I stopped using my cell phone in the vehicle entirely. Even with hands free. This allows me to pay better attention to the driving habits around me. I see so many violations just driving back and forth to work, it isn't even funny. I also see the vehicles pulled over by the police, which there are many almost every day. The pattern of vehicles I see seem to fit a profile of young people, teens and early 20's seem to be the most common. My guess is, they have committed the most egregious driving offenses. The vehicle type pulled over the most often are small sporty type vehicles with aftermarket appearance and full size lifted pickups with bigger tires. Somehow, I don't think race is a factor in these stops.
If this is a real person and she is a much of a bigot to throw this out there, she will be deleting this account in...3...2...1... How many times do we need to say this? The only people that believe that African ancestry means an inferior human being are liberals. The concept of treating everyone as equal (in the eyes of the law) seems to be an impossible concept for them. Yes, some people have more advantages than others, some are more athletic, some are more intelligent, some are more charismatic, some are born into wealthier or mentally healthier families. Everyone else has to overcome their own shortcomings and work harder to achieve the same goals. Is it fair? Not particularly, however anyone spouting that life should be fair is trying to sell you something. These are the same people who dole out the most unfair circumstances to future humans through abortion. When you have the same life prospects of any aborted child, then you can complain about how unfair your life has been.
See https://communities.win/p/16bidDNtZc/x/c/4Tv9qkGTaBU
Do you think they're more likely to be stopped by police because they're worse drivers or because of bias (unconscious or otherwise)?
I think police operate on a criminal bias. The super dark tint, the neighborhoods the vehicles are driving in, the familiarity with certain vehicles being more pronounced in the gang style culture. I am certain there are police that pick out ethnic minorities because they have a concious bias, but I believe that the vast majority operate in a bias toward certain targets, not because of their ethnicity, but by the likelihood that certain types of vehicles are more likely to be driven by criminal elements. There is also the fact that they pulled over drivers that are simply breaking the law. This can be seen by black, asian, middle eastern and other ethnic police officers that simply play the odds and pick on folks that have a higher probability of being criminals. Profiling is a useful tool and everyone uses it, not just law enforcement. This is how most people avoid placing themselves in bad situations based on the appearance and attitudes exuded by people in their path. Having grown up in Richmond California in the 80's, I can assure you that body language and type of clothing is a pretty clear indicator of who is aggressive and who is not. You either learned to spot potential trouble halfway down the block or you got robbed/assaulted or killed.
Thanks for the detailed reply. So it comes down to: Black people are more likely to dress/behave in ways that provoke police response ?
How do you think this correlates with black people being less likely to be stopped at night (vs comparitive rate against white people) than during the day? i.e. when they're more visible
Some other interesting tidbits can be found in the study based on data from hundreds of millions of traffic stops.
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/may/black-drivers-more-likely-to-be-stopped-by-police.html
I think this is more complicated than can be summarized in ahort lists. I definitely don't have all the data, nor do I think anyone else does. Everything boils down to personal experience and anecdotal evidence. The scientifically collected data is always somewhat suspect. 20 years ago, I always believed scientific studies and scientific papers as being honestly researched, analyzed and presented. I no longer believe that. Unfortunately, these studies seem to be biased and manipulated. Not all of them, but a significant enough number that you have to check on who conducted the study and who funded the study. All that being said, my personal experience and belief is that certain driving habits, certain styles of vehicle and certain vehicle attributes are more likely to provoke a police stop. I do not believe the majority of police pick vehicles to pull over due to race. The reasons I don't believe this is that the vast majority of the vehicles where I live have dark window tint. You cannot tell the race of driver from the outside of a vehicle here. I live in the southeast with subtropical heat. You can't even tell the gender of drivers here. The amount of people driving poorly seems to have increased dramatically in the last ten years, possibly because of cell phone usage. The police can pick almost any vehicle from around them and see some sort of vehicle violation. I stopped using my cell phone in the vehicle entirely. Even with hands free. This allows me to pay better attention to the driving habits around me. I see so many violations just driving back and forth to work, it isn't even funny. I also see the vehicles pulled over by the police, which there are many almost every day. The pattern of vehicles I see seem to fit a profile of young people, teens and early 20's seem to be the most common. My guess is, they have committed the most egregious driving offenses. The vehicle type pulled over the most often are small sporty type vehicles with aftermarket appearance and full size lifted pickups with bigger tires. Somehow, I don't think race is a factor in these stops.