Police kill more whites than blacks, but minority deaths generate more outrage

[bsmooth]

It really shouldn't be about black officers killing white people. It should be black people who shoot police officers. We know blacks commit more crimes, are arrested more and I would guess shoot cops more. If a cop is more likely to be shot by a certain race of course he is more likely to be ready to protect himself.

Your premise is factually incorrect. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/01/09/are-black-or-white-offenders-more-likely-to-kill-police/

[Spider-Dan]

Hey guys, this thread's OP says that more whites than blacks are killed by police, but I just saw an article about a black man being killed by police:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/07/us/lapd-kills-unarmed-man-venice-beach/

I hope you can agree that this individual example proves that all other data on the subject is probably wrong and should be ignored.

[Rich]

I hope you can agree that this individual example proves that all other data on the subject is probably wrong and should be ignored.

This is exactly what the people that only focus on the racial element of this issue are doing. Ignoring the fact that the issues with law enforcement go beyond blacks and extend to everyone.

The issue is the treatment of citizenry by cops, not the treatment of black citizenry by cops.

Focusing only the black citizenry is dangerous.

[Spider-Dan]

I don't see where there's a conflict, as "black citizens" are still a subset of "citizens."  There is no one saying that brutality is OK for non-black citizens.

The problem is that when black citizens are brutalized, instead of talking about the issues with law enforcement, the discussion is instead about why the black person probably deserved it.  In contrast, when white citizens (like the one you cited) are brutalized, we spend approximately 0.0 seconds talking about her prior drug history or her Instagram pictures in which she was flipping off the camera.

So if we want to talk about stopping all police brutality, hey, I'm on board.  Can we start by not blaming the victims (no matter what their race)?  This would seem to solve ~90% of the objections of those concerned about black victims, while being completely within the scope of those who are concerned about "all victims."