LAL #011 — The Plain Truth About Police Shootings

<p>The unvarnished truth is that there is a steady rate of police shootings in the United States, roughly 1,000 per year. And, each year, roughly 51 police officers are gunned down in the line of duty. </p> <p>On balance, when deaths are population adjusted, police officers are more likely to be killed doing their job than they are to be kill.<br /> <br /> Policing is dangerous. We are a violent people. We always have been. A nation awash in guns will suffer gun-related deaths.<br /> <br /> But there is no evidence to support the notion that police are systemically racist, much less that they are targeting young black males. Transforming each police shooting into a racially charged narrative goes nowhere.<br /> <br /> In the past week, six (6) people have been shot to death by police officers. In four of those cases, the decedent was armed with a knife; in one, the decedent was armed with a gun. Only Duante Wright, in Minnesota, appears to have been unarmed.<br /> <br /> So what about the shooting of unarmed people? </p> <p>Since 2015, 168 white males have been shot to death by police; 135 black males have been shot. Yes, people of color are but 13 percent of the population, and therefore were shot at a disproportionate rate. It raises questions that require answers.<br /> <br /> But you cannot fairly and sanely look at these numbers and cry "epidemic." So why does The New York Times run columns like Charles Blow's piece today: "Rage is the Only Language I Have Left"?  Is such incendiary nonsense making police work more dangerous? </p> <p>Maybe it's time to scale back the rhetoric and focus on the common obligations of citizenship rather than the rhetoric of racial grievance.<br /> <br /> Seriously, Charles? The Old Gray Lady's been kidnapped by hysterics.</p> --- Support this podcast: <a href= "https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/support" rel= "payment">https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/support</a>