Racial Bias in Police Use of Force

Name: Racial Bias in Police Use of Force
Start: 2017-05-07T14:00:00-04:00
End: 2017-05-07T16:00:00-04:00
Location: Frankford Hall

Hosted By

Brian B.

Details

The media debates on police shooting & police brutality since the shooting of Mike Brown and the Ferguson protests in 2014 have produced more heat than light, and hard data on the police use of force incidents is unfortunately still hard to come by. This meetup will try to remedy that. This is a huge topic, but we'll look at the way in which some of the prominent members of the skeptic & rationalist communities (i.e. Dan Bier, Scott Alexander, Sam Harris), along with the data journalists at sites like Slate, Vox & FiveThirtyEight, have analyzed the excessive use of force by police, specifically the allegations of systematic racial bias among police in America.

I've divided our discussion into 6 sections, and we'll cover them in this order - spending about 20 minutes of our discussion on each section.

Luckily, all of the articles & video clips I've linked are fairly short, but I'm sure it looks like a lot. When I get a chance, I'll add some notes under each article that summarize the main points so you don't have to read them all to get an overall understanding.

THE DIFFICULTIES IN COUNTING POLICE SHOOTINGS IN AMERICA:

Daniel Bier, "By the Numbers: How Often Do Cops Kill?"
http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2016/07/13/by-the-numbers-how-often-do-cops-kill/

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/9/f/6/c/600_460600812.jpeg

Reuben Fischer-Braun, "Another (Much Higher) Count Of Homicides By Police"

https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/another-much-higher-count-of-police-homicides/

CONFLICTING RESULTS FROM SCIENTIFIC STUDIES ON POLICE USE OF FORCE & RACIAL BIAS:

Roland Fryer, "Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias In Police Use Of Force But Not In Shootings"
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/upshot/surprising-new-evidence-shows-bias-in-police-use-of-force-but-not-in-shootings.html?

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/b/4/f/600_460672047.jpeg

Rosa Li, "The Research Is Only As Good As the Data"
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/07/roland_fryer_s_new_paper_came_to_the_opposite_conclusion_as_a_paper_last.html

CONSERVATIVE & LIBERAL MEDIA SPIN ON THE RESEARCH:

Heather MacDonald, "Are The Police Racist?" (5:35 min.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQCQFH5wOJo

Thom Hartmann & Chauncey DeVega, "Sorry Cons - There Is More Racism (Not Less) By Police" (10:51 min.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k20BZBEKO0

DOES CONTROLLING FOR VARIOUS FACTORS (E.G. INCOME, NEIGHBORHOOD, TYPE OF STOP, PRIOR RECORD) IN RESEARCH ON POLICE USE OF FORCE HIDE SYSTEMIC RACISM?

Scott Alexander, "Race and Justice: Much More Than You Wanted To Know"
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/25/race-and-justice-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/a/0/2/4/600_460600996.jpeg

Ezra Klein, "How Racial Discrimination in Law Enforcement Actually Works"
http://www.vox.com/2014/12/1/7311417/race-law-controls
Scott Alexander, "Framing for Light Instead of Heat"
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/03/framing-for-light-instead-of-heat/

RECENT CHANGES IN POLICE USE OF FORCE - BODY CAMS & THE FERGUSON EFFECT:

Alex Tabbarock, "The Effect of Police Body Cameras" (blog post)

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/01/the-effect-of-police-body-cameras.html

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/6/e/0/600_460670912.jpeg

Alex Tabbarock, "In Baltimore Arrests are Down and Crime is Way Up" (blog post)

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/06/in-baltimore-arrests-are-down-and-crime-is-way-up.html

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/6/d/e/600_460670910.jpeg

SAM & GLENN DISCUSS IMPLICT & SYSTEMIC RACISM, CRIME STATS FROM JILL LEOVY'S GHETTOSIDE, THE ROLAND FRYER STUDY, LOURY'S PODCAST WITH RAJIV SETHI, AND TA-NEHISI COATES'S DEBATE WITH MITCH LANDRIEU ABOUT BLACK HOMICIDE RATES: