Statistics will show whether the New York police are racist

Saturday's shooting by New York police officers of Sean Bell, a soon to be married black man who was unarmed, brings to mind the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo in which an unarmed Haitian immigrant was shot repeatedly by police.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink, explained that the officers involved had made a number of common errors, each typical of the way we think under stress. I think he was right, but that it is not the whole story. Why? Because he treats the Diallo shooting as an individual incident.

My problem with Gladwell's entire theory in Blink - his idea that snap judgments are often better than detailed work, providing you train yourself to make good ones - is that he uses anecdotes to make a point that only statistics can prove. Snap judgments will sometimes be better than careful examination, but how often? You can train yourself to reduce bias in instant reactions, but by how much?

And this brings me to the New York case. Each shooting is a disaster and cops need to be trained to avoid such things happening. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine a training scheme that eliminated error altogether. There will always be deviation from best practice, so what is the trade-off between reducing deviation by a few and increasing the training of everyone?

The temptation will be to isolate this incident and investigate it by itself. But this will tell you little. The inquiry into this case needs to look beyond this one incident and ask - how many of these shootings are happening as a proportion of the number of incidents in which armed police are involved? Can the proportion be realistically reduced?

And, incidentally, if the shooting was an example of racist policing, statistical work will show this in a way nothing else will.

Comments

[poldraw]

"The temptation will be to isolate this incident and investigate it by itself. But this will tell you little."

Maybe so, but you get into very vague territory when this is evaluated through the extended prism of Finkelstein's Law (You cannot judge the quality of a decision by its outcome.)

The danger is that you diminish the responsibilty of the officers, for their actions in this specific incident, by focusing too extensively on for example inadequate training and general trends (and deviation from them) shown in statistics.

I blame society.

[Jim Varner]

With great and sad amusement I think back to my days in High School and think about those of my fellow classmates who became police officers. In each case they were class bullies. I am sure that not all class bullies yearn to become peace officers but I am frightened that some of those that do share some of the same values.

The scariest of these values is their sense of self righteousness. By and large police officers treat all people as gulity first and innocent only when they can prove it in court.

American police, generally speaking, will do what they want, when they want, to whomever they want with little sense of consequence.

[Derrick Hill]

“And, incidentally, if the shooting was an example of racist policing, statistical work will show this in a way nothing else will.”

Eh? Where on earth have you got this idea from? Are you being serious, or merely trying to be provocative, as in: “ He only does it to annoy, because he knows it teases” ?
Statistics are useful, often crucial, in determining matters of observed fact, e.g., does Andalusia have more days of sunshine than Ayrshire. But their usefulness in revealing attitudes is surely much more problematic — something that, regarding race, the Left, in general, and workers in the race relations industry and mountebanks such as Jackson and Farrakhan, in particular, ruthlessly take advantage of.

So we get, thinking of the US: higher proportion of blacks in prison than their proportionate presence in the general population? Racism. (No need to add, I suppose, the adjective “white” there.)
Higher proportion of blacks on death row than whites? Racism. Higher proportion of blacks shot by police than whites? Racism... And so, depressingly on.

The statistics show the numbers. They do NOT in reveal the why of those numbers.
Dave, of course, would jump to New York Times/Guardian assumptions, but I would thought better of you— though at this rate not for much longer.
Incidentally, I suspect, from your post, that you need to be straightened out on the Diallo tragedy.
Might I suggest that instead of passing the time with slick, trite “thinkers” such as Gladwell, you spend some time, or some more time, with Heather Mac Donald (sic), starting with her essay “Diallo Truth, Diallo Falsehood” in her splendid collection, “The burden of bad ideas” , going on to every other piece of writing she has ever produced and is producing (a subscription to the Manhattan Institute's quarterly City Journal is recommended here, I can't believe you are not already aware of it).

[georgina]

Seems deadly error, individual incedents, isolated cases, whatever you call it happens only to coloured people. America should first clean their acts before calling on other people to do so. Ever since i can remember, it's only to the minorities that the police gets the chance to kill accidently.

[izzy]

Its racist, its plain for all to see!

[Mark]

This is such crap. Stop with the whole race card rant. This doesn't help the situation. We should approach each situation individually. Otherwise we perpetuate the problem by claiming color. The simple act of distinction brings out everyone's differences.

By the way, there are many other reasons why there are more Black in prison and on death row here. Do some honest research into the justice system and criminal records.

Finally, if we're going to continue pushing blame around, why doesn't the UK clean up its own race problems then (Homegrown muslims that feel alienated resort to blowing up trains...)?

[Anon]

I am a white middle class 26 year old female who has an Economics degree from a red brick university, works for an investment bank in the US and was stopped for speeding by NJ police. It turned out that I had somehow managed to get a NJ license which had in turn been suspended due to city hall not processing parking tickets correctly (I had paid them but they were not entered into the system as paid). The license had also expired. I did not know I had a NJ license let alone that it had been suspended or expired and previously I had been driving on my UK license. I had insurance and my car registered to my UK license. I now have the correct documents and I made an honest mistake which the DMV, car insurance company nor car dealer whom I bought my car from noticed. When I did not produce the NJ license the policeman pulled me out of my car, putting handcuffs on me and threw me into the back of a police car. I was petrified and once at the station the policeman proceeded to take mug shots and hurl abuse at me. First he called me an illegal immigrant when I had already shown him my green card. He said I had probably been stopped before and managed to get myself out of it. When I didn't say anything he proceeded to poke into other areas. I previously lived in Hoboken, know for its bars and Frank Sinatra, so I was accused of being drunk and disorderly in public and urinating in public. I was treated roughly and left with bruises on my arms and legs where I had been grabbed or shoved into things. I went back to another local police station to complain about the treatment and was treated with contempt. I still have to go back to court and face this bully. I am scared as I know he can do anything to me in the future. He has all my personal details and since I was pulled over I have been stopped a further four times by the police. This is harrasment by the very group who should be preventing this from happening - I have shown I have the correct paperwork and each time they stop me they don't tell me why. The police are good when it suits them. The problem is more than a racial and I have learnt the police here don't serve and protect the public but serve themselves with anything in their patch with no regard for the public who are paying for them. Its clear the police do not believe in justice - you are guilty of everything until proven otherwise. They need to start with a change of attitude - its not up to the police to decide if someone is guilty. Also, the police are not racist - they hate everyone no matter what race you are.

[Shannon Tucker]

Let the first man to judge, become an armed police officer.

The person who says American police can do what they want, to whom they want, is guilty of painting a group of people with the same brush they claim the police use to profile people.

My brother and two of his friends from our small home town became police officers with varying levels of responsibility. None were bullies. That's personal experience not judgement.

[Dunson Kamau]

I am a male Black African and was reading for a degree in Los Angeles and also pulled over on numerous occasions for NO APPARENT REASON at all. I was once held at gun-point (with laser pistols which illuminated red dots) by police who thought I was drug dealer for driving a brand new CLK and later charged with "resisting arrest" yet there was no initial valid arrest, let alone resistance. My attorney advised me to plead guilty because the opposing side made it very clear they were picking an all-white jury and I would, in any event, lose contesting the charge because calling my blonde girlfriend (who was present) as a witness would put them off. This above inicident was with LA Sherrif's although LAPD are just as bad.

I have since moved to the UK and lived here for 5 years and never been pulled over with or without cause. No problems with the police at all.

I have however experienced racism of a different sort here. For instance, when having drinks in a City pub after work with collegues and standing near the exit; a lot people continue to say "Cheers" and "Thank You Very Much" assuming that am a doorman, rather than a lawyer!

[C Heathcote]

I find statements that the police find people guilty until proven innocent quite ironic given that these same people have seemingly convicted the police officers in question less than 48 hours after the incident in question. Why wait for the facts when jumping to conclusions fits our own skewed perceptions so much better.

[Lee Pefley]

Statistics are wonderful! They show, for example, that whereas young black males comprise but 3% of the American population, yet they manage to commit about half of all violent crime.
Obviously this is just the sort of information that you will wish to share with your readers, yes?

[Jack]

Looking past the racecard, driving drunk at 4 a.m., into a police undercover operation, under those circumstances, you are wrong. No weapons? What is the car? An amusement ride?
Obey the law, watch your actions. If I ran over the police, I would know I was in deep trouble. All had records, and one of the police may have recognized someone.
Try being in their shoes, ever been in harms way? Jack

[Anon]

For whatever it's worth, according to the NY papers, five cops fired. Of those, two were black, two were white and one was hispanic. Two additional policemen present held their fire, per the dept regulations about not shooting at moving vehicles if the only threat comes from the movement of the vehicle itself, rather than from a gun in the vehicle.

[John Hirst]

I have a black sense of humour. It amused me when a police constable from Reading informed me about the paki-bashing exploits of the Special Patrol Group in London. He had gone on an Away Day to the Big Smoke, and was set upon by the SPG. The beating stopped when he informed them that he was a PC in Reading. A call was made to Reading Police HQ, to check his credentials. There was a communication breakdown, and the message relayed back that he was not known there. So, he was beaten up again this time for impersonating a police officer. Then the message came that he was a PC in Reading, and he accepted their apologies. "It's alright", he said to me, "they did not know that I was one of the lads". He had forgotten that he was originally assaulted because of his colour and Asian origin. This desire to be accepted as one of them is amusing. It's alright to be racist if you're a policeman...it somehow makes it all seem quite respectable...I don't think!

BTW, I recall the You cannot judge the quality of a decision by its outcome. Can't say I thought of it as Finklestein's Law. However, I quite like the sound of it...

[Mark]

We should be grateful for police officers putting their lives on the line protecting us from drug dealers.

[Robik]

Of some relevance: the five officers included two whites, two African Americans and one Latino.

[serge]

Police officers did what they had to do to stop suspects who failed to cooperate. Do not forget that police had only few seconds to make right decision. It is easy to blame the police now, but ask yourself what would you do in this case?

[Derrick Hill]

Interesting story from Mr John Hirst, above. Perhaps when he has stopped laughing he will tell us how it was established that his informant " was .. assaulted because of his colour and Asian origin."

[John Hirst]

Derrick Hill: What was amusing was not that a Pakistani was beaten up. But that a police officer was beaten up by other police officers not knowing that he was a police officer and only knowing that he was of Asian origin. As he had not said anything to provoke the attack, and as they made racial remarks in between striking the blows, and as the SPG was known for its racism, if you can think of another explanation for the conduct I would like to see it.

[Claude]

I feel a lot of people are missing key facts of the case: First, of all the UNDERCOVER cop JUMPED on the hood of the black men leaving the club, so most drivers would assume they are about to be attacked and aren't just going to sit there. Second, one of the cops had a two beers before the shooting began and wasn't tested for being able to perform properly. Third, you can be of the black race and still discriminate against your own. Its the racism in our system as a whole that causes everyone to feed into these stereotypes that all blacks are dangerous and have guns; thus making cops actions similar regardless of race (racial profiling).

[Derrick Hill]

Mr Hirst, I'll ignore the blanket smear of the SPG, and suggest that they thought your informant was up to no good.

[John Hirst]

Derrick Hill: So, what you are saying is that it is ok for the police to assault people if the police think that they are up to no good?

[Police Tickets]

It is easy to blame the police for their actions using race as a motivation until you really think about the situation. Malcom Gladwell made the point that it is our minds that perform an editing process during duress in which higher thinking is locked out. Instinct takes over. His experiments showed race was indeed an unconcious factor in determining reaction. The question becomes, since we have NO CONSCIOUS CONTROL over such instant reactions, where does the blame lie?