Plan B Forum

White people confess to crimes they got away with:

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/3/7330333/cr ... -explainer

Angel Wood-Morton @AngelMorton77

Was with a friend who offered weed to a cop at a concert.Cop just laughed and shook his head #crimingwhilewhite


Johnny Cohen @NINJ5

I once jumped a turnstile while trying to catch a subway. Received a warning. Wasn't choked out & killed. Nice. #CrimingWhileWhite


WORLDS SLUTTIEST DAD @Tymerica
Follow

I pushed an officer and he arrested me/I got out on bail 4 free/charges were later dropped bc I "looked like a good kid" #CrimingWhileWhite

Gina Denny @ginad129

PoC friend asked me to hold paraphernalia for him after a car accident. Said he'd be searched & I wouldn't. He was right #crimingwhilewhite


LVL 90 SJW @Auragasmic

Shoplifted when I was a teenager. Was apprehended but never charged because I looked "like a good kid" #CrimingWhileWhite

Elizabeth @oceana_roll

In high school I got in a 3 car wreck that might have been my fault. The cop told me it was the "illegal alien's" fault. #CrimingWhileWhite


yrs,
rubato

More from :
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/dec ... e-twitter/

True Eastwood @true_east_

Saw something enlightening in this #CrimingWhileWhite hashtag. A guy said: "it's easy to shoplift when no one's already looking at you."


Justin McLachlan @justinmclachlan

One thing #CrimingWhileWhite tweeters have in common: they're all alive to tell their tales.


Jeff Yang @originalspin

Please read #CrimingWhileWhite for proof that there are two Americas. One that gets off with a wink. And one that just gets offed.


Cecily Kellogg @Cecilyk

At 13 I stole a car with my friends & drove it 2wks before we got busted. Only one charged was black. #CrimingWhileWhite

The thing that gets me about most of those tweets is that the way the people say they were treated doesn't strike me as what should be special treatment; it's the kind of humane commonsense approach that every young person should be able to receive (particularly on a first offense for crime that doesn't involve killing someone) regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic status.

But obviously there are many places where this isn't happening.

I think a large part of the problem is a lack of neighborhood policing. A police officer who is able to identify in some way with the people in the community he works in, (and thus sees the young men and women the same way he might see his own children or other relatives, or even himself when he was a little younger) is obviously going to act in a much more tolerant and restrained in their approach to dealing with the members of the community, than one who doesn't. This is simple human nature. Most people treat people they identify with better than they treat other people. (The trick is to get people to broaden the concept of who they can "identify" with)

But to a certain extent community based policing is always going to be problematic in the most impoverished and high crime areas, because while cops don't get rich, they do make a living good enough not to have to live in an area like that, no matter what race they are. Obviously nobody, (well, except for the criminals) would choose to live in a high poverty high crime community if they can possibly avoid it.

I'm a person who generally regards discussions about "the need for diversity" with suspicion, since it is so frequently used as code language for reverse discrimination against people who are more qualified on the merits. However, when it comes to policing minority communities this may be the only way to effectively get at the "see the people in the community as being like themselves" problem.

It shouldn't have to be this way, and perhaps at some point in the future it won't be, (in a perfect or even better world it wouldn't be; people would see young as being like themselves or other young people they know personally without regard to race) the blunt truth of it is that we're not there yet.

Another problem that I believe contributes to the issues cops have in high crime areas is that operating in them simply isn't safe, even for cops, regardless of color. Consequently when police officers are having to perform some kind of duty in these areas, they are under considerably more stress then they would be doing the exact same thing in suburban middle class community. They also feel more personally threatened (and they're not necessarily wrong; the fact is they are in the midst of folks, a large percentage of which at least distrust them at worse despise them) And also as a consequence of this they tend to want to get whatever business they have to get done over with as quickly as possible so they can get out there.

People who are stressed, feeling threatened and in a hurry frequently don't use the best judgement, and are going to make a much higher number of mistakes than people who are not feeling those things.

This is a tough nut to crack and I'm not entirely sure how you get at it completely, because in most cases the cops aren't being paranoid; the dangers are real. I guess better training at working in this type of environment is part of the solution. Finding ways of breaking down the "occupier/occupied" dynamic is another piece of the solution.

I think the cops should go back to foot patrols. If it's in a high crime area, have two cops together on foot patrols. Let the cops get to know the store owners and those living in the neighborhoods. Only the low lifes don't want the cops around. The regular people who live in the neighborhood do want the cops their.

What is anecdotal evidence worth? Has there been any drive to solicit 12 or 2012 anecdotes from persons claiming to (a) have experienced an actual truthful event and (ii) to be black?

(Answers at back of book)

Back of book:

1. Not very much at all - scientifically, nothing whatsoever
B. No (and if there were, see 1 above)

What ties together these stories (and the much larger number not reproduced here) is that when white people are stopped they are presumed to be "innocent" in some more general sense, even when they are guilty of the immediate crime. There is a universal presumption of good will on the part of the police. When black people are confronted by armed white people they are assumed to be guilty even when they've done nothing wrong (Trayvon Martin) or committed a trivial offense like selling loose cigarettes and it is ok to use any level of force including death against them.

Its called white privilege.

yrs,
rubato

I believe economic privilege is more accurate. poor white people are treated poorly also.

we are lucky to have a good police force in our small town. it was not always so. the cops here do their best to not harm the citizens. they understand that they are human beings.

As I said, anecdotes - selected for a purpose. Unverifiable. And with no attempt to determine if a similar or same number of anecdotes could be created by persons claiming to be black indicating good attitudes of police towards them. It is certainly a fact that there's nothing better than anecdotes to prove a bigot's point.... oh wait! I meant scientific studies and actual evidence - silly me!

Just cover your ears and sing NaaNaaNaaa like a sheep and sooner or later the facts will go away and stop troubling you.

Or you can confirm or disconfirm those stories by noting the different outcomes in crime statistics. Or by comparing the different life experiences of white people you know and black people you know, if any trust you enough to speak candidly with you.

yrs,
rubato

So I guess you're sticking with unverified anecdotes then?

It seems safe to say that more blacks are killed by white cops than black cops kill whites. And the reality of the former is not good at all.

I do see differing outcomes in crime statistics. 90+ percent of murdered blacks are killed by blacks. Does that bother you at all?

How about a chart or two - you love charts





I don't know that these charts are accurate - do you? (And of course, I believe these reflect less information about race per se and much more about discrimination, poverty and lack of educational and employment opportunity, etc.).

I'm still looking for "Let off with a warning" stats showing the disparity between white and black. Link please?

My uninformed assumption is that persons of other-than-black-hue might be let off with a warning more often than persons of a black hue but I don't know that for a fact. Certainly I don't assume that a collection of twitter posts made by twats is evidence of anything other than er.... twattery.

And of course you fail utterly to address whether nor not there is any outcry for black persons to twitter the occasions upon which a police officer (black or white) has smilingly declined to shoot or arrest them at all.