Cold, hard facts.

[Crossposted from Facebook so I can keep it at hand.]

This was something that started in a comment thread to one my other Facebook posts. I’m giving it its own post because I think it’s important (and because it was a lot of work for just a comment and I don’t want it to get buried).

We were talking, of course, about George Floyd. My point was it’s a single data point. The bigger question, is that the exception or the rule? In the same way, is the violence/property damage/outright murder associated with the protests the exception or the rule? Trading anecdotes does little to clarify the facts; it only raises the blood pressure.

A commenter brought up a familiar list of other data points: Manuel Ellis. Freddie Grey. Breonna Taylor. Philando Castile. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Trayvon Martin.

So I decided to look into them, because the plural of “anecdote” isn’t “data.”

Manuel Ellis – 2020, Tacoma WA – Ellis was restrained because he was observed trying to enter other people’s vehicles. Four arresting officers were white, white, black and Asian. Too recent for a legal resolution. Data point for police racism? Doubtful.

Freddie Grey – 2015, Baltimore MD – Unnecessary force was not used by police; injuries were sustained from being unsecured and injured during transport. All officers involved were acquitted, except for one which ended in a mistrial. Data point for police racism? Doubtful.

Breonna Taylor – 2020, Louisville KY – Bystander shot while police were (clumsily) serving a no-knock warrant. Too recent for a legal resolution. Bad policing? Definitely. Data point for police racism? Doubtful.

Philando Castile – 2016, St. Paul, MN – Shot during a traffic stop by a Hispanic-American police officer, who was acquitted on all charges (second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm). Data point for police racism? Doubtful.

Eric Garner – 2014, New York – Man currently out on bail for four felony charges, died from being restrained in a chokehold (Garner had heart disease and asthma as contributing factors). The arrest was supervised by a female African-American NYPD sergeant who did not intercede. Grand jury decided not to indite. Bad policing? Sure. Stupid law against selling “singles”? No argument here. Data point for police racism? Doubtful.

Michael Brown – 2014, Ferguson, MO – Confused and contradictory eyewitness accounts, but forensics supported officer’s account: Brown was shot when wrestling for the officer’s gun. Grand jury did not indict officer, and a highly motivated Justice Department reluctantly cleared the officer of civil rights violations. Data point for police racism? Doubtful.

Tamir Rice – 2014, Cleveland OH – 12-year-old boy with an airsoft gun was shot by police responding to a complaint of an armed man. Grand jury declined to bring charges; FBI review found that police response was a reasonable one. Data point for police racism? Highly doubtful.

Trayvon Martin – Black man killed in struggle for a gun with a Latino man. No police involved.

You would assume that this standard list of “proof of systemic police racism” is the best data in support of the contention, and what it shows is seven people over a seven-year period, across seven states (leaving out the irrelevant Trayvon Martin reference), where the actual facts do not point to a racist bias; of the five to which I can find record of a legal resolution, three didn’t make it past a grand jury, and the other two resulted in no convictions.

Honestly, I was surprised: I was thinking that at least one of the legally resolved cases would have resulted in a guilty verdict of some crime that could have been attributed to “hate.” The data was even cleaner than I thought. I kind of felt like Henry Fonda at the end of Twelve Angry Men. (And for the record, I’m grateful that the commenter didn’t feel compelled to play the role of Lee J. Cobb.)

There’s a book (which, naturally, has bounced back to the top of the bestseller lists this week) with the laughable title of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Race. I call it “laughable” because every time white people do try to talk about it — as in “discuss,” “air opinions” or even “debate” — they’re shouted down as “racist.” Sounds like it’s not the white folks who are fragile here. The protests and the riots that are satellites to them are not invitations to a dialogue, whatever other arguable good they may accomplish. For there to be an honest dialogue, each side has to be willing to present its data points and then have them examined.

I’m certainly willing to listen to claims that there is system racism among the police, provided you (a) have the data to back it up (if it can’t be backed up by data, it isn’t systemic) and (b) are willing to entertain other hypotheses which fit your data without silencing conversants as “racist.”

So let’s have that dialogue. I’m game.