A new scientific study from Washington State University-Spokane suggests that black offenders are erroneously shot by police officers less often than Hispanics or Whites.
According to the study, officers were 25 TIMES less likely to erroneously shoot unarmed black suspects than they were unarmed whites, and officers hesitated significantly longer before shooting armed suspects who were black, compared to armed subjects who were white or Hispanic.
“In sum,” writes Dr. Lois James, a research assistant professor with the university’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology who headed the study, “this research found that participants displayed significant bias favoring Black suspects” in their shooting decisions.
Findings reveal that police officers took “significantly longer” before they shot black suspects than white suspects. Civilians and soldiers in the study also took longer to shoot blacks, but the hesitation by officers was roughly twice as long as that of the civilians.
In contrast, there was “no significant difference in reaction time between shooting Hispanic suspects and White suspects,” James reports.
“Our primary finding that participants were more hesitant to shoot Black suspects than White or Hispanic suspects is in direct contrast to prior experimental findings that participants are significantly quicker to shoot Black suspects,” she writes.
Moreover, the officers did not fail to shoot armed white suspects any more frequently than they failed to shoot threatening suspects who were black or Hispanic.
“These findings are also in direct contrast to [earlier researchers] who found that participants were more likely to shoot unarmed Black suspects and fail to shoot armed White suspects,” James noted.
Yes, discrimination against black people exists. But apparently not nearly as much as the professional protest organizers with no real jobs would have you believe. The way I see it, if they needed shooting, it doesn’t matter. And if they didn’t need shooting, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what the person was doing at the time. The content of their character, so to speak. Bad shoots should be investigated and mitigated/litigated. But don’t go inventing a cause for which there’s no evidence in any particular case.
