09:28 – Lies, damned lies, and statistics. I just read an article that claims that the fact that young black men are 21 times more likely than young white men to be killed by police as evidence that the justice system discriminates against blacks. I could as easily say that the fact that young white men are much more likely than elderly black women to be killed by police as evidence that the justice system discriminates against whites. In fact, I could make a good argument that the fact that young black men are only 21 times more likely than young white men to be killed by police is evidence that the justice system discriminates against whites. Because the fact that can never, never be mentioned is that young black men are much more than 21 times more likely than young white men to be violent felons.
The simple facts are that young men of whatever race are much, much more likely to commit violent crimes than any other group, and that young black men are much, much more likely to commit violent crimes than are young white men. There’s no debate about this. The figures are indisputable. As is the fact that whites are much, much more likely to be the victims of violent black criminals than the converse. So, if someone argues that our justice system is racially biased, I agree with him. Statistically, violent black criminals are much less likely to be shot by police than are violent white criminals. And I think this needs to be looked into.