Harvard Study Finds Cops 20% Less Likely to Shoot Black Suspects

Outspoken and sometimes controversial Milwaukee County Sherriff David Clarke often refers to Black Lives Matter as Black Lies Matter, as they were founded on the disproven narrative that Michael Brown put his hands up in surrender before being executed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

The group has chosen to ignore the problem of black-on-black crime, instead focusing on what they claim is a systematic “genocide” of African-Americans by police officers.  A new study by a respected Harvard professor found that blacks are NOT more likely to be shot by police than any other race — in fact, they are less likely to be shot.

A new study confirms that black men and women are treated differently in the hands of law enforcement. They are more likely to be touched, handcuffed, pushed to the ground or pepper-sprayed by a police officer, even after accounting for how, where and when they encounter the police.

But when it comes to the most lethal form of force — police shootings — the study finds no racial bias.

“It is the most surprising result of my career,” said Roland G. Fryer Jr., the author of the study and a professor of economics at Harvard. The study examined more than 1,000 shootings in 10 major police departments, in Texas, Florida and California.

The result contradicts the image of police shootings that many Americans hold after the killings (some captured on video) of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; Tamir Rice in Cleveland; Walter Scott in South Carolina; Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La.; and Philando Castile in Minnesota.

[…]

But police shootings are only part of the picture. What about situations in which an officer might be expected to fire, but doesn’t?

To answer this, Mr. Fryer focused on one city, Houston. The Police Department there let the researchers look at reports not only for shootings but also for arrests when lethal force might have been justified. Mr. Fryer defined this group to include encounters with suspects the police subsequently charged with serious offenses like attempting to murder an officer, or evading or resisting arrest. He also considered suspects shocked with Tasers.

Mr. Fryer found that in such situations, officers in Houston were about 20 percent less likely to shoot if the suspects were black. This estimate was not precise, and firmer conclusions would require more data. But in various models controlling for different factors and using different definitions of tense situations, Mr. Fryer found that blacks were either less likely to be shot or there was no difference between blacks and whites.

Don’t expect President Obama, Al Sharpton, BlackLivesMatter, or the mainstream media to pay any attention to this study. It doesn’t matter that it comes from a source that they normally would respect — it contradicts their fabricated narrative. After all, to them, feelings are more important than facts.

Source: New York Times