Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox American policing can’t solve

Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by steveeq1 on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @11:31AM (#20635624)

The statistics don't support your concern: https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/screen-shot-20...

The "unarmed black man shot and killed by police" is heavily pushed by media companies because, well, its an emotional issue that gets ratings, sells newspapers, and gets clicks. Same thing with "terrorist threats", shark bites, and airline crashes. People view it because it's dramatic and it sticks in your head more because of it.

This bias is called "availability bias" and it causes people to see the problem as much greater than it actually is.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by Anechoic on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @01:34PM (#20636916)

The "unarmed black man shot and killed by police"

The issue isn't just being killed by police - It's also being beaten by police, having things unlawfully seized by police, being unjustly cited or arrested by police, and so on. So yeah, being unjustly arrested and spending a weekend in jail waiting to be arraigned on Monday is better than being killed, but it still sucks.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by overthemoon on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @11:42AM (#20635739)

A meme shared by Trump on Twitter isn't a remotely worthwhile source.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by steveeq1 on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @11:44AM (#20635759)

It's sourced.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by overthemoon on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @11:49AM (#20635807)

It's bullshit.

https://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/trump-retweets-bogus-crime...

Starting with the most obvious point, the Crime Statistics Bureau of San Francisco doesn't exist.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by steveeq1 on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @12:07PM (#20635978)

I didn't know this, so I concede, somewhat. But my broader point remains. Availability bias makes the problem seem much much larger than it actually is.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by bena on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @11:56AM (#20635878)

"But don't you understand, it reinforces my worldview and tells me that my irrational fear of minorities isn't just racism."

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by steveeq1 on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @12:09PM (#20635999)

You can make the argument that there's an irrational fear of police in our society because of availability bias.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by stefanfisk on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @12:14PM (#20636048)

but can you back that argument with any credible sources?

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by CompanionCuuube on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @02:28PM (#20637448)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0010028573...

Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability

edit:

> The reality of the availability bias isn't in question, it's whether or not people's belief about police brutality is accurate

It would be nice to have some objective evidence showing why this example is a special case immune to availability bias.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by overthemoon on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @03:50PM (#20638194)

The reality of the availability bias isn't in question, it's whether or not people's belief about police brutality is accurate and if not, why it isn't. Sure, the AB is real. It MAY be a factor in why people think black people are killed in proportionally higher numbers than people of other races, but what's relevant is whether or not it's actually happening.

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Re:Victims are often criminals, and that is a paradox Americ... by steveeq1 on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @05:40PM (#20639425)

That's a straw man. Of course it "happens". the point is that people make it out to be far bigger problem than it actually is.

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