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Re:Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of R... by jcims on Friday June 05, 2020 @02:13PM (#23431843)
> black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.

Black Americans are also 4 times as likely (per capita) to kill a police officer.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/2018/topic-pages/officers-feloniou... (bottom of page)

The reality of course is that the relationship between law enforcement and the black community is dogshit. There are terrible people on both sides that escalate nonsense into homicide, and this puts both groups on high alert in tense encounters.

Unfortunately I feel that one side has to move first to fix the situation and to me that's obviously law enforcement. But even if they started, in earnest, today it's going to take decades to equalize and sins of the past will eternally haunt us all.

Re:Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of R... by foldr on Friday June 05, 2020 @02:50PM (#23432303)
It's hard to reconcile that theory with the facts of most of the cases that make the news. For example, the police officers who killed George Floyd clearly had no reason to fear for their lives. Or what about all the black folks shot in bed in no-knock raids?

The first step everyone needs to take to resolve this problem is to stop blaming the victims of police violence.

Re:Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of R... by jcims on Friday June 05, 2020 @03:22PM (#23432722)
>It's hard to reconcile that theory with the facts of most of the cases that make the news.

Why would you expect a uniform sampling of cases from the news? Police killed 1000 people last year. Almost 3 per day. How many of those did you hear about? Why would you hear about some vs. the others?

> The first step everyone needs to take to resolve this problem is to stop blaming the victims of police violence.

Who are you addressing this to? Me? I didn't blame George Floyd in the least. That was straight up murder.

Re:Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of R... by foldr on Friday June 05, 2020 @03:24PM (#23432750)
I wouldn't, but I think it's important to be sensitive to what people are actually protesting about. It's mostly these outrageous cases and (in the case of black folks) lived experience that make people angry.

People cite statistics to illustrate the fact that these cases are part of a bigger problem of systematic racism. Some people expend a lot of effort trying to explain the statistics away, but that largely misses the point.

Re:Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of R... by jcims on Friday June 05, 2020 @03:39PM (#23432951)
The problem is that this emotionally charged state will lead directly to policies designed to defuse the situation rather than solve the underlying problem. This is how systemic issues persist (well, the main reason is 'doing nothing', but i digress)
Re:Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns from the Board of R... by foldr on Friday June 05, 2020 @03:52PM (#23433146)
I don't think it's fair to characterise a response as (merely) emotional just because it's a response to a specific incident rather than a broader trend.