The Police Brutality Thread

[taekwondave]

I love that this is trending right now. Tired of everyone acting like this is a big slap in the face to the military when he specifically mentions the injustices done to them as well. Love it.

Check out #veteransforkaepernick

[clackamascoug]

Kaepernick claims to have had police draw and point a gun on him while moving furniture. If that's true... I will observe his actions and withhold judgement on them. I cannot relate to his life, and therefore I'm in no position to even have an opinion on his actions.

My experience tells me that I could never do what he's doing, but then again I'm a 50 something white guy that has zero AA names on my contact list in my phone.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I totally agree that this is being blown out of proportion and should be mostly ignored. One glance at his twitter feed and his Castro shirt will tell you that he lacks basic common sense. No wonder he doesn't articulate his reasoning.

[myboynoah]

I'm not worried about it. Is he slated to start?

Yes, I believe he is starting on Thursday evening. And with Minnesota needing a QB, his name is coming up there.

Nothing atones like winning.

[smokymountainrain]

I love that this is trending right now. Tired of everyone acting like this is a big slap in the face to the military when he specifically mentions the injustices done to them as well. Love it.

Check out #veteransforkaepernick

do you think he's wearing the castro shirt as some strange way to protest castro's human rights record? granted, most dudes wear t-shirts like that as sign of support for the guy on the shirt, but I'm sure that's not what Kapernick is doing, right?

[SCcoug]

do you think he's wearing the castro shirt as some strange way to protest castro's human rights record? granted, most dudes wear t-shirts like that as sign of support for the guy on the shirt, but I'm sure that's not what Kapernick is doing, right?

Kap is playing 8 dimensional chess out there.

[creekster]

Kap is playing 8 dimensional chess out there.

That must be where he spends his mental energy. Lord knows he doesn't spend it on his receiver progressions.

[byu71]

If he gets booed in San Diego, do you think the political pundits or at least some of them will call the crowd racist?

[snowcat]

If he gets booed in San Diego, do you think the political pundits or at least some of them will call the crowd racist?

I doubt it. Most pundits are seem to be very careful about the use of that term.

[falafel]

That must be where he spends his mental energy. Lord knows he doesn't spend it on his receiver progressions.

Now we see the real basis for creekster's disdain for Kap. A Bay Area resident frustrated with the QB's performance on the field.

[Nakoma]

Now we see the real basis for creekster's disdain for Kap. A Bay Area resident frustrated with the QB's performance on the field.

I have disdain for the guy because he dominated the Cougs at home in 2010. He's been dead to me since then. His latest stunt just reinforces my disdain for him.

[falafel]

I have disdain for the guy because he dominated the Cougs at home in 2010. He's been dead to me since then. His latest stunt just reinforces my disdain for him.

Scrambling around all day long on those skinny legs.

[old_gregg]

I have disdain for the guy because he dominated the Cougs at home in 2010. He's been dead to me since then. His latest stunt just reinforces my disdain for him.

that game was a bad experience

[cowboy]

JL, I know this is off the topic a bit, but I have to ask you to explain your position on a couple of your comments. I actually agree with your basic premise on both positions, but I'm curious about the details. I'm not challenging you, but I do see the details differently, so I'd like a little more explanation to see if there is something I'm not getting.

Give the researchers a little credit. These are legit, carefully controlled studies where all those factors are accounted for. The point is when you scale and filter for all of those factors, there is an innate subconscious bias against colored people that transcends the left and right. And that, partially at least, helps explain how blacks get grossly disproportionate sentences.

We were talking about a study that showed white people would choose a black person as more likely to be a criminal, which is correct based on probabilities. I pointed that out, and this was your response. I agree that there is an innate subconscious bias, but I don't see this study as presented as proof. Specifically, how would researchers adjust for the fact that blacks are more likely commit a crime in the US than any other race? Isn't it like making an adjustment for people saying that the sun is more likely to shine in San Diego tomorrow than Seattle to come to the conclusion that people are biased against Seattle. I'm not a social scientist, and I've never studied social science research, but it seems like a difficult factor to adjust.

One in every three black men will serve prison time at some point in their lives. And it typically occurs in late teens and twenties when they are most likely to become fathers. And this is more pronounced in urban areas, which is also where the fatherless phenomenon is more pronounced.

I agree that black people get harsher sentences because of their skin color and background, and I also agree the war on drugs is stupid. I don't agree that the war on drugs is the reason for the high rate of single-parent families among African Americans.

Over 53% of black children live in a single parent household, and only 6.9% of them have a father in prison. This compares to 27% of Hispanic children living in a single parent home with 2.4% of them having a father in prison and 18.5% of white children living in a single parent home with .9% of them having a father in prison. This suggests that 26-36% of black children in single-parent homes are in their home situation for some reason other than a father in prison.

Looking at it using your statistic of 1 in 3 black men going to prison at some point, the numbers are similar. Half of prison inmates are marrieds, and 25% of prison inmates are incarcerated for drug offenses. Assuming the numbers are distributed equally, this means just over 4% of black married men will be incarcerated for a drug offense. Assuming that 90% of them have kids, then 3.7% of married households with kids will be affected by a drug-related incarceration. The average black household has 2.5 kids, which thus suggests 9.25% of black kids will be affected by a drug-related incarceration. This still leaves 44% of black kids in single parent homes for a reason other than the war on drugs.

[taekwondave]

JL, I know this is off the topic a bit, but I have to ask you to explain your position on a couple of your comments. I actually agree with your basic premise on both positions, but I'm curious about the details. I'm not challenging you, but I do see the details differently, so I'd like a little more explanation to see if there is something I'm not getting.


We were talking about a study that showed white people would choose a black person as more likely to be a criminal, which is correct based on probabilities. I pointed that out, and this was your response. I agree that there is an innate subconscious bias, but I don't see this study as presented as proof. Specifically, how would researchers adjust for the fact that blacks are more likely commit a crime in the US than any other race? Isn't it like making an adjustment for people saying that the sun is more likely to shine in San Diego tomorrow than Seattle to come to the conclusion that people are biased against Seattle. I'm not a social scientist, and I've never studied social science research, but it seems like a difficult factor to adjust.


I agree that black people get harsher sentences because of their skin color and background, and I also agree the war on drugs is stupid. I don't agree that the war on drugs is the reason for the high rate of single-parent families among African Americans.

Over 53% of black children live in a single parent household, and only 6.9% of them have a father in prison. This compares to 27% of Hispanic children living in a single parent home with 2.4% of them having a father in prison and 18.5% of white children living in a single parent home with .9% of them having a father in prison. This suggests that 26-36% of black children in single-parent homes are in their home situation for some reason other than a father in prison.

Looking at it using your statistic of 1 in 3 black men going to prison at some point, the numbers are similar. Half of prison inmates are marrieds, and 25% of prison inmates are incarcerated for drug offenses. Assuming the numbers are distributed equally, this means just over 4% of black married men will be incarcerated for a drug offense. Assuming that 90% of them have kids, then 3.7% of married households with kids will be affected by a drug-related incarceration. The average black household has 2.5 kids, which thus suggests 9.25% of black kids will be affected by a drug-related incarceration. This still leaves 44% of black kids in single parent homes for a reason other than the war on drugs.

While I don't think we can point to black people being in prison as the sole cause of the fatherlessness issue, I think we can still place a lot of the blame on the war on drugs because of the atmosphere it creates within the black community generally. It's aptly named "war." And while I don't think the streets of Compton and Chicago are quite Baghdad, I don't think Baghdad is too bad a comparison. And this has been going on for more than a full generation to a group of people who never really got a good chance before that to rise up out of poverty and oppression in the first place.

One of my groomsmen from my wedding served just one tour in Iraq. He came back...so different. He knows it too. He can sense how damaged he is. He spends all his time gardening now just to keep from going crazy. And smoking pot (consequently, he gardens a lot of pot). His interpersonal relationships have really suffered too. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he got married or just got a girl pregnant if it would cause him such anxiety that he couldn't handle it and would leave. Not one bit. And that's kind of the thing, I think, with the black community. We all understand that and sympathize with soldiers who come home from that kind of environment but we're shocked when people who were raised in it don't behave the same way the rest of us do?

I think ending the war on drugs would solve a LOT more of these problems than may be immediately obvious from statistics such as incarceration rates.