​On race, and perceptions of police

Video reveals how white men and black men REALLY feel about police

​More below.

While interesting, the answer to the issue is included in the article.

"However, the difference between the groups was the most prevalent after the filmmakers asked their final question: 'Do you have a family member in jail?'

'At least two!' laughed one man.

The shocking resulting stat revealed that 61 per cent of black men had a family member in prison verses just 11 per cent of white men."

Blacks comprise less than 15% of the US population, yet they commit more than 50% of murders, and violent crimes. Remember, however, that the blacks committing these crimes are not the young under 12, or the old over 50 of either sex, and the percentage of black women between 12 and 50 committing these crimes is fairly small. No, these crimes are mostly perpetrated by young black men 15-40.

That means that the violent pool is men, who comprise one half of the 15%, or 7% of the US population, and since the young, and old men are not part of this pool we can divide that number by about one half giving us 3.5% of the US population who commit more than half of murders, violent crimes, and a large portion of the total attacks on police officers.

Police know these statistics implicitly, and also have the anecdotal evidence of personal experience which shows them that young black men 15 - 40 are the most dangerous individuals in society. 

Is it actually a surprise that police treat these people differently? They are all but infinitely more dangerous than an asian man, or a white man. This is little more than self preservation in the face of a very violent group. A group from which the police cannot determine whether any individual is likely violent or not. Police, appropriately treats the entire group as not only suspect, but probably violent. 

What is most amazing is that even so, police are still more likely to shoot a white suspect than they are to shoot a black suspect. This seems to be due to the public outcry which accompanies police shooting black men, regardless of threat to the police officer.

The tragedy here is most of this antisocial behavior is due to the necessary structure of the illegal drug trade. Like the prohibition of alcohol, drug prohibition has created a violent subelement within society which cannot look to the law for help with contract disputes, or theft, and so is forced to self help, violent, deadly self-help. 

We could turn this around within a decade if we would only take responsibility for the drug prohibition problem, legalize drugs, and then use the available functional mechanisms we have at hand to begin to systematically reduce the negative impact of drugs to individuals, and to society.

While police intellectually laud this idea, the fact that it would result in a dramatically lower need for policing services, and dramatically lower police headcount is a serious problem for police to accept, and helps drive them towards an anti drug legalization stance. 

However, this problem cannot go on forever, the militarization of police, the violence of the drug problem all will eventually result in America being forced to act maturely, and deal with the issue in the only available way which will reduce the violence, and deadliness of the problem. Legalization.

On the other hand, blacks who do not acknowledge this problem, and their general contribution to it, are simply standing in the way of progress towards a less racially divisive society. Blacks have to walk away from the idea that it is cool to be gangster. They have to re-embrace concepts like family, accountability, education, and community. Without this there will be little movement away from this problem. 

We all might have a role to play in this, but as it sits none of us are playing it. The result will be more young black men killed, more racial divisiveness, and less societal harmony. How much more of this do we want?