This Colin Kaepernick shit has been all over the news. Watching ESPN, it constantly comes up. Some people think that he was being disrespectful, to there are many who agree with him, and have SJW like veiwpoints. I wanted get beyond that, and to the point he was trying to make. I agree with his right to protest, but don't agree with his point. Are non-whites, and specifically blacks oppressed in the United States. Let me get this out of the way now. I don't believe it. If the Powers that be, are using institutional racism to oppress blacks, they are doing a bad job of it. The average salary for a black American is about 27,000, which is much more than the average USD of 2,000 in Africa. White Europeans are closer to white Americans in terms of income, life expectancy, and lifestyle, than black Americans are to black Africans. Just based on that, I would have to say that blacks in the U.S., are prospering. How are whites oppressing blacks in this country, yet allowing blacks to live a much better lifestyle than blacks in Africa. Black people here are benefiting from Economic powerhouse that is the United States, you can argue more so than whites. Even though whites make more money on average, my point is to compare whites Americans to White Europeans, and black Americans to black Africans. Whites do make more on average than blacks, but they achieve more academically. They get better grades, and have higher college graduation rates http://hechingerreport.org/college-graduation-rates-rise-racial-gaps-persist-men-still-earn-women/. The high achievement of Asians also seems to go against the idea of systematic oppression. They routinely achieve higher academically than whites. Their average salary is higher, and they have lower crime rates. Does Colin want to complain about Asian privilege. See how that one works out. Better academic achievement in a races usually results in higher salary. You can talk about the reason for low achieve among blacks, but the where is the proof of oppression.
Jim Crow segregation is over. Slavery was abolished 151 years ago. We have the right to vote, and there are anti discrimination laws, as well as shit like affirmative action. The best argument for the oppression of blacks is talking about institutional racism, and the affects of slavery. Neither one actually points the finger at individuals, and neither one helps offer solutions. It's excuse making. Blacks Lives Matter is largely about blaming whites, and taking accountability away from blacks. Colin hasn't stated that he is part of BLM, but he is talking similar shit. He wants to talk about police getting away with murder (almost all police killings are justified), but doesn't talk about the high crime rates in the black community that makes blacks more likely to be killed by police per capita. What about the fact that about 2 times as many whites are killed by police as blacks. Adjusting for violent crime, and for those who resist arrest, you can argue that whites are unrepresented in terms of police shootings.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Colin. I heard about Jesse Williams' speech at the BET Awards, and was very disappointed when I heard it. It had extremists talk, and he put his own spin on things. When that speech gets huge positive responses among black people, it is disappointing to me. Where is the reasonable inquiry into the truth of these cases, and how come when someone does make a reasonable point against the BLM narrative, they are discredited them for simply having that opinion? I looked at Jesse Williams twitter page, and found that he was knee deep in the extremist BLM ideology. One issue for Black Lives Matter, is all those white people who know they are wrong, but who are afraid to say anything. More extremist behavior will make it easier for them to stand up, and give their opinions. It's possible Kaepernick could expose himself as anti-white. There is another interesting dynamic. Colin is biracial, and looks more white than black. In fact I thought he was white at first. He was raised by two whites who adopted him. Look at the pics in this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2243429/Colin-Kaepernick-Biological-mother-Heidi-Russo-wants-relationship-quarterback-son-gave-up.html. Does he look black? It seems like the "black thing" is in right now, and many biracial people would rather identify as black. How many biracial people do you know who identify as white? I mean Shaun King is as white as Rachel Dolezal, identifies as black.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Friday, August 5, 2016
Black Lives Matter And Their Demands
https://policy.m4bl.org/
This shit is broken into six sections
End the War on Black People
This consist of a bunch of bullshit as you would suspect by the title. The first demand in this section is for the end to criminalization and dehumanization of black youth. I guess it doesn't really matter that blacks commit crimes at a much higher rate than other races, and that black male youth have an especially high crime rate. Are Asians being criminalized? #2 ask for an end to capital punishment. Reasonable enough, but a peace loving hippy could've given you that shit. #3 ask for an end to moneybail, mandatory fees, and other expenses that go with getting in trouble with the law. Total bullshit. #4 is one of dumbest ones out of this section. It ask for an end to the use of prior criminal history in consideration for housing, licenses, loans, employment, and a bunch of other shit. Complete stupidity. You look at someone's past history when it comes to shit like that, and you are supposed to. Prior history helps give you an indication of future behavior. Past criminal history should be considered, and it is unrealistic, and stupid to ask for an end to that type of consideration. #5 ask to for an end to the war on black immigrants. I didn't know there was a war on black immigrants. Obviously they use some very inflammatory language. What about that war on Asian immigrants? Not quite the same for some reason. #6 ask for the end to the war on black gay, queer, trans, whatever other fucking titles they want to add. I'm for LGBT rights, but to say there is a war on them is bullshit. The seventh one seems to be a strange one. It ask for an end to surveillance of black communities. Included in this this for some reason is police body cameras. If you really want to expose all of these bad cops, shouldn't you want them to wear body cameras. From the standpoint of pushing the BLM narrative this one actually makes sense. If anything the use of body cameras has helped clear officers, and makes it less likely for BLM to fill in the gaps with their anti police narrative. More often than not, body cameras, and or a thorough investigation doesn't expose the police. It exposes the person killed by police. 8 ask for demilitarization of police, which is complete bullshit. It also doesn't explain how they want the demilitarized. Do you they want police to not work in groups, or not carry weapons? It's not specific. #9 ask for the end to privatization of police, prisons, etc. Bullshit, bullshit, and more bullshit. They just like to take shit away from law enforcement. #10 in another stupid one. This one asking for things such as the end of the shackling of pregnant people (that would mean women obviously), end to solitary confinement, and some other garbage. The biggest detail in this demand is when they ask for the end of public jails. Just making things easier for criminals.
This sections is largely about limiting law enforcement, while taking away blame, and many punishments for black criminals. It mentions the end to numerous things without addressing why those punishments are needed, and why black people face those harsh punishments more often. It's not about fixing up issues in the black community, but then again BLM hasn't been very good at addressing those issues.
Reparations
To make this shit shorter I'll give a quick review of this part instead of going one by one through the different demands. It ask for reparations for numerous things. Slavery, wealth extracted from the black community, criminalization, among other things. Slavery was abolished in 1865. That was over 150 years ago. Sure whites owned black slaves, but blacks owned black slaves in Africa, and sold them to whites. Arabs owned African slaves, blacks owned white slaves in Africa, and whites were enslaved by whites. When it comes to slavery, and the different races, everybody enslaved everybody. If anything white people were ahead of blacks in realizing that slavery was wrong. They are still are ahead of most people as you can see here https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/11/18/map-the-worlds-36-million-slaves/. Look at the U.S. doing very good compared to Africa, and the Middle East in terms of slavery. Then there is the fact that black Americans benefit from living in a nation that is such an economic powerhouse. The average income for a black person in the United States is about 27,000, which is much higher than the $2,000USD that is about the average income for someone in Africa.
Invest-divest
#1 ask for a relocation of funds allocated from various programs to community based shit. The government already uses tax money for schools, and various other programs, so this is basically pleading for special treatment. #2 ask for the decriminalization, release, and record expungement of drug offenses, and prostitution. Mostly bullshit. I understand that the war on drugs hasn't worked, and marijuana is being decriminalized, but let's not take this shit too far. I can understanding not wanting hoes to get arrested, but that's another issue. #3 ask for real meaningful universal health care. We do have Obamacare, that should be good enough. #4 is asking for far too much. Why do queer and trans people need special rights in school. Don't they have the same rights under the law. Then there is rest of the shit. Free daycare, and school curriculum that acknowledges students cultural needs. More well worded garbage. 5, and 6 are short and I'll show them fully worded.
5. A divestment from industrial multinational use of fossil fuels and investment in community- based sustainable energy solutions.
What community based energy solutions? This one is beyond stupid, and unrealistic.
6. A cut in military expenditures and a reallocation of those funds to invest in domestic infrastructure and community well-being.
Yeah just take away power from our military. More stupid and unreasonable shit. Maybe those who are interested in helping the "community" can give some money. Then again many already do.
Economic Justice
1. A progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.
Can someone say communism. That shit doesn't work. Capitalism inspires hard work, creativity, and production. It's not perfect, but provides the best economic systems in the world.
#2 ask for funding for programs for marginalized black youth, or something to that effect. The thing is we already have those programs. There are plenty programs we have to help out poor people. There is welfare. Poor people are taxed at a lower rate. No child left behind. Affirmative Action. White folk have gone out of their way to provide these types of programs. The third one is beyond silly. Democratic control over how resources are distributed? I'm not saying they are communist or anything, but a communist system would be a nice way to get the type of distribution they would like. When it comes to #4 workers already have the right to organize. If BLM wants more, they could be more specific. #5 ask for the breakup of big banks, and also demands for the creation of black banks. This is shit is real simple. If a black person has enough money to open a bank, they can do so, and what do they mean by black banks? Would that mean black owned, or black owned with black customers.
6. An end to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and a renegotiation of all trade agreements to prioritize the interests of workers and communities. Yeah this would certainly help out the black community (sarcasm). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership
#7 is asking for more special treatment. They want U.S. to facilitate trade among black communities globally. Talk about asking for too much. You want to trade with blacks outside the U.S. go right ahead, just don't demand the government to help make it happen. It also ask for all funds used to facilitate this to go to black owned businesses, as determined by the community, which would obviously mean the black community. Sounds like they want some more special treatment. #8 ask for support for black alternative institutions, which is another case of asking for special treatment. #9 is about more rights for workers, which includes those imprisoned. I thought those people were imprisoned because they committed crimes, but nevermind that. BLM seems to believe in the theology of the Prison Industrial Complex. This rhetoric sounds similar to the "Prison is the new slavery" bullshit.
Community Control
This part is rather small, consisting of just 3 demands. The first ask for direct democratic control of local, state, and federal law enforcement. They want people in a community to have the power to hire and fire law enforcement, among other things like controlling budget. This is one of the dumbest demands they have, if not the dumbest. Under these rules, some officers would have probably gotten fired after Sandra Bland's suicide. A majority of the black community has been wrong about cases like Mike Brown, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, etc. One can only imagine the problems that would arise if a community had the power to hire and fire police officers, that are supposed to have authority over them. #2 ask for the end to privitization of education, which isn't a good demand considering how good private schools tend to be. It also ask for community control by parents and students over curriculum, hiring, firing, and discipline policies. This is like the police shit. These aren't the type of things that the "community" should have control over. You can a get group of qualified people to have control over this. People like government, the school district, etc. Not the fucking community. #3 ask for participatory budgeting, which I had to look at their explanation further down the page. I guess they want more community control over budgeting to ensure racial and economic justice. Sounds real nice in theory, but it's another garbage demand. Why should the community have that type of control of budgeting. You aren't qualified to control budgeting just because you are an adult in the community.
Political Power
We get to the last section, which another short one. Just five demands. The first ask the end of criminalization of black political activity, and the release of all political prisoners. Who would count as a political prisoner? Would Mumia Abu-Jamal, who murdered a cop, count as one. What about Assata Shakur? Even though she isn't a prisoner, she is hiding in Cuba. There is quite a lot of appreciation for her among black activists. I clicked to get the What's the Problem portion of the page, and they want Assata Shakur off of the international terrorist list. Shakur got into a shootout with troopers in 1973, in which she killed State Trooper Werner Foerster. #2 ask for the end of money controlling politics. In other words they don't like major businesses funding politicians. If a person is rich, and wants to donate money to a political campaign, why shouldn't they be able to. It's their money, and they should be able to use it to fund campaigns. It's still up to the people to vote, and they can always vote for the politician who they like the most. Money certainly helps a person get to that spot, but you are still voting for values. If the vast majority of the country were democrat, then that would favor democratic candidates. Funding might help determine what candidate got to that spot, but it would still be likely to be a democrat elected, whose values were similar to most of the country. #3 is about more voting rights, which sounds nice in theory. They want greater voting rights for formerly incarcerated people, and it seems like they want incarcerated people to vote. They want same day registration, which would cause a mess. #4 ask for full access to technology, including universal internet access. The problem with is that internet service is sold by companies, who make money off of that. You just don't give that shit out for free. #5 ask for increased funding for black colleges and universities. This is another instance of them asking for special treatment
So there you have it. A list ridiculous demands that ask for unrealistic things, and often times ask for special treatment for black people. There are a lot of people who don't believe that Black Lives Matter is an extremist, and racist group. It's best for BLM not to focus too much on their demands, before they turn more of their politically correct apologists against them.
This shit is broken into six sections
End the War on Black People
This consist of a bunch of bullshit as you would suspect by the title. The first demand in this section is for the end to criminalization and dehumanization of black youth. I guess it doesn't really matter that blacks commit crimes at a much higher rate than other races, and that black male youth have an especially high crime rate. Are Asians being criminalized? #2 ask for an end to capital punishment. Reasonable enough, but a peace loving hippy could've given you that shit. #3 ask for an end to moneybail, mandatory fees, and other expenses that go with getting in trouble with the law. Total bullshit. #4 is one of dumbest ones out of this section. It ask for an end to the use of prior criminal history in consideration for housing, licenses, loans, employment, and a bunch of other shit. Complete stupidity. You look at someone's past history when it comes to shit like that, and you are supposed to. Prior history helps give you an indication of future behavior. Past criminal history should be considered, and it is unrealistic, and stupid to ask for an end to that type of consideration. #5 ask to for an end to the war on black immigrants. I didn't know there was a war on black immigrants. Obviously they use some very inflammatory language. What about that war on Asian immigrants? Not quite the same for some reason. #6 ask for the end to the war on black gay, queer, trans, whatever other fucking titles they want to add. I'm for LGBT rights, but to say there is a war on them is bullshit. The seventh one seems to be a strange one. It ask for an end to surveillance of black communities. Included in this this for some reason is police body cameras. If you really want to expose all of these bad cops, shouldn't you want them to wear body cameras. From the standpoint of pushing the BLM narrative this one actually makes sense. If anything the use of body cameras has helped clear officers, and makes it less likely for BLM to fill in the gaps with their anti police narrative. More often than not, body cameras, and or a thorough investigation doesn't expose the police. It exposes the person killed by police. 8 ask for demilitarization of police, which is complete bullshit. It also doesn't explain how they want the demilitarized. Do you they want police to not work in groups, or not carry weapons? It's not specific. #9 ask for the end to privatization of police, prisons, etc. Bullshit, bullshit, and more bullshit. They just like to take shit away from law enforcement. #10 in another stupid one. This one asking for things such as the end of the shackling of pregnant people (that would mean women obviously), end to solitary confinement, and some other garbage. The biggest detail in this demand is when they ask for the end of public jails. Just making things easier for criminals.
This sections is largely about limiting law enforcement, while taking away blame, and many punishments for black criminals. It mentions the end to numerous things without addressing why those punishments are needed, and why black people face those harsh punishments more often. It's not about fixing up issues in the black community, but then again BLM hasn't been very good at addressing those issues.
Reparations
To make this shit shorter I'll give a quick review of this part instead of going one by one through the different demands. It ask for reparations for numerous things. Slavery, wealth extracted from the black community, criminalization, among other things. Slavery was abolished in 1865. That was over 150 years ago. Sure whites owned black slaves, but blacks owned black slaves in Africa, and sold them to whites. Arabs owned African slaves, blacks owned white slaves in Africa, and whites were enslaved by whites. When it comes to slavery, and the different races, everybody enslaved everybody. If anything white people were ahead of blacks in realizing that slavery was wrong. They are still are ahead of most people as you can see here https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/11/18/map-the-worlds-36-million-slaves/. Look at the U.S. doing very good compared to Africa, and the Middle East in terms of slavery. Then there is the fact that black Americans benefit from living in a nation that is such an economic powerhouse. The average income for a black person in the United States is about 27,000, which is much higher than the $2,000USD that is about the average income for someone in Africa.
Invest-divest
#1 ask for a relocation of funds allocated from various programs to community based shit. The government already uses tax money for schools, and various other programs, so this is basically pleading for special treatment. #2 ask for the decriminalization, release, and record expungement of drug offenses, and prostitution. Mostly bullshit. I understand that the war on drugs hasn't worked, and marijuana is being decriminalized, but let's not take this shit too far. I can understanding not wanting hoes to get arrested, but that's another issue. #3 ask for real meaningful universal health care. We do have Obamacare, that should be good enough. #4 is asking for far too much. Why do queer and trans people need special rights in school. Don't they have the same rights under the law. Then there is rest of the shit. Free daycare, and school curriculum that acknowledges students cultural needs. More well worded garbage. 5, and 6 are short and I'll show them fully worded.
5. A divestment from industrial multinational use of fossil fuels and investment in community- based sustainable energy solutions.
What community based energy solutions? This one is beyond stupid, and unrealistic.
6. A cut in military expenditures and a reallocation of those funds to invest in domestic infrastructure and community well-being.
Yeah just take away power from our military. More stupid and unreasonable shit. Maybe those who are interested in helping the "community" can give some money. Then again many already do.
Economic Justice
1. A progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.
Can someone say communism. That shit doesn't work. Capitalism inspires hard work, creativity, and production. It's not perfect, but provides the best economic systems in the world.
#2 ask for funding for programs for marginalized black youth, or something to that effect. The thing is we already have those programs. There are plenty programs we have to help out poor people. There is welfare. Poor people are taxed at a lower rate. No child left behind. Affirmative Action. White folk have gone out of their way to provide these types of programs. The third one is beyond silly. Democratic control over how resources are distributed? I'm not saying they are communist or anything, but a communist system would be a nice way to get the type of distribution they would like. When it comes to #4 workers already have the right to organize. If BLM wants more, they could be more specific. #5 ask for the breakup of big banks, and also demands for the creation of black banks. This is shit is real simple. If a black person has enough money to open a bank, they can do so, and what do they mean by black banks? Would that mean black owned, or black owned with black customers.
6. An end to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and a renegotiation of all trade agreements to prioritize the interests of workers and communities. Yeah this would certainly help out the black community (sarcasm). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership
#7 is asking for more special treatment. They want U.S. to facilitate trade among black communities globally. Talk about asking for too much. You want to trade with blacks outside the U.S. go right ahead, just don't demand the government to help make it happen. It also ask for all funds used to facilitate this to go to black owned businesses, as determined by the community, which would obviously mean the black community. Sounds like they want some more special treatment. #8 ask for support for black alternative institutions, which is another case of asking for special treatment. #9 is about more rights for workers, which includes those imprisoned. I thought those people were imprisoned because they committed crimes, but nevermind that. BLM seems to believe in the theology of the Prison Industrial Complex. This rhetoric sounds similar to the "Prison is the new slavery" bullshit.
Community Control
This part is rather small, consisting of just 3 demands. The first ask for direct democratic control of local, state, and federal law enforcement. They want people in a community to have the power to hire and fire law enforcement, among other things like controlling budget. This is one of the dumbest demands they have, if not the dumbest. Under these rules, some officers would have probably gotten fired after Sandra Bland's suicide. A majority of the black community has been wrong about cases like Mike Brown, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, etc. One can only imagine the problems that would arise if a community had the power to hire and fire police officers, that are supposed to have authority over them. #2 ask for the end to privitization of education, which isn't a good demand considering how good private schools tend to be. It also ask for community control by parents and students over curriculum, hiring, firing, and discipline policies. This is like the police shit. These aren't the type of things that the "community" should have control over. You can a get group of qualified people to have control over this. People like government, the school district, etc. Not the fucking community. #3 ask for participatory budgeting, which I had to look at their explanation further down the page. I guess they want more community control over budgeting to ensure racial and economic justice. Sounds real nice in theory, but it's another garbage demand. Why should the community have that type of control of budgeting. You aren't qualified to control budgeting just because you are an adult in the community.
Political Power
We get to the last section, which another short one. Just five demands. The first ask the end of criminalization of black political activity, and the release of all political prisoners. Who would count as a political prisoner? Would Mumia Abu-Jamal, who murdered a cop, count as one. What about Assata Shakur? Even though she isn't a prisoner, she is hiding in Cuba. There is quite a lot of appreciation for her among black activists. I clicked to get the What's the Problem portion of the page, and they want Assata Shakur off of the international terrorist list. Shakur got into a shootout with troopers in 1973, in which she killed State Trooper Werner Foerster. #2 ask for the end of money controlling politics. In other words they don't like major businesses funding politicians. If a person is rich, and wants to donate money to a political campaign, why shouldn't they be able to. It's their money, and they should be able to use it to fund campaigns. It's still up to the people to vote, and they can always vote for the politician who they like the most. Money certainly helps a person get to that spot, but you are still voting for values. If the vast majority of the country were democrat, then that would favor democratic candidates. Funding might help determine what candidate got to that spot, but it would still be likely to be a democrat elected, whose values were similar to most of the country. #3 is about more voting rights, which sounds nice in theory. They want greater voting rights for formerly incarcerated people, and it seems like they want incarcerated people to vote. They want same day registration, which would cause a mess. #4 ask for full access to technology, including universal internet access. The problem with is that internet service is sold by companies, who make money off of that. You just don't give that shit out for free. #5 ask for increased funding for black colleges and universities. This is another instance of them asking for special treatment
So there you have it. A list ridiculous demands that ask for unrealistic things, and often times ask for special treatment for black people. There are a lot of people who don't believe that Black Lives Matter is an extremist, and racist group. It's best for BLM not to focus too much on their demands, before they turn more of their politically correct apologists against them.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Looking At The Washington Post's Data On Police Shootings
According to Data from the Washington Post there were 990 fatal police shootings in 2015. I looked through this data to find patterns. In terms of race, as I mentioned before whites outnumbered blacks in terms of fatal shootings. There were 494 whites shot dead, compared to 258 blacks. This doesn't count Hispanics who are incorrectly counted as a race. According to the 2015 census data close to 90% of Hispanics in the country are white. That is an important point because the FBI's crime data doesn't count Hispanic as a race. I already did an article about how the data doesn't make it clear that police are racist against blacks, in terms of using lethal force. Blacks are more likely to be killed per capita, but are also more likely to commit crime, and especially violent crime.
For this article I wanted to look at details of the police shootings. I looked at the unarmed category, in which 38 of those killed were black, and 32 white. There were a total of 93, out of which 34 involved an attack in progress. There were some 9 undetermined, and 50 listed as Other. If there was one category to look at to criticize police officers it would be the unarmed category, and in that category, it would seem` it would be best to look at other, as opposed to undetermined, and attack in progress. The problem for the BLM supporters is that looking at that category doesn't do much to back up their case, at least not in my view. There were some accidents. One involved police in a shootout with a suspect in a vehicle, in which they shot a passenger. Another involved Felix Kumi , a bystander who was shot by an officer who was trying to shoot someone else that pointed a gun at their head. There were a few instances of police thinking someone had a weapon when they didn't, but those were by far the minority of the 50. There were instances of people reaching in their waistband, and or pretending they had a gun. In some cases the Post didn't provide much data. Like the case of David Kassick (who was white btw). I looked up his name on google, and found an article about charges being dropped against the officer who killed him. Kassick was on the ground when he was shot, but a video showed that Kassick's hands repeatedly disappeared under his body, even as officer Lisa Mearkle told him to put his hands where she could see them. In some other instances there was a struggle, or some confrontation, but further information is not given. In some of these cases the "unarmed" person had a weapon. One rushed at officers with a large tree branch. Another refused to drop a broomstick. One man was throwing rocks at a police car. Another rammed his vehicle into cars of police, and the U.S. Marshal's Service. In another incident Joshua Omar Garcia, who was a 24 year old Hispanic man, was handcuffed in the front seat of a patrol car, and still tried to drive away, before he was shot. These are those "unarmed" people who aren't listed as an attack in progress, and even those 50 cases don't make much of a case that police are the bad guys, or racist, and certainly none of them look like premeditated murder. What would happen if I looked at the instances of those who had a deadly weapon and were shot dead by police? If the 50 instances of "unarmed" in the Others category doesn't paint a clear picture of evil police, why would the other 940 do so? I am getting ready to look some of those instances of armed people being killed by police.
References
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3305916/Cop-fatally-shot-motorist-cleared-charges.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/
For this article I wanted to look at details of the police shootings. I looked at the unarmed category, in which 38 of those killed were black, and 32 white. There were a total of 93, out of which 34 involved an attack in progress. There were some 9 undetermined, and 50 listed as Other. If there was one category to look at to criticize police officers it would be the unarmed category, and in that category, it would seem` it would be best to look at other, as opposed to undetermined, and attack in progress. The problem for the BLM supporters is that looking at that category doesn't do much to back up their case, at least not in my view. There were some accidents. One involved police in a shootout with a suspect in a vehicle, in which they shot a passenger. Another involved Felix Kumi , a bystander who was shot by an officer who was trying to shoot someone else that pointed a gun at their head. There were a few instances of police thinking someone had a weapon when they didn't, but those were by far the minority of the 50. There were instances of people reaching in their waistband, and or pretending they had a gun. In some cases the Post didn't provide much data. Like the case of David Kassick (who was white btw). I looked up his name on google, and found an article about charges being dropped against the officer who killed him. Kassick was on the ground when he was shot, but a video showed that Kassick's hands repeatedly disappeared under his body, even as officer Lisa Mearkle told him to put his hands where she could see them. In some other instances there was a struggle, or some confrontation, but further information is not given. In some of these cases the "unarmed" person had a weapon. One rushed at officers with a large tree branch. Another refused to drop a broomstick. One man was throwing rocks at a police car. Another rammed his vehicle into cars of police, and the U.S. Marshal's Service. In another incident Joshua Omar Garcia, who was a 24 year old Hispanic man, was handcuffed in the front seat of a patrol car, and still tried to drive away, before he was shot. These are those "unarmed" people who aren't listed as an attack in progress, and even those 50 cases don't make much of a case that police are the bad guys, or racist, and certainly none of them look like premeditated murder. What would happen if I looked at the instances of those who had a deadly weapon and were shot dead by police? If the 50 instances of "unarmed" in the Others category doesn't paint a clear picture of evil police, why would the other 940 do so? I am getting ready to look some of those instances of armed people being killed by police.
References
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3305916/Cop-fatally-shot-motorist-cleared-charges.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/
Monday, July 11, 2016
Police And Black People: Going to the Stats
Police shootings of black men have been in the news lately, in case you haven't noticed. The shooting deaths of Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile have given Black Lives Matter protestors more reason to rally. There was also the shooting deaths of five police officers at the hands of Micah Xavier Johnson, who said that he wanted to kill white people, especially white cops. I have seen numerous people picking out instances of a black man being killed by cops, and a white man not being killed for somewhat similar behavior. Even though most of these that I saw were bad equivalents, that is not the point. The point I wanted to make was to focus on the totality of police shootings to see if there is a pattern which shows police racism against blacks. The total numbers give us a better picture than some facebook post, or some video compilation.
On the FBI's page when looking for statistics on race and crime the latest stats I could find were from 2013. I did find Washington Post's data on police shooting deaths by race in the time they have been counting it, but that data is about what happened in 2015. I wanted to get an idea of what went on recently, so I can assume that the race and crime ratios from 2013 are similar to what they were in 2015. According to the Washington Post's 2015 statistics there was 990 fatal police shootings in 2015. In most of them the person killed had a weapon. 494 whites were shot dead by police, while 258 blacks were. That's a ratio of 1.91/1. There are far fewer black people than white people in the country, and many adjust for population to try and prove that pattern of racial bias by police. The problem with that is that those that commit crime are most likely to encounter police. I wanted to look at crime, and especially violent crime. Going back to the 2013 there were 2.44 times more whites arrested in than blacks. Using data estimates for population based on the 2015 census, that
would mean that blacks are 2.38 times more likely to be arrested than whites. Now I am using 2013 crime statistics, and 2015 population statistics, but the ratio should be similar if I had 2015 crime statistics. It is important to look at violent crime. I'll just guess that a person arrested for murder or robbery, is more likely to get into a confrontation with police than one arrested by embezzlement.
In terms of violent crime that white/black ratio drops to 1.51/1. That is a ratio lower than the police shooting death ratio. If we just adjust for violent crime whites are more likely to be shot dead in a confrontation with police. Factoring in other crime doesn't give a clear picture. Adjusting for the 2015 population again, blacks are 3.84 times more likely to be arrested for violent crime than whites, and 6.68 times more likely to be arrested for murder and non negligent manslaughter.
My data isn't quite good enough to either show a correlation, or disprove one, since I am using 2013 crime data, and 2015 population data. I also cannot adjust for the types of crime, at least not in the way I want to. There is also the fact that the Washington Post article falsely list Hispanic as a race. There was a study done at Harvard that I just found out about today. According to the study data police are bias to blacks in terms of use of force, but not in terms of shooting. The fact that police are more likely to use force against blacks they encounter can be explained by that fact that blacks are more anti police, but what about the other finding. The study doesn't show bias against blacks by police in terms of shootings. The study adjust for how, when and where they encounter police, it least it does for use or force, and most likely for shootings as well. This goes along with other data I've found on fatal police shootings, and police killings. When you get past pointing out an example here or there, we don't have strong evidence of racial bias against blacks by police when comes to police killing.
The Blacks Lives Matter movement arose behind a false story. The false 'Hands up don't shoot' Michael Brown narrative that has been proven wrong by the evidence. It also is motivated by an inaccurate narrative of police targeting black men. BLM is like a religion though, so I don't expect something as awful as the facts to get in the way of their movement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/
http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/00
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-43
Harvard Study
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/bias-found-in-police-use-of-force-but-not-in-shootings/ar-BBubfce?li=BBnb7Kz
On the FBI's page when looking for statistics on race and crime the latest stats I could find were from 2013. I did find Washington Post's data on police shooting deaths by race in the time they have been counting it, but that data is about what happened in 2015. I wanted to get an idea of what went on recently, so I can assume that the race and crime ratios from 2013 are similar to what they were in 2015. According to the Washington Post's 2015 statistics there was 990 fatal police shootings in 2015. In most of them the person killed had a weapon. 494 whites were shot dead by police, while 258 blacks were. That's a ratio of 1.91/1. There are far fewer black people than white people in the country, and many adjust for population to try and prove that pattern of racial bias by police. The problem with that is that those that commit crime are most likely to encounter police. I wanted to look at crime, and especially violent crime. Going back to the 2013 there were 2.44 times more whites arrested in than blacks. Using data estimates for population based on the 2015 census, that
would mean that blacks are 2.38 times more likely to be arrested than whites. Now I am using 2013 crime statistics, and 2015 population statistics, but the ratio should be similar if I had 2015 crime statistics. It is important to look at violent crime. I'll just guess that a person arrested for murder or robbery, is more likely to get into a confrontation with police than one arrested by embezzlement.
In terms of violent crime that white/black ratio drops to 1.51/1. That is a ratio lower than the police shooting death ratio. If we just adjust for violent crime whites are more likely to be shot dead in a confrontation with police. Factoring in other crime doesn't give a clear picture. Adjusting for the 2015 population again, blacks are 3.84 times more likely to be arrested for violent crime than whites, and 6.68 times more likely to be arrested for murder and non negligent manslaughter.
My data isn't quite good enough to either show a correlation, or disprove one, since I am using 2013 crime data, and 2015 population data. I also cannot adjust for the types of crime, at least not in the way I want to. There is also the fact that the Washington Post article falsely list Hispanic as a race. There was a study done at Harvard that I just found out about today. According to the study data police are bias to blacks in terms of use of force, but not in terms of shooting. The fact that police are more likely to use force against blacks they encounter can be explained by that fact that blacks are more anti police, but what about the other finding. The study doesn't show bias against blacks by police in terms of shootings. The study adjust for how, when and where they encounter police, it least it does for use or force, and most likely for shootings as well. This goes along with other data I've found on fatal police shootings, and police killings. When you get past pointing out an example here or there, we don't have strong evidence of racial bias against blacks by police when comes to police killing.
The Blacks Lives Matter movement arose behind a false story. The false 'Hands up don't shoot' Michael Brown narrative that has been proven wrong by the evidence. It also is motivated by an inaccurate narrative of police targeting black men. BLM is like a religion though, so I don't expect something as awful as the facts to get in the way of their movement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/
http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/00
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-43
Harvard Study
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/bias-found-in-police-use-of-force-but-not-in-shootings/ar-BBubfce?li=BBnb7Kz
Friday, July 8, 2016
Old Emmitt Smith Shit
Emmitt Smith outperformed his running back teammates in average per carry during his 15 year career, but not by a bunch. He averaged 4.16 yards per carry, while the other running backs on his teams averaged 3.94. If we look at his 13 seasons with the Cowboys his average is 4.24, and his teammates' is 4.01. The difference is 0.23. That would be middle of the line for an all time great. Pro football Insiders has his teammates average as being 4.00 for his 13 seasons with the Cowboys, so my stats are pretty accurate. Smith outdid his teammates' averages in 10 of his 15 seasons, and outdid his team's number 2 runner (determined by attempts) in 8 or his 15, but those numbers are skewed by what happened when he was well past his best. In his first 10 seasons Smith averaged 4.31 yards per carry while his teammates averaged just 3.70. The reason I look at the first 10 seasons is because that was the length of Barry Sanders' career. The surprising thing is that the Cowboys other runners didn't do that good in years when the team was at their most dominant. The gap between Smith, and his teams' other runners closed when he was past his prime, and his teammates performed better running the ball. So the .23 difference doesn't give you a good idea what Smith meant to the Cowboys at his best. When looking at the stats of Smith's running back teammates, it seems to me that the changes in average was determined more by who the runners were
than who the blockers were. Daryl Johnston, Derrick Lassick, and Sherman Williams didn't do that great behind "The Great Wall of Dallas", but Chris Warren who had proven himself in Seattle did pretty well running behind the Cowboys line. The one anamoly is Troy Hambrick. He backed up Smith for two years with the Cowboys, and one with the Cardinals. In those three seasons he averaged 4.6 yards per carry, but when he was the number 1 runner for the Cowboys in the 2003 season, he averaged just 3.5.
One of Smith best qualities was his consistency. Pro Football Outsides' DYAR(Defense Adjusted Yards Above Replacement), and DVOA (Defense Adjusted Value of Attempt) statistics reward consistency. Comparing Smith's DYAR to his teammates is not a good comparison, because he got a lot more carries, but the DVOA comparison is a good one, and in those comparisons Smith does better than he does in yards per carry comparisons. Even in some years where a backup was close to him or ahead of him in yards per carry they weren't close in DVOA. In 1995 Smith averaged 4.7 yards per carry, while Sherman Williams averaged 4.3, but in terms of DVOA, Smith's was 21.5% (higher than average), while Williams' was -17.0%. In 1996 Smith averaged 3.7, while Williams averaged 4.0, but Smith outdid Williams in DVOA with -0.9% to Williams' -21.1%. In 1998 Chris Warren averaged 4.9 yards per carry, but had a DVOA of only -21.0%, while Smith produced 9.9% DVOA, while averaging 4.2 yards per carry. The two were close in yards per carry the next season when Smith averaged 4.2, and Warren averaged 4.1, but they weren't close in DVOA. Smith's was 9.5%, and Warren's was -14.5% So Smith helped the Cowboys by averaging higher than average yards per carry, while at the same time carrying a heavy workload, being consistent, and being a great short yardage, and goal line runner.
Below is a year by year look at Smith's yards per carry, and those of his running back teammates. Next RB, means the running back with on the team with the most carries outside of Smith. Next NFB means next Non Fullback, or the runner with the most yards other than Smith who isn't listed by pro football reference as a fullback. Those runners are the same person in the last 13 years of Smith's career, and different people in the first two. OtherRB is simply the yards per carry for the other running backs on his teams. The Next NFB on the Cowboys got just 6 carries in 1990, and 15 in 1991.
Emmitt Next RB Next NFB OtherRB
1990 3.9 4.0 1.0 3.4
1991 4.3 3.2 5.3 3.7
1992 4.6 3.6 3.6 3.5
1993 5.3 3.6 3.6 3.5
1994 4.0 2.8 2.8 2.9
1995 4.7 4.3 4.3 4.4
1996 3.7 3.9 3.9 4.0
1997 4.1 3.9 3.9 3.8
1998 4.2 3.4 3.4 4.0
1999 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.1
2000 4.1 4.3 4.3 4.0
2001 3.9 5.1 5.1 5.6
2002 3.8 4.0 4.0 4.6
2003 2.8 3.6 3.6 3.6
2004 3.5 4.5 4.5 3.8
The averages for Smith and his teammates' through his first 10, and 13 seasons, and then for his full career.
Smith OtherRBs
10 seasons 4.31 3.70
13 seasons 4.24 4.01
15 seasons 4.16 3.94
Rushing Attempts-Effective Yards-Avg (Using Football Outsiders)
First 10 seasons
Smith 3243-16737-5.16
NextRBs 642-2023-3.15
First 13 seasons
Smith 4052-19748-4.87
Teammates 834-2882-3.46
Career
Smith 4409-20745-4.71
NextRBs 1125-3822-3.51
Data from Pro Football Reference, and Football Outsiders
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Lebron And His Place In History
Lebron James brought a championship to Cleveland. The first one in a major sports league since 1964. It was very impressive, and has people questioning where he belongs amongst the greats. I think the experts now see him as being almost eye to eye with Michael Jordan. I've felt, for a while, that his is the 2nd greatest basketball player of all time, and while I still feel that way, this championship further cements his legacy. While Jordan is still considered the greatest basketball player of all time, Lebron has closed the gap. He is ahead of Larry Bird. I've had him ahead of Bird as the greastest Small Forward ever, for some seasons now, but now I don't think it's a good argument. He's played 13 seasons like Bird, his individual accomplishments are better, and now he has just as many championships. He's ahead of Kobe, though many Kobe fans might now think so. Even though I would probably put Tim Duncan ahead of Kobe, Kobe is the guy that many see as being the Michael Jordan of his generation. I understand that Kobe has 5 championships, while Lebron has 3, but championships are a team accomplishment. Kobe had Shaq for the first three, and Shaq was clearly the most dominant player in the league at that time. If two players are close to even in terms of invidual success, I can understand giving the advantage to the guy with more rings, but Lebron is well ahead of Kobe in terms of what he's has done individually. He's won 3 more regular season MVP's, one more finals MVP, and has been the best player on 3 championship teams, compared to 2 for Kobe using stats from basketball reference.
Let's compare their per game stats through 13 seasons
Regular Season
PPG RPG APG SPG BPG MPG
Kobe 25.1 5.3 4.6 1.5 0.6 36.4
Lebron 27.2 7.2 6.9 1.7 0.8 39.0
Playoffs
PPG RPG APG SPG BPG MPG
Kobe 25.0 5.1 4.7 1.4 0.7 39.4
Lebron 28.0 8.8 6.8 1.8 0.9 42.1
Now a look at the metrics
Regular Season
PER Trfg% Win Shares WS/Per 48
Kobe 23.6 .558 136.5 .190
Lebron 27.7 .581 192.5 .240
Playoffs
PER Trfg% Win Shares WS/48
Kobe 22.0 . 539 22.5 .157
Lebron 27.7 .567 41.6 .238
WS/48 is wins shares per 48 minutes, PER=Player Efficiency Rating
Lebron is cleary ahead of Kobe through the same number of seasons. Kobe's best PER in a single season was 28.0, but Lebron has had 4 seasons with a 30+ PER. Kobe statistical advantages have come because he's played longer, but Lebron is just a more dominant force, and dominates the game in more ways, and more consistently. The main argument Kobe fans have is rings, but Lebron has so many clear edges, that he should be ahead of Kobe.
Off topic, I would also put Shaq ahead of Kobe. When you compare the two, Shaq was better in his prime than Kobe, but the feeling many may have is that Kobe lasted longer as an elite player. Still Kobe finished his career as a shell of his former self, and he had been that for the past 3 seasons. In two more seasons Kobe only played 139 more games, and he has less career win shares than Shaq.
Right now Lebron James is looking right at Michael Jordan, and Jordan's legacy. That's the only thing between him, and the status of being the GOAT. They are almost mirror images in terms of peak success. James has a different style of play than Jordan. Jordan was more of a great scorer, who could also produce all around numbers when he had to. Lebron is a great all around player, who can score a lot of points if he needs to. Both had four seasons in which they finished with PERs of over 30. Jordan was more clutch, he had a greater edge in terms of consistency of his career, and he has 6 championships and 6 finals MVPs, but Lebron is right there with him. In my book he is the #2 basketball player of all time.
Let's compare their per game stats through 13 seasons
Regular Season
PPG RPG APG SPG BPG MPG
Kobe 25.1 5.3 4.6 1.5 0.6 36.4
Lebron 27.2 7.2 6.9 1.7 0.8 39.0
Playoffs
PPG RPG APG SPG BPG MPG
Kobe 25.0 5.1 4.7 1.4 0.7 39.4
Lebron 28.0 8.8 6.8 1.8 0.9 42.1
Now a look at the metrics
Regular Season
PER Trfg% Win Shares WS/Per 48
Kobe 23.6 .558 136.5 .190
Lebron 27.7 .581 192.5 .240
Playoffs
PER Trfg% Win Shares WS/48
Kobe 22.0 . 539 22.5 .157
Lebron 27.7 .567 41.6 .238
WS/48 is wins shares per 48 minutes, PER=Player Efficiency Rating
Lebron is cleary ahead of Kobe through the same number of seasons. Kobe's best PER in a single season was 28.0, but Lebron has had 4 seasons with a 30+ PER. Kobe statistical advantages have come because he's played longer, but Lebron is just a more dominant force, and dominates the game in more ways, and more consistently. The main argument Kobe fans have is rings, but Lebron has so many clear edges, that he should be ahead of Kobe.
Off topic, I would also put Shaq ahead of Kobe. When you compare the two, Shaq was better in his prime than Kobe, but the feeling many may have is that Kobe lasted longer as an elite player. Still Kobe finished his career as a shell of his former self, and he had been that for the past 3 seasons. In two more seasons Kobe only played 139 more games, and he has less career win shares than Shaq.
Right now Lebron James is looking right at Michael Jordan, and Jordan's legacy. That's the only thing between him, and the status of being the GOAT. They are almost mirror images in terms of peak success. James has a different style of play than Jordan. Jordan was more of a great scorer, who could also produce all around numbers when he had to. Lebron is a great all around player, who can score a lot of points if he needs to. Both had four seasons in which they finished with PERs of over 30. Jordan was more clutch, he had a greater edge in terms of consistency of his career, and he has 6 championships and 6 finals MVPs, but Lebron is right there with him. In my book he is the #2 basketball player of all time.
Friday, June 3, 2016
Durant's Decision
The popular opinion is that Durant should stay with the Thunder. The Thunder are in a complex situation. Their team was one win away from making it to the NBA Finals, but Durant, and Westbrook may well have peaked as a duo. Four years ago when they lost the NBA Finals
to the Heat, they were a very young team. Their future looked bright. Four years later, while they have been good since then, they have not won a championship. In their own conference is a young Golden State team that looks better prepared for the future than OKC. They had their chance this year, and they had a great chance. They got Golden State with an injured Steph Curry, who hadn't quite found his touch since coming back. They got out to a 3-1 lead, and then Golden State came back, and won the series. You have to wonder will the Westbrook-Durant dominated Thunder win any championships. If Durant goes to another team, it could be a team that isn't very good.
If he stays with the Thunder they might not win a championship. The championship is what is missing from Durant's resume.
There is also the issue, of Russell Westbrook. Durant is the best player on the team, but the team's second best player is the one who always has the ball in his hands. It's like Westbrook got addicted to dominating the offense when Durant was away, and not even Durant's return will make him change up his style of play. It was part of what hurt the Thunder in those last three games, though Durant also played a big role in the team's struggles. Late in game six Westbrook, and Durant tried to put the team on their shoulders, and it didn't work. The Thunder's had too
many turnovers late in the game, and too few passes. Westbrook especially was making bad mistakes. The feeling when they had the 3-1, lead was that they were going to lose game 5, and win game 6. When they were competitive in game 5, they were acting as if they were fine
with things, even though they lost the game. They knew their best chance to close the series was at home, and they blew that one. Westbrook wants his numbers, and I don't think he wants to step back, and let Durant be the man, even if that's what's better for the team.
What are my feelings on this decision? I think that unless Durant is going to jump the bandwagon of a really good team (which he might do), the best thing to do would be to stay where he is at. Now I don't think they have a great chance at winning a championship next season, but it seems like going back would at least give him a realistic shot. Besides I don't think he wants the backlash that would
happen if he left.
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