<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">On Jun 4, 2020, at 7:47 AM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org> wrote:<blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Remember him? He is famous for saying that the big strong black men you see in the NFL came from slaveowners using their biggest, strongest slave to impregnate all the women so as to have the biggest strongest babies. We never heard from him again.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Some blacks said that was not racism - that was just the truth, like it or not. So anyhow, we do have a lot of those men. So what?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">So police are afraid of them. Police have fears just like anyone else. The cop who stopped your car for speeding takes his life in his hands when he does so, and he knows that.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">So add black man to the description of the person you the cop are trying to arrest and you have a double fear situation.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Is it racism to be more afraid of blacks? I don't think so - not for cops.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Of course that excuses nothing, but it does help explain why more force is used on blacks than on others.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Excellent article in my paper today about demilitarizing cops and their equipment, training cops, requiring body cameras, requiring liability insurance for cops, and ending qualified immunity (already discussed in Congress). Let's add 'protect and serve' and get away from 'shock and awe'. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Requiring reporting of wrong behavior by fellow cops should happen, but that won't happen, I think.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">bill w</div></div></div></blockquote><br><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A few years ago, there was a study that seemed to show this is the perception but not the reality. In other words, darker-skinned people were perceived by US-Americans as being bigger, stronger, and scarier. To me, that seems more a result of racism permeating the culture -- that most people in the US have ‘breathed in’ these views to the point that this becomes second nature. It doesn't mean it's the reality.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the same way, many US-Americans think if someone is an immigrant, they're more likely to be a criminal. Stats show exactly the opposite: lower levels of criminal behavior among immigrants, documented or undocumented, than among non-immigrants. But the perception is there and should be combated by reasonable people rather than embraced.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This applies to cops too. Maybe they have the perception that their job is dangerous, but their job is far less dangerous than many others and people interacting with the police are far more likely to come to serious harm, even to be killed, than vice versa. Last year (02019), 89 cops died ‘in the line of duty.’ But cops killed approximately 1100 people during that same year! A ratio of more than an order of magnitude in the opposite direction of the perception.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Again, I bring up abolishing the police. It should always be on the table, IMO.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Regards,</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Dan</span></div></body></html>