Micheal Brown deserved to be shot.

[Losty]

Lolwut? Maybe I'm just reading this wrong...but the 2013 census estimate shows something like 78% of Americans being white.
Statistically white people are more likely to commit most crimes.

Oops I did get that statistic wrong. What I should have said was not that by volume they are the majority of the prison population, but that they are the majority by volume of poor neighbourhoods, which is where criminal activity mostly occurs.

I didn't get my main one wrong which is that Aboriginals are around 10x more likely to be incarcerated than non-Aboriginal Australians.

Going by this page, it shows the white prisoner population to be 59%. It seems true that whites are about 78%, and according to Wikipedia blacks are 12.4% of the population, but 37.4% of the prison inmate population.

As I said it's a statistical fact that there are many more criminals in the African American community than there is in the non African American community. It probably is around 10x, like it is here in Australia with Aboriginals. And I can assure you it has nothing to do with Aboriginals being profiled targeted and discriminated against by the police as some people seem to be claiming.

---

they patrol the black and hispanic neighborhoods.

Incorrect. They patrol the poor neighbourhoods, which are themselves predominately occupied by Black and Hispanic people.

It is true that the percent of black prisoners is huge compared to the percent of black people in the overall population. How does this prove that there are more black criminal, though? I think it does not. It proves that white people are less likely to to be caught, less likely to be charged, and more likely to get off on a warning or other punishment that doesn't include time in prison.

[Aractus]

It is true that the percent of black prisoners is huge compared to the percent of black people in the overall population. How does this prove that there are more black criminal, though? I think it does not. It proves that white people are less likely to to be caught, less likely to be charged, and more likely to get off on a warning or other punishment that doesn't include time in prison.

Where's your evidence for this conjecture?

[Losty]

It is true that the percent of black prisoners is huge compared to the percent of black people in the overall population. How does this prove that there are more black criminal, though? I think it does not. It proves that white people are less likely to to be caught, less likely to be charged, and more likely to get off on a warning or other punishment that doesn't include time in prison.

Where's your evidence for this conjecture?

I will look up the stats for you when I get a chance.
I don't have any on hand, so I'll have to look then up.
You know why white people are more likely to get off with a slap on the wrist? It's not because of a racist system (or not the way many people think at least) it's because white people are more likely to be able to afford decent lawyers.

Anywho, I will look up some stats for you when I get the chance

[Aractus]

Right, so like I said it's the poor that are most likely to be incarcerated, regardless of ethnicity.

[Losty]

You also said that black people are more likely to be criminals and I don't think that's true. I think they're more likely to be caught and more likely to be incarcerated but not more likely to commit crimes.

[Astrogod07]

Police officers have plenty of nonlethal alternatives. I guess I should reaffirm my position here, I don't think he deserved to be shot dead. Shoot him in the leg/knee/shoulder if your only option is to use a firearm. There are plenty of ways to stop a person that don't include shooting said person six times, twice in the head. He didn't deserve that.

Your comment leads me to believe that you are unfamiliar with firearms. There isn't really any such thing as "shooting to wound." If an officer fires his gun, he is aiming center of mass, period. I wouldn't trust myself to hit a 5 inch target at the range from 15 yards reliably, and there is no way in Hell even an officer could safely make a shot for such a small target as an arm or a leg under a stressful situation after having been in an altercation with his adrenaline pumping. If you don't aim at the center of mass, there is a good chance you'll miss and hit something behind the intended target, possibly another person. Additionally, an arm or leg shot would not be safer. There are large arteries in all parts of the body that could easily be nicked by a bullet and lead to death by loss of blood. Such a shot would not be a "safer" shot.

You use a gun with one intention, to disable the target. The only acceptable situation in which to fire a gun is one in which the use of deadly force is justified. The only question is whether or not the officer was justified in the use of deadly force.

[popeyespappy]

You also said that black people are more likely to be criminals and I don't think that's true. I think they're more likely to be caught and more likely to be incarcerated but not more likely to commit crimes.

I think you probably have a hard time finding numbers to support your position if you you do look up those statistics, Losty. Take murder for example. Blacks only make up about 13% of the US population, but account for about 50% of the murder convictions. Since there is a conviction in only about 65% of murders are these days a black person is convicted in little more than 30% of murders. Even if white people committed all the murders in which there was no conviction they would also have to had committed more than half of the murders in which a black person was convicted. Since we haven't even considered other minorities the math would probably be more like two thirds to three quarters of the blacks in jail for murder are innocent of the charge. While I don't doubt that some of them are innocent I doubt if two thirds of them are.

Please don't take my analysis of the numbers to mean that I think black people are more likely to be murderers than white people because of genetics. I don't. Socioeconomic conditions undoubtedly account for much of the discrepancy. But you can't lay all of it on poverty alone either. Because while a higher percentage of blacks live in poverty than whites, (27% black / 10% white) there are nearly twice as many whites living in poverty than blacks in the US.

[Brian37]

The only way we get past race issues is to address ECONOMICS. We will not get to that point unless we accept race as the issue first.

The 1% does not all have to be bigots, but the are the cause of our division and most of it is due to their own selfish compartmentalization that their class knows what is best for the rest of us. Right and left and black and white in the middle and poor classes are far too easily divided by these assholes at the top pointing at both sides going "That is your real enemy" allowing them to continue to explode the pay gap to pad their profits and use our market as their personal casino.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Where's your evidence for this conjecture?

Hey, I think you forgot to answer this request:

And the fact that we have such a huge difference in this proves it isn't down to police persecution.

Please spell out your reasoning, step-by-step.

[Lao Shizi]

The new Jim Crow.
http://billmoyers.com/content/book-excer...-jim-crow/