Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

“Denial of race or racial prejudice as a factor in such incidents functions to further instantiate white supremacy… [When] race is successfully denied, then structural racism need not be challenged or eradicated… Denial of racism is… ‘fundamental’ to its persistence."

“The excusability or justifiability of using lethal force… no longer apply once the victim is ‘down’ and obviously injured or disabled. The attitude underlying the officers' failure of concern… is precisely what the ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan is meant to … challenge."

A devastating critique of LAPD’s explicitly racist measures to cease greater power and the many failed efforts to reform the department.

Historical context matters. A lot. Here’s a thread of about twenty studies on historical racial disparities.

“Asian, Black, and Latino students in this sample reported feeling less safe with the police in their communities. This trend was particularly pronounced for Black students… The presence of police in school was less likely to make … Black students feel safer at school."

“White owned bars with exactly the same license and inspection violations as minority owned bars were treated differently… [Despite] numerous… shootings… and fights… [white owned bars] had never been subject to the hyper-scrutiny [and] ongoing police surveillance."

“The Warrior officer may enter into encounters with low income, Black males with a mindset of control and an expectation of a lack of deference among the subject… The Warrior mindset could actually produce the lack of deference the officer expected."

“In the neutral context… participants shot an unarmed Black target more frequently than an unarmed White… In the dangerous context, bias was not significant … The reduction in bias was due to the fact that participants were predisposed to shoot everybody."