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Black people 8 times more likely...
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Why are black people 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people? (Asian people are 3 times more likely).
Even though I asked the question, I kinda know the answer, but I'll let some replys come in first before I share my opinion.
Even though I asked the question, I kinda know the answer, but I'll let some replys come in first before I share my opinion.
0
Comments
All of them?
Wow, such a generalisation! Even black and asian officers, are they racist too?
I am sure there are some oficers who are racist, but as an institution I don't think they are. In any line of work there will be people who are racist, so we therefore say that every profession is racist. I know a man who makes pipes for a liveing who is racist, are all pipemakers racist. Similarly, there are a lot of racist football fans, are *all* football fans racist? No.
Don't generalise matey!
Especially when they walk in big groups, they find the need of proving themselves, and that's usually when havoc begins.
Here they are most likely to get stopped, while being in a big group than when walking alone, or two and two.
Personally, if I'll see a big group I'll walk as far away as possible, while if I see one or two, I won't even bother to notice.
Perhaps not all of them, nonetheless I reckon that racism is institutionalised within SOME police forces in the country.
Bearing in mind that 15% of the prison population is black, whilst only 4% of the general population is.
It seems that for some reason black people are 4-5 times more likely to commit, and then be convicted for a crime than a white person.
If this is the case then maybe the police are right to continue stopping and searching black people if they are more likely to find evidence of a past or future crime?
The same in Denmark, the number of crimes commited by foreigners, compared to the number of them in the general public is really unbelievable.
While I am not familiar with the situation of 'blacks' in Britain, I would say that in Denmark, it's all due to integration.
But the police could only logically stop and search a black person if another black was seen as a prime suspect when committing a crime. If it really is true that blacks commit more crime, then maybe there isn't anything wrong in searching blacks.
And the Met were accused of being 'institutionally racist' after the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder. Surely there must be SOME officers in the Met who are racist.....
Hmmm not that there was a political motive there... [/sarcasm]
I don't dispute that there are some racist police officers (bearing in mind that there are some racist people everywhere), but to class a whole insitution as racist is laughable.
Personally, I think that blacks are targetted, but suspect that there are genuine reasons for this. Perhaps it would be helpful to have all stats rather just the conviction rates and the stop and search rates...
Statisically, reports have previosuly stated that Blacks are more liekly to be charged and imprisoned and recieve longer sentaences than whites - even for the same crimes. What it like to see is this information
Blame the black role models (think of the rap stars... not all of them by any means... but the majority)
Blame the higher rate of single parenting in black households
Blame the fact that so many police officers are being moved from rural areas (where the majority of the population is white) to citys where there is a more culturally diverse population.
What you should not do is blame the police force, who really have enough problems to deal with.
I'm not saying we should condon racism just because the police are understaffed...
What I am saying is we should look at the other reasons why this statistic may be true and adddress them, rather than assume the cause is racism and blame the police.
Typical misinterpretation of statistics. :rolleyes:
If 15% of the prison population is black, but only 4% of the general population, then certainly this suggests that black people are more likely to be convicted of a crime and imprisoned, but it doesn't suggest that they're more likely to commit crime.
If the police stop and search eight times more black people than white people then it stands to reason that more black people will be found to be criminals when stopped; this would be the case even if it was more likely that a white person were a criminal. It's the fact that black people are eight times more likely to be stopped that contributes to the higher black prison population; this higher population then causes the police to concentrate more on black people. It's a viscious circle.
More whites are investigated by the police as part of their enquiries..
Black people commit more street crime, muggings, gang violence etc. Such crimes are best dealt with on the street and at that time by police officers stopping and searching.
White people commit more of different types of crime. Domestic violence, fraud, receiving/handling stolen goods, etc etc. Those type of crimes cannot be dealt with by stopping people on the street.
More black people live under the poverty line and in so called 'ghettos' which is the reason for their increased level of street crime.
Nothing racist aboutit whatsoever, its just practical policing.
Anyway, I think that it's simply the case that most crime is committed in the poorer, inner city areas, where most of the ethnic population is. This is a fact. There are also some inner city areas in Bristol where the population is mainly whites (eg, knowle), and there is a very high crime rate there as well.
However, the population that live in the expensiver areas away from the city centre are 99% white, and there is very little crime in these areas. If these people living in the expensiver houses were black, do you think that there would be as little crime? We'll never know...