Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by RC_ITR 1218 days ago
Sure, but there are plenty of other uncomfortable truths too.

White people are way over represented on arrests for alcohol-related crimes, whereas Black people are in-line with population, for example. [0,1]

Black people are way more likely to be arrested for loitering and curfew violations too (I was unaware that's even a crime category in the US).

Let's also not ignore that White people over-index on sex-crimes.

Adding to that, black people are also the victim of a disproportionate amount of crimes [2]

Overall, the point I'm making is the problem with your statements is the intellectually lazy framing. I agree it's a major problem that black people are arrested for violent crimes at a disproportionate rate, but let's look at the problem wholistically, otherwise we aren't fulfilling the point of this forum. It is just as important of a question to understand any racial disparities in data, not just the ones that get people riled up online.

[0]https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/improved-race... [1] https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-... [2] https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv20sst.pdf

1 comments

>White people are way over represented on arrests for alcohol-related crimes, whereas Black people are in-line with population, for example. [0,1]

Yep, especially here in Wisconsin! I rarely drink, and find the whole culture around drinking here distasteful. I don't see the relation to Kia thefts, though.

>Adding to that, black people are also the victim of a disproportionate amount of crimes

Yes, crimes we can't freely discuss because of who commits them, another reason why obfuscation of the problem is harmful.

>Black men commit a wildly disproportionate fraction of violent crime in America.

>I don't see the relation to Kia thefts, though.

I didn't realize car theft is a violent crime [0]

I'd love to hear more about why you think that because I thought you had changed the subject to talking about crime generally.

[0]https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/crimes/violent-crime