Americans' perceptions of police drop significantly in one week

>>srames+(OP)
So the keyword here is 'perception' - which is ultimately a game of populism, which dry realists may loathe a little bit.

There are some very good arguments for 'critical masses of sentiment' necessary to effectuate actual change, at the same time, populism is a war for 'hearts and minds' and the first casualty in every war is of course the Truth.

Personally, I'm far more interested in real nature of every day policing, which is a complex and nuanced subject, not likely suitable for the narrative-driven vignettes proposed to use every night on cable news.

I believe that 'narrative and populist driven change' is usually not the best way forward. We've seen this very poignantly with the rise of the 'doctors and bureaucrats' to the fore of public display during the Covid epidemic. It's been mostly heartwarming to hear from the dry, mundane, secular, academic mandarins managing our pandemic responses behind the scenes.

Dr. Bonnie Henry managing British Columbia's COVID response as a fairly good example; we're now getting actually charts and data to explain and validate the inherently complex nature of COVID, and the impetus for the resulting action.

On TV, the narrative-drivers and those trying to make big statements completely drown out a much-need opportunity for dispassionate discussion about this issue. I feel that people are being highly misled one way or another to the point that when real facts and hard evidence don't align with a narrative, they become anthemic to the presentation, and anyone proposing to discuss them becomes a heathen to the cause. A lot of people are spending a lot of time, decades even, in bubbles of 'very incomplete information'.

America has made huge strides in all sorts of areas, and in most ways 'it's better than it's ever been'. I wouldn't for a second give Trump (or any incumbent president) credit for this but as avg. Black income, wage-gap, and unemployment-gaps become historically low even during his tenure, this is saying a lot. If you look at the broad measures of ostensible progress, they don't really jump at points of social contention, really, it looks mostly good over broad units of time. Progress is mostly a steady grind, made by a lot of thoughtful people.

Particularly disturbing is the entrance of major brands, deciding to participate in the situation - though sometimes it's hard to see how earnest intention may be exploited ... it definitely is. Master marketers don't sell you products really on the basis of function, rather an aspiration - and if that aspiration has moved off the court onto the streets, you can be sure that someone hustling you shoes because of a deeply held political or social conviction ... it's a huge red flag.

It takes a real kind of mindfulness to 'see something bad in a video or tweet' as a data point, instead of an emblem. A quick gander through Pew polling, actual police stats, victimization reports, and decent research paints a totally different picture than one would form from reading headlines or drowning in Tweets.

>>jariel+F7
What you are saying does not go against what people are complaining about. No one is out in the streets complaining that the economy sucks or that their education opportunities are too limited (although every single metric says that blacks are very unfairly disadvantaged here across all walks of life) - they’re saying that black people in America are still not treated as equals in one-on-one interactions and in particular when the police are involved. A black kid playing in the street shouldn’t be shot because the cop thought he was a gangbanger. Finding a counterfeit twenty on someone that probably had no clue it was counterfeit in the first place should not result in their execution. And the chances that a cop would ignore a dozen people screaming at them to stop literally killing someone just are not the same when the individual in question is black instead of white.

The fact is, while all the other metrics may have improved, the police force in lots of major cities are still White Boys Clubs, police unions are bastions of corruption, racism is the norm, and incidents are constantly swept under the rug.

>>Comput+Q9
You've helped demonstrate my point: 'populism and press-driven narratives lead to false views of reality'.

Your statement: " lots of major cities are still White Boys Clubs, police unions are bastions of corruption, racism is the norm," - is false, and almost bigoted.

The vast majority of PD's in America, the Police themselves generally reflect the racial reality of the communities they manage.

Chicago PD is about 50% White, 25% Black, and 25% Latino. [1] Black and Latino police are overrepresented those forces. This is not uncommon.

Why don't you have a look at the actual data - all the PD ethnic composition is right there for you to see.

It's false to suggest that these PDs are 'a bunch of White Boy Clubs' - when they literally are not, but not only that, just the opposite, fairly multicultural and excellent examples of 'functional diverse workforces'.

Ironically, the police are considerably better than hight tech at demonstrating how representation and getting along matters.

The fact that Police forces generally well reflect the ethnicity of the people they manage is probably something most people wouldn't necessarily know, and it's 'real-world information' that adds nuance to the situation. Unfortunately, since this reality doesn't fit the narrative, it doesn't get talked about.

Even this incident in Minnesota: we have 'assailants' who are diverse: two white cops, an Asian cop, and a cop 'of Colour' (possibly Black?) - does that fit the 'Team Racist Redneck' narrative? No.

It's ridiculous to suggest 'racism is the norm' on teams that are overwhelmingly diverse, wherein partners, managers, chefs, officials are of every stripe and creed. Also, it's kind of insulting.

So how could it be that people have this view of PD's when the data shows that this would be highly unlikely? Why is this kind of information not made part of the discussion on various media outlets? There's a lot more where this came from.

Populism leads to misinformation, poor analysis, and crude thinking. The situation is far more nuanced. We need dispassion and reason.

[1] https://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/police-dep...

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