Breaking News! Study Says Cops Aren’t Racist

By Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (ret.)

Lo and behold, an important academic study was released just last week that certainly disputes, with great clarity, the notion that white police officers are systematically using deadly force against people of color. The results are going to be a bit shocking for some. As Joseph Cesario, co-author and professor of psychology at Michigan State University stated “there are so many examples of people saying that when black citizens are shot by police, it’s white officers shooting them. In fact, our findings show no support for the idea that white officers are biased in shooting black citizens.” Uh oh. Black Lives Matter, the ACLU and other left leaning, anti-cop social justice warriors are not going to be happy to hear about this. Certainly these researchers must be from some dark, far right think tank, right? Actually, the findings of this joint research were conducted by academic staff members from Michigan State University and the University of Maryland, hardly bastions of conservative, pro-police thought. The peer-reviewed results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on July 22nd, 2019, and their methods were solid and unbiased.

Rather than utilize standard federal statistics on fatal police shootings these researchers created an independent database of such incidents in the US since 2015, often gathering information from media sources. The researchers also contacted every police department that experienced a fatal police shooting to obtain the race, sex and years of experience for every officer involved in these shootings. The bottom line, Cesario says, “we found that the race of the officer doesn’t matter when it comes to predicting whether black or white citizens are shot. If anything, black officers are more likely to shoot black citizens, but this is because black officers are drawn from the same population that they police. So, the more black citizens there are in a community, the more black police officers there are.”

The researchers also admitted that the racial makeup of a police agency is irrelevant when it comes to police use of fatal force. This will be another shock for the folks who insist that racial “diversity” will solve all of society’s ills. Just like body worn cameras did little to stop police use of force (although they certainly help vindicate cops just trying to do their jobs) the color of a cop’s skin will continue to have no effect on police use of force. After all, police officers do not decide the level of force used in any given situation…the bad guy decides what weapon to use and we simply respond in a way that helps keep us, and our innocent citizens, safe and well, regardless of race, gender, age and so on.

If you’re a law enforcement officer or a police supporter what can you do to help fight the false narrative that cops are running around looking for people of color to victimize? Share this article, get it out there on social media. Read the MSU/UM study, share the results with your local leaders, politicians, the media and yes, your fellow police officers. I emailed the study to my local talk radio “morning” guy in the hopes that he’ll talk about it on the air. Most importantly, make sure your chief, sheriff or director are familiar with the facts, and put pressure on them to speak up. The more we get the truth out there now the less police funerals we may have to attend in the future.

Sources:
“The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe” Heather Mac Donald

https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2019/the-truth-behind-racial-disparities-in-fatal-police-shootings/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/?utm_term=.d93e1c057ccf

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/26/745731839/new-study-says-white-police-officers-are-not-more-likely-to-shoot-minority-suspe

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